HERO’S OF SUFFERAGE
‘BRILLIANT and POLITICALLY
SAVVY’
The roles of Black women in the fight to vote
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By Jessica Bliss and Jasmine Vaughn-Hall USA TODAY Network
n a pair of three-story brick row houses on an avenue in northwest Baltimore, Margaret Hawkins and Augusta Chissell lived side by side. Driven to the same city block by the forces of residential segregation, they were united by a common ambition — the push for racial and women’s equality. Streets away lived another activist with similar sentiments. A teacher and mother, Estelle Young was eager to see Black women, including one day her own daughter, earn a spot at the polls. Young befriended the two women down the road. Together they became a neighborly powerhouse, leading the campaign for suffrage from their own living rooms. Their names aren’t familiar to most, suppressed by a century of fragmented history, but their activism mirrors a movement across the country. More than 100 years ago, as a groundswell of momentum pushed toward giving women the right to vote, Black women nationwide stood up to join the cause. Even when racism tore through the movement — undercutting their efforts and severing the strength of a united female front — they were undeterred. What Black suffragists achieved greatly shaped the fight for women’s rights. In the wake of the centennial celebration of the 19th Amendment, a history once silenced is slowly resurfacing. Stories of the relentless efforts of women of color have found a new platform, providing a chance to elevate what has been untold. “The traditional narrative does often leave out large groups of women who don’t fit into the white, middle-class story of women’s rights,” said Earnestine Jenkins, a professor of art and researcher of African American history at the University of Memphis. “You have to be honest about the racism in the movement and the extent they kept women of color out of the movement. ... You have to look for those hidden histories because otherwise, you are not going to get the complete story.”
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Once united, then divided In the throes of the Civil War, as the North and South raged over Black rights, the strong parallels between the situations of slaves and the situations of women became evident. Convinced that freedom for one would be victory for both, white women such as Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton became devoted abolitionists. When the war ended, the alignment did not last. After the passage of the 14th and 15th Amendments, which gave voting rights to Black men but not to women, Anthony — a former stationmaster for the Underground Railroad — became infuriated. “I will cut off this right arm of mine before I ever work or demand the ballot for the Negro and not the woman,” she said. The intemperance alienated some suffragists, and by 1875, when Anthony drafted the amendment that would bear her name, the movement had split. The aftershocks of abolition shook the South. Many feared any push for a law that would give not only white women, but also Black women, a place at the polls. A new reality set in. “They realized that there really wasn’t as much common ground between African American suffragists and white, middle-class suffragists as there might have been in a society that wasn’t so polarized in questions of race,” said Susan Ware, author of “Why They Marched: Untold Stories of the Women Who Fought for the Right to Vote.” Guided by ‘a broader vision’ Unlike the predominantly white suffrage leaders — whose social privilege allowed them to look at voting rights through the lens of gender alone — Black suffragists had more to consider. Jim Crow laws in the South
undermined voting rights won by Black men. They were made to use separate drinking fountains, sit in segregated seats at restaurants and on trains. They even swore on separate Bibles in court. Literacy tests and high poll taxes prevented many from casting their ballots. Though Black women fervently wanted a place at the polls, they wanted to ensure that Black men could be there, too. “They didn’t have the luxury to just be working for their own vote,” Ware said. “They were trying to improve conditions for their race and community. It was a broader vision.” They knew having the vote would help empower them against discrimination. So they took up the campaign alongside the white women of higher class and social status. For a time, they were allies in the movement — hailed for voices they elevated. ‘Power added to influence’ Among the most eloquent of those was Frances E.W. Harper. An orphan and young poet, Harper was inspired to take up the abolitionist cause when her home state of Maryland passed a fugitive slave law, allowing even free Blacks such as Harper to be arrested and sold into slavery. She formed alliances with strong figures in the suffrage movement, including Anthony, and began giving anti-slavery speeches throughout the northern U.S. Through her powerful prose and poetry, she elevated issues of racism, feminism and class. “The ballot in the hands of woman means power added to influence,” Harper said in an address before the World’s Congress of Representative Women at the Chicago World’s Fair of 1893. “How well she will use that power I can not foretell.” In this battle, like many others to come, the women were not equals.
