White House, Gateway Arch among iconic landmarks to be lit purple and gold. Here’s why

From the Cabrillo National Monument in San Diego to Lady Liberty’s torch in New York City, iconic monuments across the U.S. will be illuminated in purple and gold Wednesday to celebrate the 100-year anniversary of some women’s right to vote.

Why purple and gold?

They were were historic suffrage colors, according to the National Park Service. Gold was the only color used by all suffrage organizations, but the purple, white and gold combination was used by the National Woman’s Party in the United States.

“Purple is the color of loyalty, constancy to purpose, unswerving steadfastness to a cause,” the organization wrote on Dec. 6, 1913. “White, the emblem of purity, symbolizes the quality of our purpose; and gold, the color of light and life, is as the torch that guides our purpose, pure and unswerving.”

The 19th Amendment, which says citizens of the United States cannot be denied the right to vote on account of sex, was ratified on Aug. 26, 1920.

Even with the 19th Amendment, however, millions of people were excluded from voting, NPR reported. The right to vote was also “deeply entwined with race,” according to the news outlet.

“On August 26, 1920, U.S. Secretary of State Bainbridge Colby signed a proclamation behind closed doors at 8 a.m. at his own house in Washington, D.C., ending a struggle for the vote that started a century earlier,” The National Constitution Center reported.

More than 50 National Park Service sites will light up in purple and gold, from the Gateway Arch in Missouri to The White House.

Niagara Falls, the Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas sign, Smithsonian museums, the Library of Congress Jefferson Building and dozens of other iconic monuments will also take part in the celebration.

“The National Park Service is proud to join the Women’s Suffrage Centennial Commemoration in this celebration by illuminating iconic American sites across the country, especially places where the fight for women’s suffrage took place,” Margaret Everson, counselor to the secretary, exercising the delegated authority of the NPS director, said in a news release.