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An under-reported and often overlooked chapter in the history of the vote
The African American women's experience of suffrage
n the popular imagin~tion,.the face of women's suffrage IS white. But from the beginning, African Ameri cans were speaking out and standing up for the cause. Sojourner Truth, Frederick Douglass, Ida B. Wells, and countless oth ers organized and advocated for votes for women. Their efforts were not always welcome. For decades, black suffragists struggled for a place in the movement, and even today their story struggles for a place in its history.
By the end of the 19th century, the rift in the movement over race was mended. But the new century brought with it a new wave of moral compromises.
I
The southern strategy
In the beginning Many of the early white suffragists began their activism as abolitionists. Lucretia Matt and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, orga nizers of the 1848 Seneca Falls Convention that launched the suffrage movement, met at an international abolition meeting. The legendary friendship between Susan B. Anthony and Frederick Douglass grew from their joint efforts to end slavery. Early suffragists found their voice and honed their leadership skills in the abolition movement. How did it happen, then, that the leaders of the mainstream suffrage move ment came to shut out their black sisters?
Mary Church Terrell (1863-1954), racial-equality activist and suffragist, described African Ameri can women's "double burden of their blackness and their womenhood."
Fallout from the 15th Amendment
The trouble started in the aftermath of the Civil War. Anthony, Stanton, and others had suspended the suffrage campaign to work on the war effort. The 400,000 signa tures they gathered in support of the 13th Amendment ending slavery helped gain its passage. When the 14th Amendment (de fining the rights of citizens) and the 15th Amendment (granting former slaves the vote) were drafted, the suffrage leaders expected that their efforts would be rewarded, that women would be included. They weren't. Bitterly disappointed, Stanton and Anthony and their organization Ida B. Wells (center) defies orders to march at the refused to support ratification. They back of the parade and takes her place beside white broke with those who did and issued suffragists in the 1913 Women's Suffrage Procession. statements that were clearly racist.
The 20th century suffragists worked on two levels. They pushed for amendments to state constitutions and they fought for rati fication of the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Success at both levels rested with the state legislatures. And then, as now, there were stark regional differences. In their single-minded commitment to ratification, suffrage leaders-whose lives had been devoted to social justice and equal ity-overrode their moral compass to ap pease legislators and others who feared en
franchising black women. Carrie Chapmen Catt assured southern states that "white supremacy will be strengthened, not weakened, by women's suffrage." Alice Paul, fearing a backlash from southern del egates at her massive 1913 suffrage proces sion, ordered black marchers to the back of the parade.
Beyond 1920 The 19th Amendment guaranteeing wom en the vote became the law of the land August 26, 1920. But the fight for the vote did not end. Voter suppression practices targeting African Americans and other groups continue. We can't un-write the painful story of the African American women's experience of suffrage. What we can do is stand up for equal access to the ballot box today. Visit
VOTES FOR WOMEN NJ AND BEYOND Eden Woolley House through August 2020