Women's Equality Day marks passage of the 19th Amendment which gave (white) women the right to vote

Today (Aug. 26) is Women's Equality Day, commemorating the adoption of the 19th Amendment giving women the right to vote ... if you're white.

Because of the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act, Asian women were not allowed to become citizens, therefore, did not have the right to vote.

Nevertheless, some Asian American heroes like Mabel Ping-Hua Lee were part of the Suffragette movement that lobbied politicians and demonstrated in the streets to gain that right.

Lee was born on October 7, 1897 in Guangzhou (Canton City), China. Her father, Dr. Lee Towe, was a missionary pastor and he moved to the United States when she was four years old. Lee stayed in China with her mother and grandmother, and she studied Chinese.

When Lee was 9-years old, she won an academic scholarship called the Boxer Indemnity Scholarship that allowed her to relocate to the United States to attend school. The Lee family moved in 1905 to New York City's Chinatown. Lee became involved in activism and women’s rights very early on.

By the time she was 16-years old, she was already accepted to Barnard College. Suffragettes reached out to the Chinese-American community to get their opinions about the Chinese suffrage movement’s success in getting the vote in China. Lee and other Chinese women met with leaders of the Suffragette movement in Chinatown.

The Chinese women believed that women's suffrage in the US would open the door to repealing Exclusion Act. Those hopes were dashed when in 1920 the Act was renewed and extended to include other Asian ethnicities.

Lee so impressed the white women leaders, she was invited to lead the suffrage parade on horseback in New York City. Held on May 4, 1912, the parade started in New York’s historic Greenwich Village and was attended by almost 10,000 people.

By 1917, women in the state of New York were granted the right to vote. Three years later, the 19th Amendment was passed that gave women the right to vote across the country. However, Lee and many other women of color still could not vote. It would take another almost 25 years for Lee to be granted the right to vote with the repeal of the Chinese Exclusion Act in 1943. However, she continued to advocate for women’s suffrage and equal rights.

Lee died in 1966 at the age of 70. It is unknown if Lee ever attained United States citizenship and exercised her right to vote, but her activism ensured many other women had the ability to do so.

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