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Home , Lucy Stone, Mary Ann Shadd, Sarah Parker Remond

A Deeper View of History

When we think of the women who fought for the vote for women in America, many of us remember Susan B. Anthony, , , and other well-known white women. That’s because white women wrote the history of the women’s suffrage movement! Rosalyn Terborg-Penn, who died in December of 2018, wrote African American Women in the Struggle for the Vote, 1850-1920 to make us aware of the many courageous and fascinating Black women whose contributions have gone unheralded. I have recently read the book, and here I share, using her facts, my understanding of her compelling story.

One of the earliest figures in the story was , an escaped slave who became an abolitionist and women’s rights advocate. She was the first known African- American suffragist and she spoke up for human rights throughout the country.

“I feel safe in the midst of my enemies, for the truth is all powerful and will prevail.”

Sojourner Truth 1797 (?) - 1883

The abolitionist movement that grew in the second half of the 19th century was fertile ground for many women who gained valuable experience in public advocacy and eventually broadened their scope to include the cause of women’s rights in general and suffrage in particular.

Harriet Forten Purvis, the daughter of abolitionist James Forten, organized the Fifth National Women’s Rights Convention in 1854. She was a friend of Susan B. Anthony and .

Mary Ann Shadd Cary was the first Black newspaperwoman, publishing The Freeman from , where her family had moved after the 1850 passage of the Fugitive Slave Act. She advised other African-Americans to emigrate to Canada. A first- generation Black suffragist, she later returned to the

United States and was an influential writer, educator, Harriet Forten Purvis 1810-1898 lawyer, abolitionist, and suffragist.

The American Equal Rights Association was founded in 1866 specifically to work for equal voting rights regardless of race, color, or sex. Harriet Purvis, , and Sarah Parker Remond Sojourner Truth were among the 1826 - 1887 notable Black participants.

Mary Ann Shadd Cary 1823 - 1893 Lucretia Mott, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, and were among the whites.

The AERA split in 1866 over differences around the proposed 15th Amendment. The Amendment would grant the right to vote to Black men but not to women. One faction, led by Anthony and Stanton, opposed it because women were not included. They felt that male abolitionists were sacrificing women’s suffrage for the sake of expedience. (Pretty ironic in view of white suffragists’ later abandonment of Black women for the same reason.) This faction gave rise to the National Woman Suffrage Association. Mary Ann Shadd Cary and Charlotte Ray were two prominent Black women who chose to belong to the NWSA.

Charlotte E. Ray 1850 - 1911

Another faction, more supportive of abolition and rather than just women’s right to vote, formed the AWSA (American Woman Suffrage Association). This group, led by , Lucy Stone, and others, attracted more African American participation. , Charlotta Rollin, and Josephine St. Pierre Ruffin were leading Black members.

Frances E. W. Harper 1825 - 1911

“As much as white women need the ballot, colored women need it more.”

After the Civil War and ended Black men, at least, were granted the right to vote and exercised that right briefly during the period of Reconstruction. Political corruption was rampant and cynical white politicians sometimes used alcohol to influence the votes of these Black men. The Temperance Movement gained strength, in part, because of that corruption. Many suffragists were deeply involved in that movement as well, and African American women like Mary McCurdy worked to eliminate the use of alcohol as a way to improve the wellbeing of their fellows. McCurdy, an activist and journalist living in , Georgia, was editor of the National Presbyterian, a temperance newspaper.

After Reconstruction ended in 1877, white fear and anger manifested in the Jim Crow laws passed throughout the South. Black men were disenfranchised and lynchings were horribly commonplace. Race relations deteriorated in the North, too, as racist ideology spread. People came to believe in the myth of white female purity and vulnerability and the need to protect white women from supposed contamination by contact with Blacks.

Lynchings, 1835 - 1964

Trust among white and African American suffragists weakened further. In 1890 the AWSA and NWSA merged, creating the National American Woman Suffrage Association, the precursor to the League of Women Voters. The new organization continued the NWSA’s narrow focus on women’s suffrage and largely ignored the many special problems that plagued Black women as they suffered from the double burdens of race and gender. Black Women were not excluded from the organization but local branches could and did keep them out, and segregated facilities often made it impossible for Black delegates to participate.

Meanwhile the Black Women’s Club movement began to emerge, and as interracial and mixed-gendered suffrage organizations faded many new clubs flourished. Black women organized around the issues of temperance, social and educational uplift, and church work. Suffrage was viewed as a strategy to be used to reach their goals.

The National Association of Colored Women in 1896 unified many of the existing clubs under the leadership of , Margaret Murray Washington, Frances Harper, Ida Bell Harriett Tubman 1820 - 1913 Wells-Barnett, and Mary Church Terrell. Josephine St. Pierre Ruffin was another important member.

Margaret Murray Washington 1865 - 1925

“If we wish to help each other let us not only praise ourselves, but also criticize. Plain talk will not hurt us.”

“Seeing their children touched and seared and wounded by race prejudice is one of the heaviest crosses which colored women have to bear.”

Mary Church Terrell 1863 – 1954 Ida Wells Barnett 1862 - 1931

Nannie Helen Burroughs spearheaded the Woman’s Convention of the National Baptist Convention which became the largest association of Black women in the US. The population of Black women was growing and with it the fears of White Supremacists also grew. Sentiment for extreme segregation was strong, especially in the South, and national suffrage groups were under pressure to exclude and Nannie Helen Burroughs 1879 - 1961 to abandon their concerns. In many cases white Southern suffragists threatened to boycott events if Blacks were allowed to participate. Northern women were also infected with the rising racist ideology despite their history of .

Black leaders like Josephine St. Pierre Ruffin persisted in challenging white women to unite with Blacks, but she succeeded only in .

“If laws are unjust, they must be continually broken until they are altered.”

When, in 1913, the famous suffrage parade in front of the White House was planned, some white women threatened not to march if African American women were allowed to participate. Adella Hunt Logan and Josephine St. Pierre Ruffin 1824 - 1924 Mary Church Terrell encouraged Black suffragists to defy the attempt at exclusion. A compromise resulted in which Black suffragists were to march at the end of the parade. Many did so, while others such as Ida B. Wells Barnett defiantly marched as part of integrated delegations.

Adella Hunt Logan 1863 - 1915

“If a body pays the taxes, surely you’ll agree

That a body earns the franchise whether he or she…”

NAWSA leaders felt they needed Southern support in order to finally get the 19th amendment enacted, and some probably used that as an excuse to hide their own racial prejudice. After much argument and debate – there was actually consideration given to limiting suffrage to white women only – universal suffrage was finally achieved in 1919.

Jim Crow persisted in the South and effectively prevented Blacks of either gender from exercising the right to vote for many, many years. Resentment by Black citizens also persists, to this day, for the shabby treatment of African American suffrage activists. This resentment is justified. Many of the leaders of the overwhelmingly white organizations fighting for the 19th amendment were all too willing to cooperate with racists. , who founded the League of Women Voters in 1920, made statements and held views that are clearly racist, and though she was a brilliant strategist and organizer we can see today that she was deeply flawed.

We, the League of Women Voters, today admit that we fell short, and we vow to do better. https://www.lwv.org/blog/facing-hard-truths-about-leagues-origin

The opinions expressed here are solely those of the author. No copyright infringement is intended.

Submitted by Aiden Flynn Carson, League of Women Voters of Asheville-Buncombe County