# 1. The Legacy of Slavery: Standards for a New Womanhood >[!summary] Quick Summary >- Under chattel slavery, Black women were seen as property rather than human and were effectively genderless in the eyes of slaveholders. This contrasted with the 19th century Cult of True Womanhood, which saw white, middle and upper class women as motherly, gentle, and pure. >- Slave women faced a dual oppression based on both their race and sex. Not only were they expected to labor like men, they were also raped. >- The shared oppression of slave men and slave women created a more egalitarian dynamic within slave communities. >- Slave women developed their own ideas of womanhood, often relying on resilience and resistance, that were misunderstood by white women. - The study of Black slave women has been scant and suffused with racist and sexist stereotypes of **"sexual promiscuity" or "matriarchal" proclivities**. - The slave system defined Black people as **chattel**— property, like livestock or goods, rather than humans with rights. - Slave women were seen as effectively **genderless** in the eyes of slaveholders. - This was contrasted by the dominant gender ideology of the 19th century, which viewed (white) women as motherly, gentle, and pure. - This is now referred to as **The Cult of True Womanhood**, a set of restrictive social norms and expectations brought on by industrialization that confined women (particularly white, upper and middle class women) to private domesticity and motherhood. - 7 out of 8 slaves, men and women alike, were field workers, underscoring how **slave women were expected to labor just as much as slave men**. - Slave women faced a **dual oppression** based on their sex and race. - Like men, slave women were degendered and faced the threat of the whip. - Unlike men, slave women were additionally sexually abused and assessed for their reproductive capacity to replenish the domestic slave population. - "The economic arrangements of slavery contradicted the hierarchical sexual roles... Male-female relations within the slave community could not, therefore, conform to the dominant ideological pattern." - Birthing slave women were dehumanized as **"breeders," as opposed to "mothers."** - Slave children were sold away from their mothers. - Black men couldn’t be designated family head or provider since it’d challenge hierarchy. All slaves were "providers" for slaveholders. - Slaveowners rated each slave's productivity: - Children were rated quarter hands. - Women and men rated full hands. - Unless a woman was designated “breeder” or “suckler,” ranking lower than full hands. - In the eyes of slaveholders, slave women were not "too feminine" to work traditionally masculine jobs. This affected how slave women saw themselves and performed their gender. - The **Moynihan Report** (1965) argued that matriarchal, female-headed family structure, a legacy of slavery, was a root cause of poverty and social instability in Black communities, rather than structural racism. (A racist and patriarchal perspective.) - In 1976, Herbert Gutman's research challenged the Moynihan Report's matriarchy argument, evidencing "a thriving and developing family during slavery" involving wife, husband, children and other relatives. - Under the same oppressive acts and forces, slave men and slave women created a **culture of egalitarianism and community**. - Black women were equally active as men in resisting slavery: defending their families, participating in work stoppages and revolts, poisoning their masters, fleeing northward, acquiring and teaching reading and writing skills, etc. - Harriet Tubman was an exceptional woman, freeing slaves via the underground railroad and leading troops into battle. However, from another vantage point, she was not unique to women of her race. - Abolitionist white women were especially outraged by sexual assaults on Black women. - They appealed to solidarity with Black slave women via this common oppression. - However, **white women missed the complexity of situation**: Black women were women, but the slavery dynamic meant they developed traits and values, such as strength and survival, that set them apart from white women. - **_Uncle Tom’s Cabin_** (1852) was the most popular piece of abolitionist literature. - Was, ironically, pervaded with assumptions of Black and female inferiority: Black people are docile and domestic. Women are mothers and little else. - The central Black (a “quadroon”) female figure, Eliza, was depicted in a way that aligned with white femininity: gentle, morally superior, maternal. - Perhaps Stowe (the author) hoped that white women would discover themselves in Eliza. But in doing so, **the book misrepresented harsh slave life and resistance**. # 2. The Anti-Slavery Movement and the Birth of Women's Rights >[!summary] Quick Summary >- The US industrial revolution caused a profound economic and social metamorphosis. >- Lower class white women took up grueling factory work (e.g. "mill girls"). Middle and upper class white women were freed from domestic labor but were confined to domesticity. >- The prestige and economic value of homemakers diminished as factories replaced their labor, further reinforcing women's "inferiority." >- During the 1830s, white women were actively drawn into the abolitionist movement, seeing a connection between their domestic and wage “slavery” and Black chattel slavery, as well as finding a space of purpose and value. - **Frederick Douglass**, the US's leading Black abolitionist, was also the most prominent male advocate of women's emancipation of his time. - His support of women caused attacks on his masculinity. - He knew women were indispensable within the abolitionist movement. - The **US industrial revolution** caused a profound metamorphosis. - By the 1830s, many white women were being **freed from onerous but valuable domestic labor** (spinning, soap making, etc.), replaced by the factory system. However, this **reinforced the idea that women were naturally inferior** suited for domestic life. - White women in the North, the middle-class housewife and young "mill girls", frequently invoked the metaphor of slavery to articulate their oppressions, defining marriage as a form of slavery. - During the 1830s, **white women were actively drawn into the abolitionist movement**, seeing a connection between their domestic and wage “slavery” and Black chattel slavery. - Prudence Crandall controversially accepted a Black girl into her school, symbolizing the possibility of alliance between Black liberation and the nascent battle for women's rights. - Most *visible* anti-slavery white females were women middle class or bourgeoisie. As "housewives", they acquired leisure time and could become social reformers. - Only four women were invited to attend the 1833 American Anti-Slavery Society founding convention. Lucretia Mott audaciously spoke despite women stipulated to only spectate. - In response, Lucretia Mott organized the founding 1833 meeting of the **Philadelphia Female Anti-Slavery Society**. - **White women learned from the abolitionist movement** about the nature of human oppression, their own subjugation, developed political resistance skills, and found a place where they could be valued for their work. - Nat Turner's revolt, the resistance of Prudence Crandall, and the birth of William Lloyd Garrison's anti-slavery journal _Liberator_ announced the advent of an epoch of fierce social struggles. - The **Grimke Sisters**, Sarah and Angelina, most consistently linked issues of slavery to oppression of women. - Born into a South Carolina slaveholding family, they moved North as adults and **joined the abolitionist effort in 1836** and shared the evils of slavery. - Originally unconcerned with women's inequality (at least expressly), they realized they had to also defend themselves as women in the face of attacks. - A decade before white women's mass opposition, the Grimke sisters urged women to resist the "destiny" of passivity and dependence. - The **Grimke sisters had a profound consciousness of the inseparability of the fights for Black Liberation and Women's Liberation**, recognizing their dialectical character and never insisting on the importance of one struggle over the other. # 3. Race and Class in the Early Women's Rights Campaign >[!summary] Quick Summary >- The 1840 World Anti-Slavery Convention, attended by Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, occurred in London and aimed to address the global abolition of slavery. However, women abolitionists were excluded, serving as a catalyst for the US women's rights movement. >- The Seneca Falls Convention, widely regarded as the birthplace of the organized US women's movement, occurred in July, 1848. The Declaration of Sentiments articulated primarily white middle and upper class women's grievances, focusing on legal rights, especially regarding the then oppressive institution of marriage. >- Sojourner Truth and Frederick Douglass powerfully advocated for both Black liberation and women's rights, showcasing an intersectional politic. >- Many middle and upper class women myopically failed to see the systemic connection between racist slavery, wage labor exploitation, and women's rights. - The **1840 World Anti-Slavery Convention** occurred in London, aiming to address the global abolition of slavery. - Despite contributions, women abolitionists were not allowed to fully participate, serving as a catalyst for the US women's rights movement. - The event was attended by Lucretia Mott, Elizabeth Cady Stanton. - Elizabeth Cady Stanton's life **typified the middle-class woman's dilemma**: Despite their education and ambitions, marriage and motherhood precluded them from achieving their goals and aspirations. - Seneca Falls Convention (July, 1848): Widely regarded as the birthplace of the organized women's rights movement in the US. - The **Declaration of Sentiments** articulated women’s grievances, with a focus on the then **oppressive institution of marriage**—property rights, obedience to husbands, and the control of divorce. - However, the convention **failed to address the struggles of women outside the white bourgeois and rising-middle class demographics**. - Stanton argued that the convention should deliberate on women's right to vote. However, Lucretia Mott and others were opposed, concerned it was too radical and would undermine the meeting's credibility. - Frederick Douglass was the only prominent figure who fully supported Stanton's suffrage resolution, seeing the connection between women's rights and Black liberation. - **Women comprised the majority of industrial workers**, working in miserable conditions: 12-16 hour days, atrocious working conditions, and crowded living quarters. - While at least one Black man was present, **not a single Black woman was in attendance**. Nor did the convention's documents make a reference to Black women. - There existed potential for an integrated Black liberation + women's movement, particularly regarding sexism in education. However, many white women failed to meet the moment. - This was illustrated in 1848 when the daughter of Frederick Douglass was prohibited by an abolitionist woman from attending classes with with girls. - The 1848 National Convention of Colored Freedmen passed a resolution on the equality of women. - **Sojourner Truth** delivered the now famous "**Ain't I a Woman?**" speech at the 1851 women's convention in Akron, Ohio. - The speech was a response to argument that it was ridiculous for women to vote when they could not even walk over a puddle or get into a carriage without the help of a man. Truth pointed out she never had such assistance and powerfully agitated, "And ain't I a woman?" - Truth's question exposed the class-bias and racism of the new women's movement. After all, not all women were white or middle class. - Truth imparted a fighting spirit among the relatively timid white women - White abolitionists **overlooked the systemic connection (capitalist economy) between chattel slavery and wage labor exploitation**, either defending industrial capitalists or expressing no class loyalty. - Stanton and Susan B. Anthony eventually agreed with radical abolitionists that the Civil War could be hastily ended by emancipating the slaves and recruiting them into the Union Army. They proposed a resolution stating that true peace would require the "civil and political rights of all citizens of African descent and all women." - However, there was a **fear among white women's rights advocates that women might be left behind** if Black men gained political rights. - Angelina Grimke's 1863 "Address to the Soldiers of Our Second Revolution" - Proposed visionary integration of labor rights, racial justice, and women's equality. # 4. Racism in the Woman Suffrage Movement >[!summary] Quick Summary >- The Equal Rights Association (ERA) was founded in NYC in 1866 and aimed to unify Black and women's suffrage. >- At the first annual ERA meeting in 1867, the ERA decided to prioritize the 14th and 15th Amendment, with vocal support from Frederick Douglass. This caused fierce contention. >- However, white women suffragists such as Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony were opposed to prioritizing Black male suffrage if it meant delaying voting rights for women. This inspired racist attacks and alliances by white women suffragists. >- The division within the ERA grew, leading to its eventual dissolution in 1869. >[!info] American Civil War era politics > - The **Republican Party** was founded in the 1850s as an anti-slavery party. During and after the Civil War, they were the party of abolitionists, reconstruction, and Northern industrial capitalists. > - Meanwhile, the **Democratic Party** was the party of the Southern slaveholding class, states' rights, and rural agrarian economy. > - The **14th Amendment** was ratified in 1868. It **granted citizenship** to all persons born or naturalized in the US, including former slavers, and promised **equal protection under the law and due process**. > - The **15th Amendment** was ratified in 1870. It **protected voting rights** based on race, color, or previous condition of servitude. - In a racist 1865 letter to the editor, Elizabeth Cady Stanton employed the racist slur “Sambo” and argued against prioritizing Black suffrage over women’s suffrage. - The **Equal Rights Association (ERA), founded in NYC 1866**, aimed to unify Black and women’s suffrage, emphasizing a broader **universal suffrage**. - Abolitionist Henry Ward Beecher argued for prioritizing white, educated women’s suffrage. His remarks revealed deep **ideological links between racism, class-bias, and male supremacy**. - At the **first annual meeting of the ERA in 1867** and fearing male supremacy, **Stanton argued against Black male suffrage** unless women could also secure the vote simultaneously. - At the outbreak of the Civil War, Stanton urged for devoting energy to anti-slavery but later thought it was strategic mistake for women’s rights. - Stanton naïvely thought that women "earned" suffrage for their anti-slavery wartime efforts. - Tthe ERA prioritized the 14th and 15th amendments, which both explicitly included Black men but excluded all women. This (rightly) enraged white women but they also expressed racist indignation. - Post-Civil War, **the Republican Party was beholden to the dominant economic interests**— Northern bourgeoisie industrial capitalists, not civil rights. - **Black male suffrage was seen as a way to secure Republican political dominance,** not a genuine concern over civil rights. - In the eyes of those like Stanton, emancipation rendered Black people "equal" to white women. However, this ignored the racism and marginalization that was still endemic to US society. - Frederick Douglass strategically advocated for the Black male vote because he believed abolition alone wasn't enough to overcome systemic racism and achieve Black economic empowerment. - Douglass highlighted the severity of Black oppression, referring to violent, racist riots: "with us disenfranchisement means New Orleans, it means Memphis, it means New York mobs." - For Douglass, **Black male suffrage was an emergency survival mechanism** in the face of racist violence. Stanton and SB Anthony could not claim the same. - In a calculated maneuver representing the former slaveholding class, the **Democratic party defended women's suffrage at the expense of Black male suffrage**. - Racist Democrat George Francis Train, whom Stanton and SB Anthony associated their campaign with: "Woman first and Negro last". - By the final meeting of the ERA in 1869, **tensions between white suffragists and Black male suffrage reached a high**. - Sojourner Truth warned of white suffragists linking their fight for women's rights to opposition to Black male suffrage: "if you bait the suffrage-hook with a woman, you will certainly catch a black man," - Due to internal conflicts around the 14th and 15th amendment, **the ERA was disbanded in 1869** with support from Stanton and SB Anthony. Two rival suffrage organizations formed: - The National Woman Suffrage Association, led by Stanton and SB Anthony, focused on women's suffrage exclusively. - The American Woman Suffrage Association, led by Lucy Stone and Julia Ward Howe, more inclusively supported both Black male suffrage and women's voting rights. - Once the Northern capitalists had established their hegemony in the South, **the Republican party (representing capitalists' interests) participated in the systematic disenfranchisement of Black Southerners**. - "The real tragedy of the controversy surrounding Black suffrage within the Equal Rights Association is that Douglass' vision of the franchise as a quasi-panacea for Black people may have encouraged the racist rigidity of the feminists' stand on woman suffrage." # 5. The Meaning of Emancipation According to Black Women >[!summary] Quick Summary >- Emancipation, though a legal end to slavery, did not grant true freedom to Black women. They remained trapped in exploitative labor systems, were subjected to racial and sexual violence, and were often excluded from feminists movements. >- In 1890, more than a million Black girls and women labored in agriculture, domestic service, and laundry work. By as late as 1960, one-third of Black women were still trapped in household jobs, and an additional one-fifth worked non-domestic service. >- Black women were seen as legitimate prey of white men and were frequent victims of sexual assault, with SA being considered an occupational hazard of household workers. >- White women eschewed domestic work, with some, including feminists, benefitting from the exploitation of their own maids. - In 1890, after a quarter century of "freedom," a **majority of Black women labored under harsh labor conditions for meager wages**. Many were still working in the fields or could "advance" only to domestic labor for white families. - While formally "free," **Black women found themselves in oppressive social and economic conditions** not much better than under slavery. - The system of sharecropping put Black people in cycles of debt and dependency on white landowners. - According to the 1890 census, there were 2.7 million Black girls and women over the age of ten. - More than a million worked for wages: 38.7% in agriculture; 30.8% in domestic service; 15.6% in laundry work; and 2.8% in manufacturing. - The **convict lease system continued the legacy of slavery** by funneling Black people, arrested under specious pretexts, into forced labor. - Black women were seen as legitimate prey of white men and were **frequent victims of sexual assaults**. If they resisted, they were frequently thrown into prison. - Sexual abuse was considered an occupational hazard of household workers. - Black women were cooks, nursemaids, chambermaids, and all-purpose domestics. Meanwhile, **white women in the South rejected domestic work**. - **Black women were caught in a "catch-22"** situation: Black women were forced into domestic work, which in turn reinforced myths about their ineptness and promiscuity. These myths then justified the continuation of their exploitation, as **society viewed them as inherently suited for degrading domestic work**. - As Black people migrated northward, they discovered that white employers were not fundamentally different from their former owners. - One employer described her cook: "She is a good, faithful creature, trustworthy and grateful." - U.S. art and media furnished stereotypes of the Black woman as faithful enduring servant: the mammy and Aunt Jemima. - **White women workers' conditions were linked to the struggles of Black women**: Working as domestics, white women's wages were closer to Black women's than that of white men. - **White women, including feminists, have historically been hesitant to address the struggles of household workers**, often benefitting themselves from the exploitation of their own maids. - The philosopher Hegel pointed out that the master-servant (or mistress-maid) relationship required the constant annihilation of the servant's consciousness. - By 1940, on the eve of WWII, **scarcely one-in-ten Black women workers began to escape the old grip of slavery**. - 59.5% of employed Black women were domestic workers, with another 10.4% in non-domestic service jobs, and approximately 16% still worked in agriculture. - Entering WWII changed things only slightly: over 400,000 Black women left domestic service to work in industries supporting the ware effort. - **By 1960, one-third of Black women were still trapped in household jobs,** and an additional one-fifth were non-domestic service workers. - In _The Servant in the House_, W.E.B. DuBois argued that as long as Black people aggregated in domestic service, emancipation would remain a mere abstraction. # 6. Education and Liberation: Black Women's Perspective >[!summary] Quick Summary >- In post-Civil War America, land, suffrage, and _especially education_ were top priorities for newly freed slaves. >- Frederick Douglass estimated that the illiteracy rate among newly freed slaves was 95%. >- Dominant racist logic believed that Black people were intellectually inferior and had no desire nor capacity to learn. >- Black individuals such as Prince Hall, Lucy Terry Prince, and Katy Ferguson fought for Black education. >- In a show of sisterly solidarity, many white women, including Prudence Crandall, Margaret Douglass, and Myrtilla Miner, joined the cause for Black education. - After emancipation, freed Black people had **concrete desires: land, suffrage, and education**. - Black people had a **deep-seated urge to acquire knowledge**. They knew it'd empower them to rise above slavery and fight their oppression. - On the first anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation, Black people of Memphis assembled and decided that **education was their first priority**. - The dominant racist logic believed that **Black people were intellectually inferior** and so did not desire nor have the capacity to learn. - However, as early as 1787, Black people petitioned the state of Massachusetts for the right to attend Boston's free schools. And after it was rejected, the leader, **Prince Hall, established a school** for Black and non-Black students in his own home. - In 1793, a former slave, **Lucy Terry Prince, demanded the right to education**. Two years later, she successfully defended a land claim before the Supreme Court. - In 1793, an ex-slave woman established **Katy Ferguson's School for the Poor** in NYC. - White women such as **Prudence Crandall, Margaret Douglass, and Myrtilla Miner**, expressed solidarity with Black women by advocating for Black education. - **Anti-literacy restrictions were more restrictive in slave states**. After the Nat Turner Revolt in 1831, legislation prohibiting education of slaves was strengthened throughout the South. - "...teaching salves to read and write tends to dissatisfaction in their minds, and to produce insurrection and rebellion." - **Every Southern state, except for Maryland and Kentucky, prohibited the education of slaves.** - Slaveholders physically punished slaves' irrepressible desire to learn. - Northern white women went south during Reconstruction to assist their Black sisters in education. Half of the volunteer teachers organized by the Freedman's Bureau were women. - According to DuBois, the **illiteracy rate was 95%**. - By the time of the Hayes Betrayal, accomplishments in education were powerful proof of progress. - President Hayes withdrew federal troops from the South as part of the Compromise of 1877, effectively ending Reconstruction. - Fisk University, Hampton Institute, and several other Black colleges and universities had been established in the South. - Some 247,333 pupils were attend 4,329 schools. - "Aided by their white sister allies, Black women played an indispensable role in creating this new fortress. The history of women’s struggle for education in the United States reached a true peak when Black and white women together led the post-Civil War battle against illiteracy in the South. Their unity and solidarity preserved and confirmed one of our history’s most fruitful promises." # 7. Woman Suffrage at the Turn of the Century: The Rising Influence of Racism >[!summary] Quick Summary > - Susan B. Anthony pushed aside Frederick Douglass in order to recruit white Southern women into the women's suffrage movement, fearing they might withdraw if Black people were associated with the movement. - Anthony capitulated to racism "on the ground of expediency" until she resigned from the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) in 1900. - Racism was on the rise at the turn of the 19th century. By 1894, Black disenfranchisement, segregation, and lynch laws were well established. The era demanded principled anti-racist protest, not Anthony and her colleagues' "expediency" argument. - Black activist Ida B. Wells' was critical of Anthony's stance. Wells had suffered racist mob violence and was personal friends with victims of lynching, inspiring her to investigate the pattern of mob murders in the South. - NAWSA was "neutral" with respect to the "color question" which encouraged racist ideas within the suffrage campaign. - Henry Blackwell, an abolition and universal suffrage activist, suggested the "negro problem" could be solved by attaching a literacy qualification to the vote. The logic was that it would penalize primarily working class and Black people, while educated white women would be safe. - Blackwell's program was "woman first, the negro last." - Blackwell and his wife, Lucy Stone, assisted Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Anthony during their 1867 Kansas campaign. - In 1893, under the leadership of Anthony, NAWSA passed a racist and class-biased argument in favor of a literacy test attached to voting. - The last decade of the 19th century was a critical moment in the development of modern racism. - In 1893, the Supreme Court reversed the Civil Rights Act of 1875. And three years later, _Plessy v. Ferguson_ affirmed the segregationist "separate but equal" doctrine. - Imperialist expansion into the Philippines, Hawaii, Cuba, and Puerto Rico occurred. - Lottie Jackson appealed to NAWSA regarding the railroads' segregationist policies. However, NAWSA denied the resolution with Anthony claiming, "We women are a helpless disfranchised class. Our hands are tied." - During the initial years of the 20th century, an ideological marriage occurred between racism and sexism. People of color were portrayed as incompetent barbarians while white women were depicted as mother-figures for "the race." - At a 1903 NAWSA convention, Belle Kearney from Mississippi referred to the Southern Black population as "4,500,000 ex-slaves, illiterate and semi-barbarous" and insisted that empowering Black people would result in a race war. - Kearney called for literacy and property qualifications, revealing her anti-working-class and racist stance. - The literacy "statistical argument" (that there were more educated white woman) had become a regular point brought before NAWSA, showing how endemic this classist and racist logic had become. - In the end, the women's right movement, particularly within NAWSA, betrayed a principled stance against working class solidarity and, especially, racism in the name of "expediency." Ironically, this strategic compromise ultimately backfired, prioritizing racial hierarchies at the expense of women. # 8. Black Women and the Club Movement >[!summary] Quick Summary > - Women's clubs in the US began in the late 19th century as a **response to the exclusion from male-dominated spaces**, such as the New York Press Club in 1868. Clubs, like Sorosis and the New England Women's Club, were created to provide middle- and upper- class white women with opportunities for social and civic engagement. - Founded in 1890, the **General Federation of Women's Clubs** (GFWC) **actively excluded Black women**. - In just two years, the GFWC had acquired 190 affiliates and over 20,000 members. - The **Women's Era Club** was one of the first Black women's clubs in the US, founded in Boston in 1893 by **Josephine St. Pierre Ruffin**, a prominent Black activist. - **Ruffin was denied entrance into the GFWC** because she insisted on representing Black women. This galvanized her and other Black women. - Shortly after denial, a sensationalist article was published warning of racially integrated club life. In it, a white woman's daughter married a Black woman's son and, to the woman's horror, she bore a Black baby. - Black women collectively organized since the pre-Civil War era. Black women were motivated by the **urgent needs of their people's survival**. Unlike white women, who were motivated more so by charity, moral principle, or even leisure. - In 1890, one million Black women made up the four million total women in the labor force. - **Racism linked Black women's consciousness more intimately with their working-class sisters** than sexism did for white women of the middle class. - **Ida B. Wells** was born into a family of ex-slaves. Wells’ parents died from yellow fever, and teenage Wells had to take care of her five siblings. At 22, Wells legally challenged racial discrimination as a railroad traveler. At 32, Wells published her own newspaper in Memphis, Tennessee that advocated against lynching. - Wells traveled the US giving powerful speeches that drew large crowds. - Wells initiated and served as president of the first Black women’s club in Chicago. - **Victoria Matthews** and **Maritcha Lyons** organized an immense meeting in October, 1892. - After an inspiring rally where Wells spoke, the woman who organized it creating permanent organizations in Brooklyn and New York called the **Women’s Loyal Union**. - These were the first clubs led exclusively by Black women. - The **First National Conference of Colored Women** convened in Boston in 1895 where they decided on a strategy of resistance to the propagandistic assaults on Black women and the continued reign of lynch law. - While emphatically supporting Black Liberation, Black women’s club movement **leaders, coming from privileged backgrounds, were sometimes elitist in their attitudes**. - Fannie Barrier Williams envisioned clubwomen as “the new intelligence, the enlightened conscience” of the race. And stated, “…the club is the effort of the few competent in behalf of the many incompetent.” - Competing clubs, such as the National Federation of Afro-American Women, led by Margaret Murray Washington, and the National League of Colored Women, led by Mary Church Terrell, merged into the **National Association of Colored Women’s Clubs (NACW)**. - **Mary Church Terrell** was the daughter of a slave who came into generational wealth, because of this, she was able to become one of the most highly educated Black women in America. - Terrell was _the_ driving force that molded the Black women’s club movement into a powerful political group. - Mary Church Terrell was elected **founding president of the NACW**. - Unfortunately, a decades-long **feud between Wells and Terrell** emerged over difference in their leadership style and priorities. - Wells was known for her militant activism, favoring direct action and agitation. - Terrell was more diplomatically inclined, focusing on eloquent speeches and written appeals. - Wells believed that Terrell excluded her from the 1899 NACW convention over Terrell’s fears about her own re-election as president, and minimized Wells’ struggle against lynch. # 9. Working Women, Black Women and the History of the Suffrage Movement >[!summary] Quick Summary >- The post-Civil War labor movement was a rapidly expanding economic force. However, it was largely patriarchal and excluded women. >- In 1870, 70% of women workers were domestics and 25% of all non-farm workers were female. >- Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton published the newspaper _Revolution_ from 1868 to 1870. >- Anthony, Stanton, and their white suffrage colleagues prioritized suffrage at the expense of issues of race and class, thereby alienating working-class women who were more concerned with their more immediate economic concerns. >- Working women didn't support suffrage en masse until the early 20th century, when their labor struggles highlighted the need for the political power of the vote. >- Ida B. Wells, Mary Church Terrell, Mary McCleod Bethune, Margaret Murray Washington, and other Black women were advocates for women's suffrage. They saw the link between voting and their intersectional oppression. - The post-Civil War labor movement was a rapidly expanding economic force. - In 1870, while **70% of women workers were domestics, 25% of all non-farm workers were female**, with especially heavy representation in the garment industry. - The **labor movement was extremely patriarchal**, largely excluding women. - The National Labor Union (NLU) was founded in 1866. - When the NLU reconvened in 1868, the presence of several women, including Stanton and Anthony, compelled them to take women's rights more seriously. - **Black workers formed the National Colored Labor Union** (NCLU) due to exclusionary practices in the NLU. - The NCLU was more explicitly inclusive of women, electing a woman, Mary S. Carey, to its executive committee. - Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton supported working women through their **newspaper _Revolution_** from 1868 to 1870. However, it tended to focus on suffrage. - The paper demanded the eight-hour work day and advocated "equal pay for equal work." - **Anthony, Stanton, and colleagues did prioritized suffrage over issues of race and class,** and thereby alienating working-class women who were more concerned with their more immediate economic concerns. - To Anthony, women’s issues were the primary concern, even at the expense of race and class issues. - “(T)he most odious oligarchy ever established on the face of the globe” was the rule of men over women. - While Anthony was correct that working-class men’s sexism needed to be challenged, she missed that **men and women were linked by their real enemy of labor exploitation**. - Anthony was excluded from the 1869 NLU convention because she urged women printers to work as scabs. - Stanton supported Anthony, blaming working-class men as fundamentally opposed to women’s rights. - **Working women did not support suffrage en masse until the early 20th century.** - Labor strikes in the garment industry helped integrate suffrage into working women's struggles like the 1909 "**Uprising of the 20,000**". - The **1911 Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire** also highlighted the need for workplace reform, also spurring the demand for voting rights. - Leonora O'Reilly was a white woman labor organizer and leader with the Women's Trade Union League (WTUL). She played a key role in bridging the gap between the labor movement and the women's suffrage movement. - In the first decade of the 20th century, **two million Black women made up the labor force** of a total of eight million women laborers. - As women who suffered the combined disabilities of sex, class, and race, they possessed a powerful argument for the right to vote. - **Ida B. Wells, Mary Church Terrell, and Mary McCleod Bethune** were among the most well-known Black suffragists. - **Margaret Murray Washington**, a leading figure of the National Association of Colored Women (NACW) club, advocated for Black women's right to vote, understanding it's importance in the fight for racial justice. - **W.E.B. Dubois** emerged as the leading male advocate of woman suffrage in the 20th century. - Unlike many white suffragists, most **Black women did not argue that women's innate morality or domesticity** gave them a special claim to the vote. - Despite the exclusion of Black women from the suffrage movement, when it came time to vote, **Southern states still largely opposed the 19th Amendment**. - After the 19th Amendment granted women the right to vote, **Black women faced violent voter suppression**. - The mainstream suffrage movement was largely silent on Southern states' resistance to Black women's right to vote. - "The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex." # 10. Communist Women - Karl Marx and Frederick Engels publish _The Communist Manifesto_ in 1848. - Joseph Weydemeyer established **the Proletarian League in 1852, the US's first Marxist organization.** - No women were associated with the Proletarian League. - The **Socialist party was founded in 1900** and uniquely advocated for woman suffrage for many years. - Socialist women like Pauline Newman and Rose Schneiderman forged a a working-class suffrage movement. - Early Socialists defined "proletarians" narrowly as urban factory workers, this **excluded the majority of Black people** who were primarily agricultural workers. - **The Communist Party was founded in 1919** and many former Socialist party women were among its earliest participants: "Mother" Ella Reeve Bloor, Anita Whitney, Margaret Prevey, Kate Sadler Greenhalgh, Rose Pastor Stokes, and Jeannete Pearl. - The Communist Party was initially neglectful of Black people during the 1920s. However, over the next decade, they came to develop a serious theory of, and struggle for, Black Liberation. - **The International Workers of the World (IWW) labor union was founded in 1905**. The IWW addressed racial oppression of Black workers, with Lucy Parsons and "Mother" Mary Jones as prominent leaders. - Their ultimate goal was socialism by organizing the wage-earning class. - The **IWW embraced a policy of forthright struggle against racism**. - Members are known as the "Wobblies." - **Eugene Debs** argued that Black people required no overall defense of their rights to be free and equal. "we have nothing special to offer the Negro." #### Lucy Parsons - **Born in 1853, Lucy Parsons was a prominent Black anarchist, and later, a Communist.** - She was a key figure in the labor movement, organizing for the IWW and Socialist Labor party, and fighting for worker's rights across race and gender. - She's often reduced to the activism she did for her husband, Albert Parsons, who was executed after the 1886 Haymarket Affair. - Parsons **believed that class exploitation was the root of all oppression**, downplaying racism and sexism as secondary to class struggle. #### Ella Reeve Bloor - **Born in 1862, Ella Reeve Bloor (or, "Moother" Bloor), was a white woman labor organizer, orator, and ally to Black Liberation**. - Bloor was a Socialist party leader, and later joined the Communist party. - Bloor hitchhiked across the country to support labor actions for miners, textile workers, and sharecroppers. - As a Communist, **Mother Bloor concluded that the working class movement must embrace anti-racism** to maintain it's revolutionary force. #### Anita Whitney - Born in 1867 into a wealthy family, **Anita Whitney was a white woman and leading activist for women's rights, labor, and racial equality.** - Whitney began her activism in the women's suffrage movement, serving as **president of the Equal Suffrage League in California**, where she helped win the vote for women in 1911. - Whitney joined the Socialist party in 1914 and joined the Communist Party in 1919. - Whitney was **one of the few white activists to be an outspoken advocate against lynching**, despite the prevailing racist propaganda justifying it. #### Elizabeth Gurley Flynn - Born in 1890, **Elizabeth Gurley Flynn was a white labor leader, Socialist, and later Communist.** - Called the "Rebel Girl," Flynn was known for her speeches and commitment to workers' rights at a young age. - Flynn had a keen awareness of Black oppression, recognizing the **"triple jeopardy" faced by Black women**— race, class, and gender. - Flynn was **arrested during the McCarthy era** for her communist advocacy. She bonded closely with Black women inmates and deepened her commitment to racial justice. #### Claudia Jones - Born in 1915, **Claudia Jones became a prominent Black Communist leader, feminists, and journalist** known for her intersectional analysis. - Jones called out progressives for failing to acknowledge Black domestic workers, particularly white women for perpetuating the madam-maid relationship. - Jones joined the Communist Party USA in the 1930s and was a leader in its Women's Commission - Jones **believed socialism held the only promise of liberation for Black people.** - Jones was **imprisoned under the McCarthy era Smith Act** for her Communist activities, and was deported to the UK after her release. # 11. Rape, Racism, and the Myth of the Black Rapist - Rape is symptom of capitalism - Rape laws originally framed for protection of women of capitalist - Rape charges indiscriminately go after black men - Myth of black male rapist conjured to justify black oppression and terrorism - Myth of hyper sexual black male implies a promiscuous and immoral black woman - Black women missing from anti-rape movement likely due to black hypersexuality myth making black women weary. Additionally black women are often victims of system — unsympathetic justice system and police sexual assault - history of white, rich men believing they have incontestable access to black womens bodies. Legacy of slavery where rape, along with whip, was how they asserted power - Vietnam war was further evidence of how racism can lead to rape. Us soldiers taught they were fighting inferior race and that rape was necessary duty. Instructed to “search” women with their penises. - Susan Brownmiller’s book Against Our Will: Men, Women and Rape - said rape was black men’s few access to power in racist socuety - implied Emmett till deserved murder - unsubstantiated claim that 90% of rapes committed by black men - lynching of black people became commonplace after they lost their “value” as slaves - legacy of rape of Black women continued - justification for lynching was as counterinsurgency to Black uprising - as history unfolded, became clear this wouldn't happen. Black male rapist became next justification. - Male supremacy justified men defending white women's honor via lynching