African American women in the struggle for the vote, 1850-1920 / Rosalyn Terborg-Penn.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Terborg-Penn, Rosalyn, author.

Contributor:

Indiana University. Press, publisher.

Joanna Banks Collection of African American Books (University of Pennsylvania)

Series:

Blacks in the diaspora

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Women--Suffrage--United States--History.

Women.

Women--Suffrage.

African American women social reformers.

History.

Suffragists.

African American women.

Suffrage.

United States.

African American women--Suffrage--History.

Suffragists--United States--History.

African American women social reformers--History.

Penn Provenance:

Banks, Joanna (donor) (Banks Collection copy)

Physical Description:

xii, 192 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

Bloomington : Indiana University Press, ©1998.

Summary:

This study of African American women's roles in the suffrage movement breaks new ground. Rosalyn Terborg-Penn draws from many original documents to take a comprehensive look at the African American women who sought the right to vote. She discovers numerous Black suffragists previously unknown. Analyzing the women's own stories, she examines why they joined the woman suffrage movement in the United States and how they participated in it - with white women, Black men, as members of African American women's organizations, or simultaneously in all three. Terborg-Penn further discusses their various levels of interaction and types of feminist philosophy. Noting that not all African American woman suffragists were from elite circles, Terborg-Penn finds representation from working-class and professional women as well. They came from all parts of the nation. Some employed radical, others conservative means to gain the right to vote. Black women, however, were unified in working to use the ballot to improve not only their own status, but the lives of Black people in their communities. Drawing from innumerable sources, Terborg-Penn argues that sexism and racism prevented African American women from voting and from full participation in the national suffrage movement. Following the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment, state governments in the South, enacted policies which disfranchised African American women, with many white suffragists closing their eyes to the discriminatory acts. Despite efforts to keep Black women politically powerless, Terborg-Penn contends that the Black suffrage was a source of empowerment. Every political and racial effort to keep African American women disfranchised met with their active resistance until Black women achieved full citizenship.

Contents:

Revisiting the question of race in the woman suffrage movement

African American women in the first generation of woman suffragists : 1850-1869

African American woman suffragists finding their own voices : 1870s and 1880s

Suffrage strategies and ideas : African American women leaders respond during "the nadir"

Mobilizing to win the vote : African American women's organizations

Anti-black woman suffrage tactics and African American women's responses

African American women as voters and candidates

The nineteenth amendment and its meaning for African American women.

Notes:

"©1998 by Rosalyn Terborg-Penn"--verso of title page.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 181-183) and index.

Local Notes:

Kislak Center Banks Collection copy presented to the Penn Libraries in 2018 by Joanna Banks.

ISBN:

0253333784

025321176X

OCLC:

37693895