DOCSLIB.ORG

An Enlightening Reconsideration of Woman Suffrage Leaders

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
An Enlightening Reconsideration of Woman Suffrage Leaders Jean H. Baker. Sisters: The Lives of America's Suffragists. New York: Hill & Wang, 2005. xi + 277 pp. $16.00, paper, ISBN 978-0-8090-8703-7. Reviewed by John Thomas McGuire Published on H-SHGAPE (April, 2007) When former President Gerald R. Ford's body Paul. The result is an interesting, enlightening, al‐ lay in rest at the U.S. Capitol Rotunda earlier this beit not fawless reconsideration of these fve year, television news anchor Charles Gibson not‐ women, who for the most part made important ed that the only statue of a woman in the build‐ contributions to the suffrage movement from the ing's Statuary Hall was that of Frances Willard, mid-1800s to the early 1900s. the late nineteenth-century temperance reformer Baker discusses in her introduction why she and long-time president of the Women's Christian chose her fve subjects. They all demonstrated Temperance Union (WCTU). Echoing Gibson's qualities of "leadership, optimism, stamina, and comment, Jean H. Baker, professor of history at remarkable longevity," the author asserts, and Goucher College, recently declared that the wom‐ their activities also shaped the goals of what Bak‐ an's suffrage movement in the United States suf‐ er calls the frst wave of feminism (pp. 4-5). But fered from a similarly seeming neglect in Ameri‐ Baker intends to do more than just provide analy‐ can history survey classes. While she agreed with ses of her subjects' public achievements. Instead, historian Joan Hoff that the Nineteenth Amend‐ reflecting the call of current feminists "that the ment's ratification in 1920 came too late to fully personal is the political," she sets out to integrate develop women's political and civic development the women's private lives into their public work. in this country, Baker added that "voting moved By doing so, she concludes, these fve women will women out of a previously gender-segregated "become part of the American political tradition" public culture and created an American one (p. 11). Baker therefore intends to do a feminist based on the participation of political equality," a version of Richard Hofstadter's 1948 classic, The still significant development in United States his‐ American Political Tradition and the Men Who tory.[1] To help remedy this apparent neglect, Made It. Baker's new book concentrates on the lives of fve The outstanding part of Sisters comes in Bak‐ suffragists: Lucy Stone, Susan B. Anthony, Eliza‐ er's consideration of Stone, Anthony, and Stanton. beth Cady Stanton, Frances Willard, and Alice H-Net Reviews These three women emerge not only as distinct fight for a national constitutional suffrage amend‐ individuals, but also as different parts of the mo‐ ment. Finally, Anthony found personal fulfillment saic that comprised the suffrage movement from in close relationships with several younger wom‐ the 1848 Seneca Falls Convention to Anthony's en. Baker carefully delineates the extent of these death in 1906. Stone (1818-1893) emerges as the relationships, noting that while contemporary principled loner, Anthony as the tireless organiz‐ definitions of women's relationships did not auto‐ er, and Stanton as the intellectual of the early suf‐ matically encompass lesbianism, Victorian wom‐ frage movement. Stone only knew an abused en still engaged in "emotionally and sexually grat‐ mother and a hard-bitten, alcoholic father in her ifying relationships as kindred spirits" (p. 76). childhood. Rebelling against what she perceived Stanton (1815-1902) emerges as the most com‐ as a repressive, patriarchal family, she attended plex fgure of the early suffragists. Like Stone, she Oberlin College, and then became a popular lec‐ came from a complex familial situation. Her fa‐ turer on women's issues. Her native pessimism-- ther once admitted to her that he had wanted a Stone described herself as a "disappointed wom‐ boy, and her mother's constant childbearing pre‐ an"--received ample support during her long life. cluded much affection for the young woman. But, She endured a complicated marriage with Henry like Anthony, she became a woman forever rest‐ Blackwell, a discreet philanderer who nonetheless less with the strictures of society. Although she renounced his legal rights over her when they married a much older man, Anthony never auto‐ married in 1855. Her stubborn adherence to prin‐ matically obeyed his dictates. She also became a ciple caused an equally complicated public life. forceful advocate of a wide-ranging women's Stone refused to deliver a commencement speech rights agenda, which included divorce reform, at Oberlin when college authorities denied her a child custody for women, and exposure of spousal gender-integrated audience. She also emerged as abuse. Moreover, while not as dynamic a speaker more socially conservative than her contempo‐ as Anthony, Stanton eventually emerged as the rary suffragists (she disagreed with Stanton about suffrage movement's most politically astute lead‐ divorce reform) and also supported suffrage for er, presiding over both the NWSA and the black men, which Anthony and Stanton opposed. NAWSA. She also engaged in intellectual activities, Stone eventually founded the American Woman trying to amend the Bible's patriarchal overtones Suffrage Association (AWSA) in opposition to An‐ in the controversial The Woman's Bible and writ‐ thony and Stanton's suffrage organization, the Na‐ ing the influential contemplation of women's role tional Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA). Not in American society, The Solitude of Self. only did this development terminate Stone's Baker's gift of bringing her subjects to life friendship with Anthony, but the two organiza‐ comes through most clearly in these initial chap‐ tions did not consolidate as the National Ameri‐ ters. A prolific biographer who has written studies can Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) until of Mary Todd Lincoln and President James 1892. Buchanan, she etches out each woman in precise Anthony, born in 1820, emerges as a fgure far detail. Baker does not also treat her subjects as different from Stone in three ways. First, she moral exemplars. Although Stone supported the came from a family which emphasized achieve‐ Fifteenth Amendment's granting of suffrage to ment and strong Quaker principles. Second, she black men, she later opposed the extension of vot‐ became a constant traveler and agitator, wearing ing to immigrants. Anthony and Stanton not only special "bloomer outfits," fnding herself convict‐ opposed the Fifteenth Amendment, but also re‐ ed of a felony after trying to vote in the 1872 pres‐ fused to create coalitions with black women. This idential election, and eventually initiating the 2 H-Net Reviews refusal becomes doubly ironic when one consid‐ vived a seemingly moribund suffrage movement ers that these two women frst became involved after her return from Great Britain in 1911, and in reform because of the abolitionist movement. how her initiation of picket lines around the The author's interesting discussion of her sub‐ White House in 1917 created considerable pres‐ jects' personal and public lives continues with her sure on Wilson to support women's suffrage. The discussion of Willard (1839-1898). The WCTU pres‐ president fnally expressed his public support of ident emerges as a rounded person, with her dy‐ the pending suffrage amendment when the U.S. namic political leadership contrasted with her Senate voted on the measure in September 1918. sexual struggles. Baker shows how Willard used Baker could have made her analysis more con‐ the close relationship with her mother as a model vincing, however, if she also discussed in greater for her public leadership. As she aptly puts it, detail the contemporaneous efforts of other suf‐ Willard educated, comforted, and sacrificed her‐ fragist leaders such as Carrie Chapman Catt. self for WCTU members "even as they honored While Paul impresses the reader as a courageous and obeyed her" (p. 139). After assuming the orga‐ woman, as evidenced by her creating the National nization's presidency in 1879, Willard allowed de‐ Woman's Party (NWP) in 1916, the NAWSA also centralization, but still kept tight control with her deserves much credit for ensuring the Nineteenth speeches, visits with WCTU locals, and supervi‐ Amendment's successful ratification. In addition, sion of the national newspaper. The major weak‐ Baker's assertion that "women retired from par‐ ness of Baker's discussion of Willard lies in ticipation in public life for nearly half a century" demonstrating her subject as a leading suffragist. after Paul's efforts for ratification ended (p. 238) is While she supported suffrage after becoming belied by later examples such as Molly Dewson WCTU secretary in 1874, Willard's major efforts and Eleanor Roosevelt. concentrated on "sexual purity," temperance, and Baker continues her clear-eyed assessment in the formation of a national progressive coalition. the latter part of her book, particularly when it She only emerges as a supporter of the national comes to the issue of race. She notes how Willard suffrage movement. refused to support Ida B. Wells's anti-lynching ef‐ Baker's fnal chapter returns her book to its forts, and how Paul's actions belied her claims of former strengths. Perhaps her most interesting seeking cross-race coalitions. As the author con‐ analysis centers on the similarities between Paul cludes the NWP remained the "special preserve of (1885-1977) and Paul's seeming archrival, Presi‐ elite, well-educated, mostly wealthy white wom‐ dent Woodrow Wilson. Both came from strictly re‐ en" (p. 211). One could add that this failure to in‐ ligious and Ivy League backgrounds--Quakerism clude African American women in the national and the University of Pennsylvania in Paul's case, suffrage cause did not constitute a failure only Presbyterianism and Princeton University in Wil‐ within the NWP. son's situation.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Matilda Joslyn Gage: Writing and “Righting” the History of Woman
    20 MATILDA JOSLYN GAGE FOUNDATION FOUNDATION GAGE JOSLYN MATILDA Writing and Matilda the NWSA’s most active years and those spent writing the History.Volume IV minimized Gage’s activism and her contri- Joslyn bution to the History.For this reason, modern historians who have relied on Volume IV’s description of her work have Gage also tended to minimize Gage’s Gage’s role in that work alone contribution. BY MARY E. COREY should have guaranteed her a The rift between Gage and place of honor in our collective Anthony had its roots in the memory of the suffrage past. circumstances surrounding the Through a grand historic irony, one of Instead, it has obscured her formation of the NWSA in 1869. part in this and other move- Immediately following the the women most instrumental in the ment histories. Civil War, the reform alliance Volumes I, II, and III preserved between abolitionists and preservation of woman suffrage history the work of the National women’s rights advocates has herself been largely overlooked in Woman Suffrage Association crumbled in the fierce in-fight- from the beginnings of the ing over suffrage priorities. the histories of this movement. movement to about 1883. Unable to prevail on the issue Gage’s contributions to these of suffrage, Stanton, Anthony, Matilda Joslyn Gage was three volumes cannot be and Gage left the final American one of three National Woman overestimated. Her essays, Equal Rights Association Suffrage Association (NWSA) “Preceding Causes,”“Woman, Convention in May 1869 and founders who were known to Church and State,” and held an impromptu evening their contemporaries as the “Woman’s Patriotism in the War” session.
    [Show full text]
  • HISTORY 263: U.S. Women's History
    HISTORY 263: U.S. Women’s History This is a preliminary syllabus ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Summer 2012 HISTORY 263: U.S. Women’s History Instructor: Dr. Mara Dodge Tel. 413-572-5620 Use PLATO e-mail only Office: Bates 104 Course Description: This course explores all of American women’s history from the colonial period to the present and is open to students from any major. However, there is a daunting amount of material to cover in just 6 weeks so be prepared for a heavy reading load and a fast pace (and remember it is a 200 level course!) The course provides an excellent overview/ review of all of U.S. history with a special emphasis on women’s experiences and contributions. The course emphasizes the diversity of women’s experiences. We explore the unique experiences of specific European ethnic/ immigrant groups (ex. Irish, Italian, etc.) as well as the experiences of African-American, Native American, Asian-American, Latina, Jewish, Muslim, and lesbian women. The course makes extensive use of primary source materials. 1 Major themes include: changing ideas about women’s “proper place” in society; the history of the women’s rights movement; women’s role in social reform; changing ideas about sexuality, family, and reproduction; images of beauty and the “feminine ideal”; women and work; and movements for civil and legal rights. Note: Westfield State University assumes that a student will need to spend 16-20 hours a week to complete a 3 credit, on-line course in 6 weeks. These hours include all weekly course work and may include such activities as: textbook readings and assignments, watching videos, viewing Powerpoints, listening to podcasts, taking quizzes and exams, conducting research, writing essays/papers, posting to class discussion boards, and completing any other assigned weekly activities.
    [Show full text]
  • The Second National Woman's Rights Convention Worcester, MA October
    Handout 2C The Second National Woman’s Rights Convention Worcester, MA October 15-16, 1851 One year after the first national convention, Worcester played host to the second national women’s rights convention. The second convention had been planned during the first and Mrs. Paulina W. Davis served as president pro tempore once more. Like the first convention, this meeting addressed more than just women’s suffrage, but other women’s rights issues as well, including education, job training, and the need for more women in the medical field. There were eight committees in total: the Finance Committee, the Business Committee, the Central Committee, the Educational Committee, the Industrial Committee, the Committee on Civil and Political Functions, the Committee on Social Relations, and the Committee on Publications. Many Massachusetts women served on these committees, including Sarah H. Earle, Abby Kelly Foster, Abby H. Price, Harriet K. Hunt, Anna Q.T. Parsons, Lucy Stone, Eliza H. Taft, Augustine C. Taft, Eliza A. Stowell, and Eliza Blarney. As president pro tempore, Davis gave an opening address yet again. She noted that at this point, the women’s rights movement had gained much attention, remarkable given that it had only been a year since the first national convention. She did recognize the opposition to the movement, though, yet proudly stated: There remains no doubt now that the discussions of our Conventions and their published proceedings have aroused, in some degree, that sort of inquiry into our doctrine of human rights which it demands. I have said Human Rights, not Woman’s Rights, for the relations, wants, duties, and rights of the sexes center upon the same great truth, and are logically, as they are practically, inseparable.1 Davis noted other examples of success, including the new schools that have been opened 1 “The proceedings of the Woman’s Rights Convention, held at Worcester, October 15th and 16th, 1851.
    [Show full text]
  • The 19Th Amendment
    National Park Service U.S. Department of the Interior Women Making History: The 19th Amendment Women 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. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation. —19th Amendment to the United States Constitution In 1920, after decades of tireless activism by countless determined suffragists, American women were finally guaranteed the right to vote. The year 2020 marks the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment. It was ratified by the states on August 18, 1920 and certified as an amendment to the US Constitution on August 26, 1920. Developed in partnership with the National Park Service, this publication weaves together multiple stories about the quest for women’s suffrage across the country, including those who opposed it, the role of allies and other civil rights movements, who was left behind, and how the battle differed in communities across the United States. Explore the complex history and pivotal moments that led to ratification of the 19th Amendment as well as the places where that history happened and its continued impact today. 0-31857-0 Cover Barcode-Arial.pdf 1 2/17/20 1:58 PM $14.95 ISBN 978-1-68184-267-7 51495 9 781681 842677 The National Park Service is a bureau within the Department Front cover: League of Women Voters poster, 1920. of the Interior. It preserves unimpaired the natural and Back cover: Mary B. Talbert, ca. 1901. cultural resources and values of the National Park System for the enjoyment, education, and inspiration of this and All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this work future generations.
    [Show full text]
  • Lucy Stone 1818 – 1893 American a Project Based on Women Leading the Way: Suffragists & Suffragettes by Mireille Miller
    lucy stone 1818 – 1893 American A Project based on Women Leading the Way: Suffragists & Suffragettes by Mireille Miller. biographie biography Saviez-vous que l’enfance de Lucy Stone et son éducation Did you know that Lucy Stone’s background and education l’ont aidée à former son futur? Et qu’elle a contribué aux helped her shape her future? And that she contributed to associations des droits des femmes et aux associations anti- women’s rights associations and antislavery associations? Or that esclavagistes ? Où qu’elle était surnommée “Pionnière du Suffrage she was titled “Pioneer of Women’s Suffrage” for all that she had des Femmes” pour tout ce qu’elle avait fait ? done? Dès son plus jeune âge, Lucy Stone a toujours su ce qu’elle Lucy Stone always knew what she wanted to accomplish while she voulait faire. Née à West Brookfield dans le Massachusetts, le 13 août was growing up. Born in West Brookfield, Massachusetts, August 13, 1818, elle a grandi là tout au long de son enfance. A l’âge de 16 ans, 1818, she grew up there throughout her childhood. When she was the Stone fut une maîtresse pendant 9 ans, et elle économisait son argent pour age of 16, Stone was a teacher for 9 years, saving her money to work on travailler sur les droits des femmes et des esclaves. Elle a terminé ses études women’s rights and antislavery. She finished her education in 1847 at Oberlin en 1847 à Oberlin Collège avec l’aide de son père. Elle a été la première femme en College with help from her father.
    [Show full text]
  • Carol Inskeep's Book List on Woman's Suffrage
    Women’s Lives & the Struggle for Equality: Resources from Local Libraries Carol Inskeep / Urbana Free Library / [email protected] Cartoon from the Champaign News Gazette on September 29, 1920 (above); Members of the Chicago Teachers’ Federation participate in a Suffrage Parade (right); Five thousand women march down Michigan Avenue in the rain to the Republican Party Convention hall in 1916 to demand a Woman Suffrage plank in the party platform (below). General History of Women’s Suffrage Failure is Impossible: The History of American Women’s Rights by Martha E. Kendall. 2001. EMJ From Booklist - This volume in the People's History series reviews the history of the women's rights movement in America, beginning with a discussion of women's legal status among the Puritans of Boston, then highlighting developments to the present. Kendall describes women's efforts to secure the right to own property, hold jobs, and gain equal protection under the law, and takes a look at the suffrage movement and legal actions that have helped women gain control of their reproductive rights. She also compares the lifestyles of female Native Americans and slaves with those of other American women at the time. Numerous sepia photographs and illustrations show significant events and give face to important contributors to the movement. The appended list of remarkable women, a time line, and bibliographies will further assist report writers. Seneca Falls and the Origins of the Women’s Rights Movement by Sally G. McMillen. 2008. S A very readable and engaging account that combines excellent scholarship with accessible and engaging writing.
    [Show full text]
  • A Female Factor April 12, 2021
    William Reese Company AMERICANA • RARE BOOKS • LITERATURE AMERICAN ART • PHOTOGRAPHY ______________________________ 409 TEMPLE STREET NEW HAVEN, CONNECTICUT 06511 (203) 789-8081 FAX (203) 865-7653 [email protected] A Female Factor April 12, 2021 Celebrating a Pioneering Day Care Program for Children of Color 1. [African Americana]: [Miller Day Nursery and Home]: MILLER DAY NURSERY AND HOME...THIRTY-FIFTH ANNIVERSARY PROGRAM... EBENEZER BAPTIST CHURCH [wrapper title]. [Portsmouth, Va. 1945]. [4]pp. plus text on inner front wrapper and both sides of rear wrapper. Quarto. Original printed wrappers, stapled. Minor edge wear, text a bit tanned. Very good. An apparently unrecorded program of activities planned to celebrate the thirty- fifth anniversary of the founding of the Miller Day Nursery and Home, the first day care center for children of color in Portsmouth, Virginia. The center and school were established by Ida Barbour, the first African-American woman to establish such a school in Portsmouth. It is still in operation today, and is now known as the Ida Barbour Early Learning Center. The celebration, which took place on November 11, 1945, included music, devotionals, a history of the center, collection of donations, prayers, and speeches. The work is also supplemented with advertisements for local businesses on the remaining three pages and the inside rear cover of the wrappers. In all, these advertisements cover over forty local businesses, the majority of which were likely African-American-owned es- tablishments. No copies in OCLC. $400. Early American Sex Manual 2. Aristotle [pseudonym]: THE WORKS OF ARISTOTLE, THE FAMOUS PHILOSOPHER. IN FOUR PARTS. CONTAINING I.
    [Show full text]
  • Unit 5- an Age of Reform
    Unit 5- An Age of Reform Important People, Terms, and Places (know what it is and its significance) Civil service Gilded Age Primary Recall Initiative Referendum Muckraker Theodore Roosevelt Susan B Anthony Conservation William Howard Taft Jane Addams Woodrow Wilson Carrie Chapman Catt Suffragist Ida Tarbell Frances Willard Upton Sinclair Prohibition Temperance Lucretia Mott Carrie Nation Jacob Riis Booker T Washington W.E.B Dubois Robert LaFollette The Progressive Party 16th Amendment Spoils System Thomas Nast You should be able to write an essay discussing the following: 1. What were political reforms of the period that increased “direct” democracy? 2. The progressive policies of Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, and Woodrow Wilson. How did they expand the power of the federal government? 3. The role of the Muckrakers in creating change in America 4. Summarize the other reform movements of the Progressive era. 5. What was the impact of the Progressive Movement on women and blacks? 6. Compare and contrast the beliefs of Booker T. Washington and W.E.B Dubois Important Dates to Remember 1848 – Declaration of Sentiments written by Elizabeth Cady Stanton 1874 – Woman’s Christian Temperance Union formed. 1889 – Jane Addams founds Hull House 1890 – Jacob Riis publishes “How the Other Half Lives” 1895 – Anti Saloon League founded 1904 – Ida Tarbell publishes “The History of Standard Oil” 1906 – Upton Sinclair publishes “The Jungle” 1906 – Meat Inspection Act and Pure Food and Drug Act passed 1909 – National Association for the Advancement of Colored People founded. (NAACP) 1913 – 16th Amendment passed 1914 – Clayton Anti-Trust Act passed 1919 – 18th Amendment passed (prohibition) 1920 – 19th Amendment passed (women’s suffrage) .
    [Show full text]
  • CKR Dissertation for Proquest
    NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY The Awakening: Rhetoric and the Rise of New Women in the New Northwest, 1868-1912 A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS for the degree DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Field of Communication Studies By Cindy Koenig Richards EVANSTON, ILLINOIS June 2008 2 © Copyright 2008 by Cindy Koenig Richards All Rights Reserved 3 ABSTRACT The Awakening: Rhetoric and the Rise of New Women in the New Northwest, 1868-1912 Cindy Koenig Richards This study examines rhetorical practices through which disenfranchised women developed tenable political identities and integrated themselves into the public realm in the Pacific Northwest between 1868 and 1912. Through close analysis of rhetorical activities in which thousands of women participated—including club discourse, public commemoration, legal advocacy, petition work, and publication—it illuminates how these activities reconciled femininity and political involvement in an era and place that categorically denied women the right to self-government. Specifically, this dissertation argues that collective rhetorical practices made available rather than merely expressed new identities and skills among women in Oregon and Washington. As they engaged in symbolic action, together, women bridged the divide between their conventional roles in the private realm and leadership in public life, thereby changing themselves and their communities. In addition to expanding interdisciplinary understanding of woman’s rights and suffrage activism in the nineteenth- and twentieth-century United States, this study provides insight into modes of communication that construct public identities, cultivate new ways of thinking and acting politically, and create grounds for public reform. 4 Acknowledgments I am grateful to The Graduate School and the Department of Communication Studies at Northwestern University as well as the Alumnae of Northwestern University for providing the money and time that enabled me to complete this dissertation.
    [Show full text]
  • Creating a Primary Source Lesson Plan
    Women’s Fight for Equality Katy Mullen and Scott Gudgel Stoughton High School London arrest of suffragette. Bain News Service. Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, reproduction number LC-DIG-ggbain-10397, http://www.loc.gov/pictures/resource/ggbain.10397/ This unit on women in US History examines gender roles, gender stereotypes, and interpretations of significant events in women’s history. This leads students to discover gender roles in contemporary society. Overview Objectives: Students will: Knowledge • Analyze women’s history and liberation • Analyze the different interpretations of significant historical events Objectives: Students will: Skills • Demonstrate critical thinking skills • Develop writing skills • Collaborative Group work skills Essential “Has the role of women changed in the United States?” Question Recommended 13 50-minute class periods time frame Grade level 10th –12th grade Materials Copies of handouts Personal Laptops for students to work on Missing! PowerPoint. Library time Wisconsin State Standards B.12.2 Analyze primary and secondary sources related to a historical question to evaluate their relevance, make comparisons, integrate new information with prior knowledge, and come to a reasoned conclusion B.12.3 Recall, select, and analyze significant historical periods and the relationships among them B.12.4 Assess the validity of different interpretations of significant historical events B.12.5 Gather various types of historical evidence, including visual and quantitative data, to analyze issues of
    [Show full text]
  • Timeline of the Women's Suffrage Movement in the U.S
    Timeline of the Women’s Suffrage Movement in the U.S. Compiled by the Center for American Women and Politics – August 2014 1848 The first women's rights convention is held in Seneca Falls, New York. After 2 days of discussion and debate, 68 women and 32 men sign a Declaration of Sentiments, which outlines grievances and sets the agenda for the women's rights movement. A set of 12 resolutions is adopted calling for equal treatment of women and men under the law and voting rights for women. 1850 The first National Women's Rights Convention takes place in Worcester, Mass., attracting more than 1,000 participants. National conventions are held yearly (except for 1857) through 1860. 1868 Ratification of the 14th amendment declaring “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside” and that right may not be “denied to any of the male inhabitants of such State, being twenty-one years of age, and citizens of the United States” 1870 Congress ratifies the 15th 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 race, color, or previous condition of servitude.” 1869 Split among the suffragist movement. Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton form the National Woman Suffrage Association. The primary goal of the organization is to achieve voting rights for women by means of a Congressional amendment to the Constitution.
    [Show full text]
  • Truth-Telling: Frances Willard and Ida B. Wells Project Statement - November 12, 2018
    Truth-Telling: Frances Willard and Ida B. Wells Project Statement - November 12, 2018 Historical Background In 1894 and 1895, Woman’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) President Frances Willard (1839-1898) and journalist and anti- lynching activist Ida B. Wells (1862-1931) fought a war of words in the international press. Wells’ anti-lynching campaign was well underway, but she was frustrated by the reluctance of influential white reformers like Willard to support her work. While on a speaking tour of England in 1894, Wells called Willard’s moral leadership into question by re-publishing a newspaper interview from 1890 in which Willard had made racially charged statements. In the interview, Willard had invoked what Wells described as “the old threadbare lie that negro men rape white women” and had used statements such as “The colored race multiplies like the locusts of Egypt,” and “The grog [liquor] shop is its centre of power.” Wells charged that Willard’s position as an internationally known Christian reformer, and the leader of an organization with many African-American women members, entailed a special duty to speak out against the violence of lynching, rather than perpetuate the stereotype that drunken black men threatened “the safety of woman, of childhood, of the home.”1 Black women were strong supporters of temperance and many were WCTU members. However, white leaders of temperance and suffrage organizations, including Willard, often used stereotypes of black drunkenness and violence in order to build support for their causes among white women in the South. When Wells confronted Willard with the evidence of such moral compromises, Willard and her defenders insisted that she was not a racist, citing Willard’s family’s involvement in the abolition movement.
    [Show full text]