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The Fight to Vote: America's Turbulent Voting Rights History [Interactive Timeline]

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Suffragists parade down Fifth Avenue in October 1917, displaying placards containing the signatures of more than one million New York women demanding the vote. (The New York Times Photo Archives/Wikipedia)

The United States prides itself as a beacon of democracy on the world stage. But universal suffrage has been elusive throughout its history.

From the early years of the republic, when voting was almost exclusively reserved for propertied white men, the right to vote has very gradually grown more inclusive, expanding to an ever broader cross-section of the American public.  But this progress has almost always been hard fought.

Scroll thorough this timeline to learn about some of the key moments in America's long struggle for voting rights.


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