Working the Democracy: the Long Fight for the Ballot from Ida to Stacey

Social Education 84(4), p. 214–218 ©2020 National Council for the Social Studies Working the Democracy: The Long Fight for the Ballot from Ida to Stacey Jennifer Sdunzik and Chrystal S. Johnson After a 72-year struggle, the Nineteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution granted whose interests should be represented, American women the right to vote in 1920. Coupled with the Fifteenth Amendment, and ultimately what policies will be which extended voting rights to African American men, the ratification of the implemented at the local and national Nineteenth Amendment transformed the power and potency of the American electorate. levels. At a quick glance, childhoods par- Yet for those on the periphery—be Given the dearth of Black women’s tially spent in Mississippi might be the they people of color, women, the poor, voices in the historical memory of the only common denominator of these two and working class—the quest to exer- long civil rights struggle, we explore the women, as they were born in drastically cise civic rights through the ballot box stories of two African American women different times and seemed to fight dras- has remained contested to this day. In who harnessed the discourse of democ- tically different battles. Whereas Wells- the late nineteenth century and into the racy and patriotism to argue for equality Barnett is best known for her crusade twentieth, white fear of a new electorate and justice. Both women formed coali- against lynchings in the South and her of formerly enslaved Black men spurred tions that challenged the patriarchal work in documenting the racial vio- public officials to implement policies boundaries limiting who can be elected, lence of the 1890s in publications such that essentially nullified the Fifteenth as Southern Horrors and A Red Record,1 Amendment for African Americans in she was also instrumental in paving the the South. The same was true with pas- way for women suffrage. Upon her forced sage of the Nineteenth Amendment. relocation to the North, she worked But the right to vote is more than tirelessly in the early twentieth century checking a box on the ballot. In this with Chicago’s Black community for the article, we invite you to reimagine the enfranchisement of African American Nineteenth Amendment beyond women women and for the political empower- suffrage. Not only did the ratification of ment of African American men. the Nineteenth Amendment open the Decades later, Stacey Abrams, who doors for some Black women to vote, was the first Black female major-party but it was also a call to political activism. U.S. gubernatorial nominee in 2018 when The amendment empowered African she ran in Georgia, has emerged as a ris- American leaders like Ida B. Wells- ing star in today’s Democratic Party. She Barnett and, today, Stacey Abrams to is also the first Black woman to deliver hold the nation accountable on its prom- a response to the State of the Union ise to be a government by the people and address. Stacey is the most recent and for the people. Ida B. Wells-Barnett not perhaps most powerful example of Ida’s only fought for passage of the Nineteenth dedication to expanding Black women’s Ida B. Wells, head-and-shoulders portrait, Amendment but utilized its passing to published in The Afro-American press and its opportunities in the political realm in plant the seed of political activism within editors, by I. Garland Penn., 1891 order to promote an authentic demo- the Black female community. (Courtesy of the Library of Congress) cratic system. A closer look at these two Social Education 214 African American leaders and the battles Southwestern Railroad Company, which they fought a century apart reveals their was initially victorious. However, the shared approach to civic matters. Ida Tennessee Supreme Court reversed the and Stacey both understood the ballot lower court ruling, deciding in favor of box as more than a vote, extending its the railroad company. It was that train power to political enfranchisement and ride in Tennessee that ignited Ida’s tire- community activism. Being leaders not less passion to fight against discrimina- just through their words but also through tion and racism. their actions, both women deployed the Ida realized the power of the bal- power of defiance in order to challenge lot to achieve social equality. In “How the system. In this regard, their com- Enfranchisement Stops Lynching,” she mitment to the promises of democracy noted, arches the long fight for the ballot in the United States. The Negro has been given We are again at a critical moment separate and inferior schools, in our society. The country’s changing Then-Georgia State Representative Stacey separate railway cars, separate demographic has triggered fears, mostly Abrams gives the keynote address at the every thing [sic] else because among white conservatives, about a Barbara Jordan Forum of the LBJ School of he has no ballot. He therefore political, economic, and cultural take- Public Affairs, in Austin, Tex., February 21, 2012 cannot protest against such (Courtesy of the LBJ school, via Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0) over by immigrants and people of color. legislation by choosing other law Conservative politicians know how to makers, or retiring to private life harness this tide of anxiety. They push So, while the Nineteenth Amendment those who legislate against his through legislation (e.g., gerrymandering, diminished the gender distinctiveness interests.4 voter suppression measures, etc.) that of women’s citizenship, it still fell short curbs access to the ballot. And in the of creating equal opportunities for all Soon after, in January 1913, she tradition of Ida B. Wells-Barnett, Stacey citizens. founded the Alpha Suffrage Club, the Abrams has been galvanizing political first African American suffrage club, activism and participation in disenfran- Ida’s Defiance with the help of white suffragist col- chised and underserved communities. While Americans celebrate Rosa Parks leagues like Belle Squire. for her defiance of Jim Crow laws on Upon settling in Chicago, Ida travelled Defiance as Power a public bus in Montgomery, Alabama, across Illinois speaking publicly on civic Historically, African American women in 1955, Ida actually openly challenged matters and the fight for women suffrage.5 were doubly removed from the public the system by refusing Jim Crow trans- She organized various local Black wom- realm, both legally as well as socially. portation in Tennessee more than 70 en’s clubs in the city. As new president They lacked the independent status years earlier.2 She claimed her seat in of the Alpha Suffrage Club, she joined equated with being male and white in the “ladies” coach on a train ride from the Illinois Suffragists for a National American society. After Emancipation, Memphis to Woodstock in September American Woman Suffrage Association- they were essentially governed by Black 1883, experiencing the double bind of sponsored parade in Washington, D.C., men. Even as the rules of legal cover- being Black and a woman. The train in March 1913. Forty years after defying ture, or second-class citizenship, were conductor demanded she move to the Jim Crow on a train in Tennessee, Ida eroded in the second half of the nine- “colored” coach. Ida recalled, “He said found herself again defying Jim Crow, teenth century, the core principle of an to me that he would treat me like a lady, this time in Washington, D.C. The indirect citizenship, conferred via the but that I must go into the other car, and parade’s white leadership feared alien- head of household (husband or father) I replied, that if he wished to treat me ating Southern members by challenging for women remained. The Nineteenth like a lady, he would leave me alone.”3 their Jim Crow system, and did not want Amendment succeeded in displacing Her refusal to leave the coach designated Black women walking with state delega- this ideal of citizenship by giving white for white women triggered an alterca- tions. Ida, however, refused to be sent women and some Black women clear tion (she bit the conductor’s hand when to the back of the parade and boldly political standing in the public sphere. he attempted to forcefully move her), marched with the women of Illinois. Ida But suffrage failed to establish equal citi- resulted in her dress being torn, and led “defined the battle for African American zenship. Rather, women remained caught ultimately to her physical removal from women by intertwining her state citizen- between competing conceptions of polit- the train at the next stop. She initiated ship, her African Americanness, and ical equality and ascriptive difference. a suit against the Chesapeake Ohio & her femaleness,” and asserted “African September 2020 215 American women’s place in the fight for initiatives dedicated to registering and which trained Black women specifically the ballot by confronting white women.”6 engaging people of color in the civic to run for political office. Running under process, which in Georgia’s case encom- the motto “For Women, of Women, By Stacey’s Defiance passed more than 800,000 potential vot- Women,” Ida united community devel- At an early age, Stacey Abrams was ers. The addition of more than 86,000 opment with political activism and shaped by her experiences of racism and voter registration applications provoked democratic aspirations.14 She then led sexism. After winning an essay contest panic among Georgia’s political players the way and ran as an Independent for in middle school, she had to fight the and sparked an increase in acts of sabo- the Illinois State Senate in 1930. Though librarian to receive her award money.

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