Suffrage centennial highlights often-overlooked racial divide
HARTFORD, Conn. — As the U.S. marks the 100th anniversary of women’s suffrage, many event organizers, mindful that the 19th Amendment originally benefited mostly white women, have been careful to present it as a commemoration, not a celebration.
The amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified Aug. 18, 1920, but many women of color were prevented from casting ballots for decades afterward because of poll taxes, literacy tests, overt racism, intimidation and laws that prevented the grandchildren of slaves from voting.
Much of that didn’t change until the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
From exhibits inside the Arizona Capitol Museum to a gathering on the North Carolina Statehouse lawn, many commemorations, including those that moved online because of the pandemic, have highlighted a more nuanced history of the American women’s suffrage movement alongside the traditional tributes to well-known suffragists such as Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton.
The 100th anniversary has arrived during a year of nationwide protests against racial inequality that have forced the United States to once again reckon with its uncomfortable history.
“We have really been wanting to make sure we talk about the complicated history of these issues in our country,” said Arizona Assistant Secretary of State Allie Bones, whose office came up with a program after working with about 60 community groups across the state, many of which were “very focused on not calling it a celebration, but … a commemoration.”
While their names aren’t as well-known as the white suffragists, Black women played both prominent and smaller roles in the movement.
Sojourner Truth, an emancipated slave who died in 1883, is considered one of the first known Black suffragists. She traveled throughout the U.S. speaking at women’s rights conventions and suffrage events.
The 100th anniversary marks an opportunity to “honestly examine” the relationship between white and Black women in the women’s rights movement, said Johnnetta Betsch Cole, a former college president who’s the national chair of the National Council of Negro Women.
“There is more acknowledgment of the complexities of the strains, of the racism in the suffrage movement than ever, ever before,” she said. “Unfortunately, one can be victimized in one form of oppression and then turn around and victimize others on another basis.”