The Suffrage Movement and Race
By Florence Field
Black History Month is celebrated annually in the United States in February. Founded in 1926, its basic goal is to bring greater awareness to the public (including the black community) of the achievements and struggles of African Americans in the history of the United States.
American history taught in our schools has focused on white heroes and activists, marginalizing or even erasing the significant contributions of African Americans, Latinos, Asians and other “immigrant” groups. Looking at a picture of the making of our transcontinental railroad, we see groups of hard-working white laborers with their shovels and pickaxes. Where are the thousands of Chinese who labored alongside them? The Chinese were estimated to be about 90 percent of the transcontinental railroad workforce.
This marginalizing or erasure of unwanted racial and ethnic groups from American history is well illustrated in the founding of two significant events which occurred 100 years ago in 1920: the ratification of the 19th Amendment, which gave women the right to vote; and the founding of the League of Women Voters, whose goal was to educate and inform women about important policy issues of the day enabling them to become knowledgeable voters.
Racism was a part of our culture in those days – a stronger, more virulent and overt force in our society than today. Black American suffragists and their organizations were not welcomed into the largely white suffrage movement. Carrie Chapman Catt, the founder of the League of Women Voters, opposed admitting a body of Black clubwomen as member of a national suffrage organization for fear of offending white voters. – even though free Black American women had worked hard alongside white suffragists from before the Civil War.
When we celebrate the leaders of the suffragist movement during this their centennial year, we should add those of Black women leaders who were an integral part of the struggle – Ida B. Wells, Harriet Tubman, MaryAnn Shadd Carry, among many others – alongside the familiar names of Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton.
Outrageous to read about it now, but in 1913, when the American suffrage groups organized a march in Washington D.C., thousands of women participated, from all over the United States and from abroad as well – but Black American suffragists were asked to march in a segregated unit at the end of the parade. Many Black groups did as they were told, but tens of African American women rebelled and marched with their welcoming white state delegates (it was largely the national leadership who pushed for a segregated parade).
Black women have a double burden placed on them – gender and race. In their experience, these are connected, but for many white women, at least from a strategic position, the priorities were (are) separate. However, things have been improving. In 2018, the League of Women Voters launched a new program called Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. The title seems to say it all. And there are (were) six women candidates in the Democratic presidential primary (some of whom are people of color). We are going forward even though it may seem, at times, with small baby steps – we are all struggling together to make Democracy Work in our country.
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