This jersey notes language from the 19th Amendment — "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." — which essentially gave women the right to vote. The Washington Mystics noted on Instagram that the jersey was inspired by the Women's March movement and further wrote, "Ratified in 1920, the 19th amendment granted women the right to vote. For Black women, however, it was the start to a new decades long struggle to secure voting rights for all Americans."
Native and Asian Americans were initially and historically excluded from voting as well. And although the Indian Citizenship Act passed in 1924, and the McCarran-Walter Act of 1952 lifted citizenship restrictions on Asian immigrants, it wasn't until the 1965 Voting Rights Act that racial discrimination in voting was banned. That said, voter suppression still exists.
Nike's Flynn also mentioned that the word "Rise" printed on the front is meant to "broadcast to women that it's our honor and our responsibility to rise up for what we believe in."
