WATCH: Local Women Celebrate 100 Years of Voting

SAN ANGELO, TX – Concho Valley residents gathered on the Tom Green County Courthouse steps Thursday morning to commemorate ratification of the 19th amendment to the United States Constitution which gave women the right to vote.

San Angelo Mayor Brenda Gunter addressed the crowd saying the amendment was a radical change at the time. 

The 19th amendment legally guarantees American women the right to vote. Achieving this milestone required a lengthy and difficult struggle—victory took decades of agitation and protest. Beginning in the mid-19th century, several generations of woman suffrage supporters lectured, wrote, marched, lobbied, and practiced civil disobedience to achieve what many Americans considered a radical change of the Constitution. Few early supporters lived to see final victory in 1920.

Watch video from the ceremony:

The 19th Amendment was ratified on Aug. 18, 1920.  The 19th Amendment reads: "The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation."