How can we get to this end, suffrage? I think that many white suffragists did not appreciate the importance of the vote for Black women. Given the disenfranchisement of southern Black men — through mechanisms like literacy tests, grandfather clauses and poll taxes — they may have considered Black women unlikely voters and thus, expendable.
Black women, however, understood that they needed the vote even more than most white women, in order to advance their goals of racial justice. Black women joined mixed race groups and formed their own suffrage associations, and leaders like Mary Church Terrell refused to march at the back of the parade when she and other Black suffragists joined white allies in the mainstream. Ten suffragists were arrested on August 28, , as they picketed the White House.
Image credit: Stanford Libraries Special Collections. We can see it as a great victory, the culmination of decades and decades of effort by women who spoke, wrote and lobbied for the suffrage; who tried to vote, as Susan B.
Anthony did in We can see the 19th Amendment as a benchmark in the long movement for full citizenship for women, a major political hurdle passed. We can also see it as a limited victory, given the continued disenfranchisement of southern Black and Native American women at the time.
They created an international peace movement. Black women campaigned against lynching and some white women, even in the South, supported them. I have written about anti-rape efforts in the suffrage era, long before an organized anti-violence movement emerged.
Once enfranchised, women aspired to jury service, office holding and military service. That said, the vote did make a difference. Suffrage had the potential to enable political change by creating a group of new women voters.
Understand, though, that it took a full generation between the ratification of the suffrage amendment and the first time when women began to vote in the same proportion as men. While it is important to create these historical benchmarks and to celebrate these anniversaries, we always have to think about what we have gained, at what costs, for whom, and what unfinished agenda remains. What strengths of the movement can we adopt? What flaws do we want to avoid? We need to keep our vision broad.
What do the rights we seek at any given moment mean for people who are different from us? How can we support the rights that others seek and find the overlapping links between them? House of Representatives. Although D. Felony disenfranchisement laws around the U. These laws disproportionately disenfranchise Black and Latinx people.
Partisan gerrymandering is also effectively disenfranchising millions of U. Finally, the coronavirus crisis has created new obstacles to safe and equitable access to voting for many voters in addition to existing barriers. Lawmakers must enact robust policies to combat voter suppression to ensure that all eligible Americans can vote. Partisan gerrymandering, which devalues votes, must also come to an end. In addition, it is essential that any and all voting reforms aim to make voting more convenient, safer , and more accessible for every eligible voter.
Bills such as the For the People Act H. Furthermore, Congress should grant Washington, D. Finally, no one should have to choose between their paycheck and exercising their civic voice. All voters—especially working women with caregiving responsibilities—should have access to flexible and expanded paid time off for voting.
All of these pro-voter reforms will not only benefit traditionally suppressed voters, such as voters of color and disabled voters, but they will also widely benefit women voters by helping to ensure their fair participation. In response to the challenges posed by the coronavirus pandemic , lawmakers and leaders at all levels must act quickly to implement robust vote-by-mail systems and ensure access to safe in-person voting options for people who prefer or need them.
Access to the vote is a powerful tool to drive change and transform communities. Yet, despite their exclusion from the promise of the 19th Amendment, women of color have emerged as a growing electoral powerhouse.
While subsequent legislation has since enfranchised more women of color—and, today, women of color collectively have come to represent a potential powerhouse electorate—systemic discrimination still bars some women of color from the polls. The promise of suffrage—and with it, the promise of American democracy and the promise of true equality—has yet to be fully realized.
Robin Bleiweis , Shilpa Phadke. Colin Seeberger Director, Media Relations. Peter Gordon Director, Government Affairs. The face of the American electorate changed dramatically after the ratification of the 19th Amendment in Having worked collectively to win the vote, more women than ever were now empowered to pursue a broad range of political interests as voters.
Women leaders prepared legislative agendas that they believed newly enfranchised women would help to pass. Some women began running for and winning political office.
American women were not united in these undertakings. Race, class, and political beliefs often divided women just as they had before the 19th Amendment. After winning the 19th Amendment, national organizations that had worked to enfranchise women transitioned to educating women voters and lobbying for legislation to protect women and their families.
This petition from the International Uplift League—signed by female and male representatives—urged Federal action against lynching.
Especially critical to African American women and men, passage of the Dyer Anti-Lynching bill looked promising but was ultimately blocked by a filibuster in Congress.
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