History of the United States II / Unit 15 USH2 2115 worked example, 60 to 90 seconds
The Equal Rights Amendment
The idea
The Equal Rights Amendment passed Congress in March nineteen seventy-two, Digital History records, with only eight dissenting votes in the Senate and twenty-four in the House. States had seven years to ratify it; twenty-two did so in nineteen seventy-two and eight more in nineteen seventy-three, but in the next two years only four states followed.
In practice
Thirty-eight states needed, and the count stalling short of the line.
Where people slip
The sources date the reprieve differently: the anchor says Congress granted a three-year extension in nineteen seventy-nine, Digital History thirty-nine more months in nineteen seventy-eight. No further state ratified in time, and the amendment died, defeated, the anchor says, by well-organised opposition from Christian and other socially conservative groups. Unit sixteen teaches that opposition and Phyllis Schlafly, whom Digital History credits with arguing that the amendment was unnecessary.
Your place on the trail
Every lesson rests on earlier ones and opens later ones. Tap any to jump.
Builds on
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