African-American women's suffrage movement facts for kids
African-American women started fighting for political rights in the 1830s. They formed important groups like the Boston Female Anti-Slavery Society and the Philadelphia Female Anti-Slavery Society. These groups, which included both Black and white women, were very bold for their time. They directly led to activism for voting rights both before and after the Civil War.
Throughout the 1800s, African-American women like Harriet Forten Purvis, Mary Ann Shadd Cary, and Frances Ellen Watkins Harper worked hard. They reminded both African-American men and white women that Black women needed legal rights, especially the right to vote.
After the Civil War, women's rights activists disagreed about supporting the 15th Amendment. This amendment gave voting rights to men regardless of race, but it didn't specifically include women. This disagreement caused a split in the women's movement, which often pushed African-American women aside. However, Black women kept fighting for suffrage.
By the 1890s, the women's suffrage movement became more racist and exclusive. So, African-American women organized their own groups, like local women's clubs and the National Association of Colored Women. In the 1910s, women won the right to vote in many states, and African-American women became a strong group of voters.
The fight for the vote didn't end when the Nineteenth Amendment was passed in 1920. This amendment greatly expanded voting rights, but it didn't stop the racial violence that prevented African-Americans in Southern states from voting, no matter their gender. Women like Fannie Lou Hamer, Ella Baker, and Diane Nash continued the fight for voting rights for everyone. Their efforts led to the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
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How the Movement Started
The women's suffrage movement began with the Abolitionist movement, which worked to end slavery. Many white women, especially those from wealthier families, first realized their own lack of freedom in marriage. They used the idea of slavery to describe their situation. They also learned how to become activists by supporting the fight against slavery.
Early female abolitionists included Lucretia Mott, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Maria Weston Chapman. The abolitionist cause gave women a chance to speak out against sexism and learn how to be political activists. However, the African-American women's suffrage movement was different. Some might even say it was a completely separate movement.
Leaders of the American Equal Rights Association like Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony mostly focused on the rights of white women. After the Civil War, it became clear that Black and white women had different reasons for wanting the right to vote. Unlike white suffragists, Black women wanted the vote for themselves and for Black men. They hoped it would empower Black communities that faced a lot of racial violence after slavery ended in the late 1800s.
The Movement Divides
In the early 1900s, racism meant that Black women faced unfair treatment from all sides. First, they were oppressed because they were women. Then, they were oppressed again because of their race. Many politically active African-American women cared most about racial equality. Getting the right to vote often became a second goal for them.
The Seneca Falls Convention is often seen as the first women's rights meeting. It is also considered a starting point for the racial split within the women's suffrage movement. The declaration from Seneca Falls focused on the problems of wealthy, married white women. It did not talk about the struggles of working-class white women or Black women.
As time went on, Black and white women often organized separately. This was due to differences in social class and race within the overall movement. They also had different goals and ways of thinking about political change.
Black women used many different ways to fight for their rights. They often did not separate the goal of getting the vote from other goals. Widespread racism made their multi-sided activism even more urgent. Most Black women who supported voting rights wanted to improve the lives of Black women, men, and children. This was very different from their white counterparts. While white women focused on getting the vote for themselves, Black women wanted to improve their entire communities, not just their own individual lives as women.
In her book Women, Race and Class, Angela Davis explains that "black women were equal to their men in the oppression they suffered…and they resisted slavery with a passion equal to their men's." This shows why their activism was more about the whole community. After the Civil War, many African-American women struggled to keep their interests a main focus in politics. Many reformers often spoke as if "black" meant male and "women" meant white.
African-American Women Are Pushed Aside
In 1890, two rival groups, the National Woman Suffrage Association and the American Woman Suffrage Association, joined together. They formed the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA). As NAWSA gained more support, its members realized that excluding African-American women would help them get more white support. This led them to focus only on getting white women the right to vote. This became known as the "Anti-Black" women's suffrage movement.
The National Woman Suffrage Association worried that including groups like the Northeastern Federation of Colored Women's Clubs would hurt their cause. This was because white women in the South did not want Black women to get the vote. Southern whites feared that African Americans would gain more political power. Black women voters would help make this change happen.
The women's suffrage movement included many important women. It started with figures like Harriet Tubman and Sojourner Truth. Later, it included women like Ida B. Wells, Mary Church Terrell, Ella Baker, Rosa Parks, and Angela Davis. All these women played key roles in fighting to end the unfair denial of voting rights for African-American women. They faced discrimination from both white Southerners and Northerners. Yet, they remained strong and determined. This strength has been passed down through generations in African-American families.
African-American women have always been active in politics throughout American history. But for a long time, they were denied the right to vote and hold office. So, they found other ways to make their voices heard.
After her arrest in 1970, Angela Davis became a symbol of political struggle. People around the world protested to free her. During the two years she was in prison, Davis read, wrote about unfairness, and helped prepare her own defense. She was released on bail in 1972 and later found not guilty of all charges at her trial.
Forming the National Association of Colored Women
The American Women's Suffrage movement began in the North. It was mostly a movement of middle-class white women, many of whom were educated and from places like Boston and New York. The National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA) tried to include working-class women and Black suffragists.
In 1866, the American Equal Rights Association was formed. Its goal was that everyone, regardless of race or sex, should have the right to vote. Around this time, a division grew within the women's movement. The 14th Amendment was being proposed, which would soon give Black men the right to vote.
The NWSA held a meeting to decide how to move forward, and the women were divided. Some women did not want to risk Black men losing the chance to vote. They thought women would get their turn later and saw the proposed amendment as a victory. Other women, including Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, were angry. They felt it was not enough and that women should not be left out of voting rights.
The Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments were eventually passed by Congress. Women were still not given the right to vote. As time passed, the leaders of the National Women's Suffrage Association began to see African-American suffrage and white suffrage as separate issues.
Reasons for this change in ideas vary. In the 1890s, younger women started taking leadership roles, and people like Stanton and Anthony were no longer in charge. Another reason was the growing idea of "white supremacy" among women joining the movement from the South. With disagreements growing within the NWSA, African-American women left and formed their own organizations.
In June 1892, the Colored Women's League (CWL) was founded in Washington, D.C. Under their president, Helen Appo Cook, the CWL fought for Black suffrage and held night classes. A group from Boston, led by Margaret Murray Washington and Josephine St. Pierre Ruffin, called the National Federation of Afro-American Women, joined the Colored Women's League.
In 1896, both groups combined to form the National Association of Colored Women. Mary Church Terrell, a college-educated woman, was named its first president. This group did many things to improve the lives of Black women, along with many other smaller groups.
The "Educated Suffragist" Idea
The NAWSA's movement pushed many African-American women aside. Through this effort, the idea of the "educated suffragist" developed. This meant that being educated was seen as an important requirement to be allowed to vote. Since many African-American women were not educated due to unfair systems, this idea meant they would be excluded from voting. This idea was common in the South but later gained support in the North too.
However, African-American women were not stopped by this opposition. They became even more determined in their fight for equality with men and other women. As a result, many women became active during this time. They worked to get African-American women involved in the suffrage movement. They focused on educating the African-American community and women about local government issues.
In 1913, the Alpha Suffrage Club was founded. Ida B. Wells was one of its co-founders and leaders. This is believed to be the first African-American women's suffrage association in the United States. The group published the Alpha Suffrage Record newspaper to share political opinions and reach neighborhoods.
One of the many Black women who focused on improving literary, artistic, and intellectual development among African Americans in the North was Bettiola Heloise Fortson. Fortson was an active member of various women's clubs in Chicago. She also founded her own women's literary studies club, the University Society of Chicago.
All the African-American women who took part in this important struggle against their exclusion from the women's suffrage movement waited seventy years or more to see the results of their hard work.
Challenges in Voting
Even after the Nineteenth Amendment was passed in 1920, African-American women, especially those in Southern states, still faced many challenges. At first, African-American women in the North could easily register to vote. Many became actively involved in politics.
For example, Annie Simms Banks was chosen as a delegate to Kentucky's Republican Party convention in March 1920. White Southerners noticed African-American women activists organizing for suffrage. After the Nineteenth Amendment passed, more African-American women registered to vote in Florida than white women.
African-American women were targeted with many methods to stop them from voting. These included having to wait in line for up to twelve hours to register. They also had to pay special taxes called head taxes and take new tests. One new test required African-American women to read and explain the Constitution before they could be considered eligible to vote.
In the South, African-American women faced the most serious obstacles to voting. These included physical harm and false charges designed to put them in jail if they tried to vote. This unfair treatment of African-American women in the South continued until the 1960s.
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See also
In Spanish: Movimiento afroamericano por el sufragio femenino para niños
