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Black Women Suffragists | Trailblazers
Accomplishments
- Ida B. Wells published “Lynch Law of America” in 1900. In it Wells-Barnett argued that without representation in government, this lawlessness would continue to reign.
- Ida B. Wells-Barnett founded the Alpha Suffrage Club of Chicago To help obtain voting rights for black women
- The National Association of Colored Women’s Clubs (NACW), formed in 1896 to merge a number of black women’s social clubs together, also included suffrage within its platform.
- Sojourner Truth became an outspoken advocate for abolition, temperance, and civil and women’s rights.
- Sojourner Truth ‘s Civil War work earned her an invitation to meet President Abraham Lincoln in 1864.
“Black women suffragists put themselves in the line of fire over and over again but have been written out of the history books”
Black Women Suffragists
As the women’s suffrage movement gained popularity through the nineteenth century, African-American women were increasingly marginalized African-American women dealt not only with the sexism of being withheld the vote but also the racism of white suffragists. When the 15th Amendment passed, white suffragists began pushing harder for voting rights for white women, to the exclusion of black, Native American, and Asian women. The women’s suffrage movement began with women such as Harriet Tubman and Sojourner Truth, and it progressed to women like Ida B. Wells, Mary Church Terrell, Ella Baker, Rosa Parks, Angela Davis, and many others. All of these women played very important roles, such as contributing to the growing progress and effort to end African-American women’s disenfranchisement. These women were discriminated against, abused, and raped by white southerners and northerners, yet they remained strong and persistent, and that strength has been passed down from generation to generation. The struggle for the vote did not end with the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment. In some Southern states, African-American women were unable to freely exercise their right to vote up until the 1960s. However, these difficulties did not deter African-American women in their effort to secure the vote.
About 29 Days of Little Known Facts About (Black) American History
29 Days of Little Known Facts About (Black) American History is an annual blog campaign curated by 540WMain that has a mission to promote and share little known facts about Black Americans throughout history every day throughout the month of February. Now in it 3rd year the campaign highlights the life and work of past and present day Black American that are overlooked or underrepresented in our conversations about American history.
540WMain will celebrate its 4 year anniversary with a party and extravaganza on Saturday June 20, 2020. In just four years the organization has become a pillar in the Susan B. Anthony neighborhood and a convener and curator of important and vital community conversations, classes, and programs. Your financial support helps us scale up this work in 2020 and beyond with a year long fundraising goal of $40,000
540WMain, Inc. 