Passed by Congress June 4, 1919, and ratified August 18, 1920, the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution declares, in full, “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.” One line of text to correct 143 years of women being unable to participate in democracy.
It wasn’t as if women were silent for nearly a century and a half of our nation’s history. Far from it. Since the earliest days of the republic, women had been demanding the right to have their voices heard. By the late 19th century, that movement gained pace, propelled into the national conversation by such luminaries as Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucy Stone, and Frances Ellen Watkins Harper. At the turn of the 20th century, efforts were coalescing around a national suffrage amendment. But not everyone was convinced.
State by state, activists worked to drum up support and pass legislation codifying women’s right to vote. In Pennsylvania, a referendum to approve such an amendment would appear on the ballot in the November 1915 election. It must not fail. Women gathered their neighbors, handed out fliers in the streets, and gave lectures in public halls – all to convince the male powers that be to grant them equal suffrage.
A bell to rally round
Chester County activist Katharine Wentworth Ruschenberger knew the movement needed a rallying symbol, a focal point to rouse the hearts and minds of her fellow countrymen. She turned to the Liberty Bell, that old and cracked symbol of American independence, as her muse. Her idea was simple: tour the state with a replica Liberty Bell, print banners and flags, and recruit local brass bands for parades at stops along the way. She was determined to make some noise.
Mrs. Ruschenberger offered up $2,000 of her own money to cast a replica Liberty Bell. The original “announced the creation of democracy,” Mrs. Ruschenberger intoned. “The women’s Liberty Bell will announce the completion of democracy.”
On March 31, 1915, she was joined by members of the Pennsylvania Woman Suffrage Association on a visit to the Meneely Bell Co. in Troy, New York, to watch molten bronze pour into the replica mold. Weighing 1,827 lbs. (roughly 2,000 lbs. with clapper, yoke, and fittings), the resultant bell preserved the original’s quotation from Leviticus, but added a new text: Establish Justice. The full inscription reads:
ESTABLISH JUSTICE
PROCLAIM LIBERTY THROUGHOUT ALL THE LAND UNTO ALL THE INHABITANTS THEREOF
MENEELY BELL CO.
TROY, N.Y.
MCMXV
The bell was finally ready to tour, but not without a solemn stipulation: the bell was not to be rung until women were silenced no more. The clapper was chained to the bell’s side, a metaphor for women’s enforced muteness in government.
Did the Justice Bell prevail?
In the months leading to Election Day, the Justice Bell barnstormed Pennsylvania on a flatbed truck, escorted through all 67 counties by a cadre of suffragists. In town after town, crowds rushed to see the bell pass by and to listen to the activists speak. It wasn’t enough. Confronted by entrenched opposition, the ballot measure failed in November.
The Justice Bell continued to travel and raise awareness for the cause, remaining a galvanizing symbol not just in Pennsylvania, but around the country. The bell ventured to Chicago and Washington, D.C., as suffragists sustained their fight for the vote. Through it all, the bell remained silent. It wasn’t until the passage of the 19th Amendment that the Justice Bell first rang. On September 25, 1920, the bell was jubilantly sounded in a blockbuster celebration at Philadelphia's Independence Square. Hear the Justice Bell ring.
City leaders (all male) denied a request for the Justice Bell to be prominently displayed in Philadelphia, so Mrs. Ruschenberger brought the bell back to her home, where it sat for over two decades in her backyard. After her passing in 1943, she bequeathed the bell to Washington Memorial Chapel in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, where it remains to this day.
The Justice Bell in pictures
From casting to first ring, see the Justice Bell tour Pennsylvania in support of the women’s suffrage movement.
Image: A ticket to the ceremonial casting of the Justice Bell at Meneely Bell Co. in Troy, New York, on March 31, 1915.
Image: Casting the Justice Bell at Meneely Bell Co. in Troy, New York, on March 31, 1915.
Image: A large crowd gathers as the Justice Bell passes through Sayre, Pennsylvania, on June 23, 1915.
Image: The Justice Bell passes through Rural Valley, Pennsylvania, on a flatbed truck in 1915.
Image: A 1916 photograph by Harris & Ewing of women in fur-adorned coats and mink muffs gathered around the Justice Bell, a replica of the Liberty Bell, to campaign for women's suffrage. Courtesy: Library of Congress.
Image: A crowd gathers at Independence Square in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, during a National Suffrage Amendment celebration in November 1920 to hear the Justice Bell ring.
Cover image: Suffragist Louise Hall, organizing secretary of the Pennsylvania Woman Suffrage Association, standing next to the Justice Bell and a "Votes for Women" banner on a flatbed truck in Pennsylvania, 1915.
