African-American women's suffrage movement
[1] These interracial groups were radical expressions of women's political ideals and directly influenced voting rights activism before and after the Civil War.
Upper-class white women initially framed their oppression in marriage and the private sphere using the metaphor of slavery, developing political consciousness through abolitionist activism.
[7] Early female abolitionists included Lucretia Mott, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Maria Weston Chapman.
[7] Abolitionism allowed women, previously confined to domestic roles, to publicly challenge sexism and engage in political activism.
Leaders of the Equal Rights Association, such as Stanton and Susan B. Anthony, prioritized a white feminist agenda.
Over time, Black and white women organized separately due to class and racial tensions, as well as differing political priorities.
[7] Black women engaged in multi-faceted activism, integrating suffrage with broader social justice efforts.
Unlike white suffragists, who primarily sought the right to vote for individual empowerment, Black women aimed to uplift their entire communities.
Wells, Mary Church Terrell, and Rosa Parks played key roles in the fight for suffrage.
The NWSA attempted to include working-class and Black women, forming the American Equal Rights Association in 1866 to advocate for universal suffrage.
In Boston, Margaret Murray Washington and Josephine St. Pierre Ruffin led the National Federation of Afro-American Women.
In 1896, these organizations merged to form the National Association of Colored Women, with Mary Church Terrell as its first president.
[17][18] NAWSA’s exclusionary policies led to the rise of the "educated suffragist" concept, asserting that literacy was a prerequisite for voting.
Additionally, Bettiola Heloise Fortson, an activist and writer, advanced literacy and intellectual development among African Americans in Chicago.
[5] However, in the South, African-American women encountered voter suppression tactics, including long wait times, poll taxes, literacy tests, and violent intimidation.
[23] White officials imposed unconstitutional barriers, such as requiring Black women to read and interpret the Constitution before registering to vote.
[1] These interracial groups were radical expressions of women's political ideals, and they led directly to voting rights activism before and after the Civil War.
Upper-class white women in particular first articulated their own oppression in marriage and the private sphere using the metaphor of slavery, and they first developed a political consciousness by mobilizing in support of abolitionism.
[7] Lucretia Mott, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Maria Weston Chapman were among the early female abolitionists.
Abolitionists who headed the Equal Rights Association like Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony had a primarily white agenda.
Many politically engaged African-American women were primarily invested in matters of racial equality, with suffrage later materializing as a secondary goal.
[13] Southern whites feared African Americans gaining more political advantage and thus power; African-American women voters would help to achieve this change.
During the two years that she spent in prison, Davis read, wrote essays on injustices, and prepared as co-counsel for her own defense.
[citation needed] The Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments were eventually passed by Congress and women were still not granted the right to vote.
[16] The reasons for this change in ideals varies, but in the 1890s younger women began to take the leadership roles and people such as Stanton and Anthony were no longer in charge.
In 1896, both groups combined to form the National Association of Colored Women under the leadership of Mary Church Terrell.
[19] The group worked in publishing the Alpha Suffrage Record newspaper to canvas neighborhoods and voice political opinions.
[19] One of the many black women focused on advancing literary "artistic and intellectual development" among African Americans in the north was Bettiola Heloise Fortson.
[21] After the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment in 1920, African-American women, particularly those inhabiting Southern states, still faced a number of barriers.
[23] One such woman was Annie Simms Banks who was chosen to serve as a delegate to Kentucky's Republican Party convention in March 1920.
