Sarah Winnemucca

"I want homes for my people but no one will help us. 

 They will not touch my fingers for fear of getting soiled. 

That’s the Christianity of white people."

Sarah Winnemucca, 1844-1891

As you read...

During the time of white women suffragists and works proclaiming that white women were treated unfairly, Sarah Winnemucca was actively trying to bring awareness to the capture, slaughter and mass displacement of the Paiutes, her own people.  She is considered the first Native activist of any gender and traveled and spoke to representatives of the American government to point out the injustice she experienced.  

Sarah Winnemucca was active during the time of suffragists, but we do not hear her name in the history books of activists and women working for equality.   As you learn about her biography and significant contributions, consider why we are not discussing her in greater detail in mainstream feminist history courses. 

Biographical Details: 

Sarah Winnemucca was born around 1844, although the exact date is unknown.   She remembers clearly the first time that whites came to her land "like a lion, yes, roaring like a lion and they've continued so ever since" (Winnemucca, 1883).

In "Life Among the Piutes: Their Wrongs and Claims", Winnemucca recounts in great clarity and powerful analogies her lifetime of experience being driven from her land located in what is now Nevada by white colonists that were very confusing to her family and tribe.  Sometimes the white people were kind and gave gifts, and other times they would shoot tribe members and burn all of their possessions (Winnemucca, 1883).

In 1866, Winnemucca, who learned to read and write English, began working as a translator between Piute people and the US Military.  She advocated for better living conditions for her tribe members living in "protection" on a military camp, educational opportunities that were denied to Native Americans and educated others about the treatment of her people.

So few Native American voices were heard during this time of conflict, and few are documented today because the were not given the choice to record their story.  Winnemucca is a unique, powerful voice because she wrote her own autobiographical text: the first Native American woman to do so, and the first Native American of any gender to write in English in order to reach the waves of colonists in an effort to have their voices heard.

While white feminists were lobbying for the right to vote, Winnemucca was lobbying for the right of her people to live.  In 1879 she spoke to the San Francisco State Legislator about the conditions of Native Americans, and even traveled to Washington DC to address the issue with the Secretary of the Interior to protest the fact that the Piutes were removed from their land and forcibly placed on a reservation.

In 1883, Winnemucca published her autobiography.   She clearly and articulately accounted for the treatment of her people over the course of thirty years, and the drastically changing conditions they were forced to live under.


Discussion Questions: 

• 1) Why do you think Sarah Winnemucca has been ignored in major history books?
• 2) How do the colonial stereotypes of Indigenous women influence how we look at Indigenous contributions to feminism? 
• 3) What other traditionally accepted cultural norms can you think of that are founded on the colonization and eradication of Indigenous peoples? (Federal and national holidays, sports terminology, cultural appropriation of clothing and spiritual practices?)  How can we better educate ourselves to be aware and culturally sensitive to the real experiences of Indigenous peoples? 

References:

Hopkins, Sarah Winnemucca. (1883). Life Among the Piutes: Their Wrongs and Claims. 

Canfield, Gae.  (1983).  Sarah Winnemucca of the Northern Paiutes.

Native American Women and Feminist Narratives

While Stanton, Cady, and Shaw were lobbying to secure suffrage for white women, women of color were lobbying to have the right to live without fear of being attacked, killed, or accused of any number of "crimes".   They were lobbying for the right to not have their sons and husbands murdered or taken at a whim, and fighting against Jim Crow laws and forcible removal to reservations.

There is a very important question that American Feminism has not asked until recently: 

Where did Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Matilda Josylen Gage, and Lucretia Mott get their ideas about women's equality and equal access to Congress?   

The answer?  They formed relationships with Native American women, read documents and listened to speeches that Native American women were giving about the treatment of their families, tribes and children, and borrowed the ideas to form their own ideologue of what an American society should look like.

In Sarah Winnemucca's text,  Life Among the Piutes, she detailed how women functioned in decision making in Piute society: "The women know as much as the men do, and their advice is often asked.  We have a republic as well as you.  The council-tent is our Congress and anybody can speak who has anything to say, women and all" (Suzack, 111)  In considering why Winnemucca's autobiography was published in the first place, one must look to the editor: white feminist Mary Peabody Mann.   Mann raised funds to publish the autobiography, created a speaking schedule for Winnemucca and "ensured prominent politicians received a copy" (Suzack, 111).   While Mann wass publicly quoted as an advocate for Native American rights during this time, she also had an ulterior motive: she wanted these politicians to hear how the women in Piute society were treated as equals.   Sumac explains, "unless the politics of women of color were accommodated to those of first wave feminists, they were rarely acknowledged" (Suzack, 111).   It is significant and valuable that Winnemucca's work was published; but it is important to note that publishing her work was useful to the white feminist movement.   If her text had not included information about the equality of women in Piute society, one wonders if she would have had such success at publication? 

The issue is, these white women were championing their cause based on equality, but they were only championing for white women to receive the vote.   They were not incorporating these women and their societies into the movement as inclusive.   They were taking the things they liked from Native American culture, while completely ignoring the fact that joining in the right to vote in our society was joining in the right to oppress Indigenous people from their own land.

Photo Credit: R.I.S.E.

According to Sally Roesch Wagner, author of Sisters in Spirit: Haudenosanee (Iroquois) Influence on Early American Feminists, "the message of omissions is an educational foundation of racism" (Wagner, 2010).  In a combination of the messages we include and the messages we do not, we teach our children "In 1492 Columbus sailed the Ocean Blue", then we reference scalping during the wars, gloss over the Trail of Tears, and glorify all other aspects of white colonialism.  By doing so, we educate all schoolchildren that the Native American experience of our history does not matter.  Through omitting factual information and including whitewashed information, we have created generations that have no understanding of the real experiences of Native American people. Wagner states, "an hour of unease in a classroom or museum and we can move on" (2010).

We have done the same thing in feminist history.   We have established the first, second, and third wave, through a white woman's experience and white woman's narrative even though women of color have been working all this time for equality as well.  I have learned there is an important distinction here: feminism is not a white woman's movement. It is a movement of all women, everywhere, working to overcome oppression.  But feminism is predominantly a white woman's story in America.  By considering when the Native woman's relationship with oppression began at the onset of colonization, we can "see that there are multiple feminist histories emerging from multiple communities of color which intersect at points and diverge in others" (Smith, 2011).

We have included only dominant, white narratives without considering what the story looks like from a Native American perspective.   By forgetting to ask about the women not represented at the table, we have created a crystalline version of feminist history; never stopping to examine the individual facets and color that has been removed from the texts.  Sarah Winnemucca and the friendly Haudenosanee women are referenced only in context of how their structure can serve the white woman's cause for involvement in the political arena.

Discussion Questions: 

Can you think of other voices that have been silenced that have not been mentioned in this blog?
What steps must be taken to develop allied relationships in order to move forward from here? 


Cuzack, Cheryl. (2010). Indigenous Women and Feminism: Politics, Activism and Culture. UBC Press. Kindle Edition.

Smith, Andrea.  (2011) "Indigenous Feminism Without Apology".  Unsettling America. Web.

Wagner, Sally Roesch.  (2010).  Sister in Spirit: Haudenosanee (Iroquois) Influence on Early American Feminists.  Kindle Edition.

Mary Church Terrell

Mary Church Terrell (1863 – 1954) 

As you read…

Mary Church Terrell had a sensitivity to racism and an awareness of its ‘social construction’ in that she was light skinned (Parker, 2010).  She was an activist against lynching and occasionally worked with Ida Wells Barnett on the subject.  Terrell was a close personal friend of Susan B. Anthony and worked with her professionally throughout her life, until Anthony died.

Biography

Mary Church Terrell was one of the first black women to become educated, graduating from Oberlin College.  Terrell believed strongly in higher education for women as a way to improve conditions for her race.  Her parents were self-employed, her mother running a hair salon and her father various real estate holdings and a saloon.  Terrell spoke German and French in addition to English.  While overseas a white German man proposed to her but Terrell realized she was dedicated to equal rights.  She believed it was her duty to return home and improve conditions.   Terrell recognized that she would be “happier trying to promote the welfare of [her] race,” than living overseas free from racism.    After an 1892 murder (lynching) of a black male friend, Terrell was moved to work on an anti-lynching campaign.  In 1904 she published “Lynching from a Negro’s Point of View.”  Terrell argued that “black women were the victims of rape…and black men were lynched not because they were rapists but due to race hatred.”  Terrell was actively involved in the woman suffrage movement working closely with Susan B. Anthony.

Contributions to Feminism

Mary Church Terrell got involved in woman’s suffrage as a means to advocate for temperance (prohibition).  When she began, Terrell saw herself as an ‘outsider’ in the woman suffrage movement.  There was an incident in which she wanted to speak out for universal suffrage but she was not recognized by Susan B. Anthony because she had just attended meetings but was not a member.  That soon changed and Terrell became close to Anthony both personally and professionally.  Terrell leaned towards the beliefs of Frances Watkins Harper, and thought that the focus should be on universal suffrage; that white women need to be more aware of the struggles of black women; and that federal legislation was the favored political strategy.  Terrell’s advocacy for universal suffrage manifested itself through her service on the Board of Education for the District of Columbia.  Terrell was the first black woman on the board.  

In 1896, Terrell became the President of the National Association of Colored Women (NACW).  Terrell wanted to use the term “colored” to reflect that there were black women of mixed race and that other terms didn't capture that fully.  NACW was formed because of the racism Terrell and others found in the activist clubs that were run by white women.  The NACW was very active and made great strides in woman suffrage.  Parker (2010) argued that Terrell was critical in gaining “support for a constitutional amendment for woman suffrage among rank-and-file members of the NACW.”  Parker asserted Terrell became “one of the most prominent woman suffrage proponents in the black community in the late 1890’s and early twentieth century.”

In 1908, Terrell gave two speeches highlighting suffrage at the 60^th Anniversary of the Seneca Falls Convention.  Terrell spoke about Frederick Douglass who helped garner black men the right to vote and on “The Justice of Woman Suffrage.”  In addition, she published an article of the same name in the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People in their 1912 magazine.  Terrell dealt with the issue of black men believing black women didn’t need the right to vote.

Although Terrell is not represented in the movie Iron Jawed Angels, she was one of the women who picketed in front of the White House for woman suffrage.  Terrell did live to see the passage of the nineteenth amendment in her lifetime, unlike Frances Watkins Harper.  Terrell continued to be engaged in activism and worked for civil rights after women gained the right to vote. 

Discussion Questions

1.       Why are the activities of the white women in the woman suffrage movement the focus of the history books? 
2.       Why is there a Susan B. Anthony coin and not a coin for one of the black woman suffragettes?
 
References
National Women's History Museum. (2007). Rights for women: The Suffrage movement and its

leaders.   African American women and suffrage.  Retrieved from:

https://www.nwhm.org/onlineexhibits/rightsforwomen/Terrell.html.

Parker, A. (2010). Articulating rights. Nineteenth century American women on race, reform, and the
state. Dekalb, IL:  Northern Illinois University Press.
Terrell, M. (1995). Progress of colored women. In B. Guy-Sheftall, Ed. Words of fire: An anthology of
African-American feminist thought. [Kindle version].  Retrieved from Amazon.com.

Frances Watkins Harper

Woman Suffrage:  The Other Story

When we think of Woman Suffrage, the leaders often cited are Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton.  If you’ve seen the movie Iron Jawed Angels, you might add Carrie Chapman Catt and Alice Paul to that list.  And if you’ve taken any courses on women’s studies, you might consider including Sojourner Truth as well.  But would you add individuals like Frances Watkins Harper or Mary Church Terrell?  Both of these women made significant contributions to the woman’s rights movement, women’s suffrage and improving conditions for African Americans.  While born at different times, both Harper and Terrell were founding members of the National Association of Colored Women (NACW) and believed in the strategy of federal legislation to ensure women’s rights.  When women’s suffrage was finally achieved, it was through federal legislation in the form of the nineteenth amendment enacted on August 18, 1920.

Frances Watkins Harper (1825 – 1911)

 

Frances Watkins Harper was a well-known poet, author and public speaker.  Orphaned at age 3, she was raised and educated by an aunt and uncle.  Harper helped found the National Association of Colored Women and was part of the African American group of the Women’s Christian Temperance Union.  She was a founding member of the American Women’s Suffrage Association.  Harper was moved to fight for women’s rights as a result of becoming widowed.  Harper had been a successful author and speaker.  She earned money from this and used it to buy a family farm.  When her husband died in 1864, shortly after they were married, everything was taken away from her.  At the time, women had no property rights.  This personal experience led Harper to become actively engaged in fighting for women’s legal rights.

In 1866, Harper spoke at the National Women’s Rights Convention.  Susan B. Anthony was so moved by her speech that she decided to create a new organization, the Equal Rights Association, which recognized universal suffrage and not just women’s suffrage.

Harper once said that white women talk of rights, but that she wanted to talk about the wrongs.  Harper wanted people to acknowledge the wrongs that had been done to her and other black women in this country.  Harper was willing to join with white women to fight for equality if they were willing to recognize their own role in the oppression of blacks. And when they didn’t, Harper was willing to call them out on it. 

At an Equal Rights Convention, Harper found Stanton’s racially based commentary too harsh and spoke up about it.  As a result, Harper decided to join Frederick Douglas in his fight for black men’s right to vote.  This did not mean that Harper gave up on woman suffrage.  She saw everyone’s rights at crucial.  But you won’t find this in the History of Woman Suffrage volumes compiled by the likes of Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton.  Anthony and Stanton found Harper’s language ‘too strong’ for inclusion in their historical account.

On one occasion, Harper talked about what could be referred to as a Rosa Parks moment when a train conductor told her to go to the smoking car and she refused.  A smoking car was filled with men and women typically road in a ‘ladies car’.  This incident shows the level of Harper’s activism.  No monuments stand in her honor for this refusal.  White women did not include her in their writings.  She was eventually pushed out of her role with the Women’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU).  But Harper continued to work for equal rights until her death in 1911.  She would not live to see women get the right to vote, but that did not deter her from working toward that end.

Discussion Questions

1.       Why do you think we don’t read more about Frances Watkins Harper in books on women’s suffrage?
2.       Why did Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton leave Frances Watkins Harper out of their History of Woman Suffrage (4 volumes) books?
3.       Why was there a woman suffrage movement instead of a universal suffrage movement?

References

Harper, F. (1995). Woman's political future. In B. Guy-Sheftall, Ed. Words of fire: An anthology of African American feminist thought. [Kindle version].  Retrieved from Amazon.com.
National Women's History Museum. (2007). Rights for women: The Suffrage movement and its leaders.   African American women and suffrage.  Retrieved from:  http://www.nwhm.org
Parker, A. (2010). Articulating rights. Nineteenth century American women on race, reform, and the
state. Dekalb, IL:  Northern Illinois University Press.

African American Foundations in the Historical Roots of Feminism: “Essential” Considerations and Thoughts on an Inclusive Historical Narrative

African American Foundations in the Historical Roots of Feminism:

“Essential” Considerations and Thoughts on an Inclusive Historical Narrative  

            In reading “essential” texts of feminism and examining the historical roots presented in these texts, I noticed that the contribution of African American men and women in assisting in the birth and the success of the first wave of feminism were largely absent. In a play on the worlds of Sojourner Truth’s speech “When Women Gets Her Rights Men Will Be Right” given in 1867, I tell the narrative absent from essential works of feminism and explain the significance of African American contributions to the birth and foundation of the first wave of feminism. As you read, think how this narrative is “essential” in the telling of the roots of feminism as I discuss what the “essential” narrative of the historical roots of feminism should consider.

“Essential” Considerations

            I cannot help but noticing the vast difference in realities and struggles of these African American women and white women. I want us to consider the facts of the historical context of the varied injustices experienced by these women. And then further consider why the struggle for equality for African American women and white women were different from the beginning, and, thus, still struggle with merging into a shared, collective view and approach to feminism.

            I want us to consider why, unanimously, the white women, as well as the white man, addressed the issues facing only white women. I will discuss further some writings of white feminist and the absence of consideration given to African American women.

Harriet Taylor Mill mentions “sex” and “class” as presenting issues with inequality and injustice, but does not mention the one factor of inequality from which the woman’s movement even gained a foundation, platform, and activists – race.  If she truly denied “the right of any portion of the species to decide for another portion,” then why is race and the further, more extensive injustices suffered by African American women not included in this platform? (Freedman 69)

John Stuart Mill made statements regarding slavery that I strongly disagree with when he equated the bondage of a woman in marriage to the enslavement of a slave. Maybe these statements were made from the experience of slavery occurring across an ocean due to the fact that they were located in England. I was thoroughly disgusted at the equation of white women’s plight to that of a slave. Speaking of women he said, “They are so far in a position different from all other subject classes, that their masters require something more from them than actual service” (Freedman 76). I can agree that married women, as a whole, are subjected to servicing their husbands on many levels.

                   I want us to consider that, no matter what the instance of servicing involves, none degrades the spirit and scars the soul as the servicing African American women had to give to their white male masters. I want us to consider the literal and figurative rape African American women endured long after slavery was abolished. I also want us to consider the fact that African American women remained in an unequal burden of servicing the households of white women, as well as their own. Equality among working class men and women was not the primary issue for African American women bearing the burden of caring for their husband and household, as well as, the white women’s husband and household, servicing two men – husband and the white family for whom she worked.

                  Given these considerations, I was further irritated with Mill’s assertion that, “I am far from pretending that wives are in general no better treated than slaves; but no slave is a slave to the same lengths, and in so full a sense of the word, as a wife is” (Freedman 79). I beg to differ with this assumption. African American woman bore a double enslavement, a multiplied injustice – that of her husband, as well as the white man. African American women nursed their own babies, and the master’s babies; they were not just at the mercy of their master, but all white men – who may force themselves sexually, beat them physically, or degrade them emotionally and mentally. While African American women bore abuse and injustice from multiple white males, white women’s issues with marriage generally sought freedom from one master – their husband. In knowing this, I want us to consider why the struggle of equality among the sexes, always and forever must include the inequality and injustice incurred by race.

I want us to consider that Susan B Anthony’s defense based on the 14^th Amendment in 1873 would have never been a possible defense in seeking equality for women if African American males and females had ever given up hope of freedom, equality, and justice for all of humanity. Some historical context to consider that led to the creation and enactment of the 14^th amendment, as well as, a precedent for women to be included in voting rights, includes the Dred Scott Case and the passage of the 13^th, 14^th, and 15^th amendments to the Constitution. Dred Scott sued the courts for his freedom beginning in 1847 based on the Missouri Compromise of 1820 declaring certain states as free from the institution of slavery. In 1857, the Supreme Court ruled that African Americans, slave or free, could not be citizens of the United States, and thus did not have the right to sue the court. This made the 13^th, 14^th, and 15^th amendments necessary to ensure freedom, justice, and equality for African Americans. The 13^th amendment abolished slavery, except for prisoners in 1865. The 14^th amendment granted citizenship to African Americans in 1868. The 15^th amendment gave African American men the right to vote in 1870. All of these victories in obtaining equality, freedom, and justice for African Americans occurred before Anthony addressed the court in her defense with the 14^th amendment as justification for women’s right to vote. I want us to deeply consider the fact that the women’s movement and the roots of feminism begin with the fight of equality and justice for African Americans, in which African American men and women had significant contributions. I want us to consider that it is the spirit and efforts of African American’s seeking equality, freedom, and justice that gave the women’s movement a foundation on which to stand and fight. I want us to consider these roots.

Thoughts on An Inclusive Historical Narrative of Feminism

If I were asked to create a course on ‘the roots of feminism,’ I would begin with the historical context that made the feminist movements necessary. From the perspective of my roots as a biracial 32 yr old female, the need for women’s liberation began with the creation of America’s capitalistic, imperialistic, paternalistic roots justified with Christianity. Since Christianity is historically an oppressive religion that has been used as justification for the oppression of women all over the world, this could be part of the historical context making liberation of women and oppressed people necessary throughout the world. I do believe that it is important to note, for the sake of historical context, that the most ancient culture from which humanity began honored women in their society.  The Ancient Egyptians practiced “the earliest know religion of humankind,” in which, “the role of the female was equally as significant as that of the male. Unlike in the Judeo-Christian myth of Adam and Eve, the female principle was a redeeming and positive factor. All male deities had female counterparts of equal importance.” (Monges 561) Women in Ancient Kemet (Egypt) owned property and were part of royalty. I feel this is important to note because women, in the beginning of humankinds existence, were equal to the male and not subjected to the oppression that became justified with the practice of later developed religions such as Christianity.

In reading through the introductions of  Miriam Schneir’s Feminism: Essential Historical Writings, Beverly Guy Sheftall’s Words: An Anthology of African American Feminist Thought, and Estelle Freedman’s The Essential Feminist Reader, I see that the historical context for studying the roots of feminism begins at a point in time relevant to the white ruling majority’s perception and experience. The first wave of feminism is historically recognized as beginning with the first woman’s rights convention in America. A truthful narrative of this history would include the facts that 1) the first women’s rights convention would have never occurred if white women had not experienced the exclusion from the World’s Anti Slavery Convention in 1840 and 2) the Worlds Anti-Slavery Convention would never have come to fruition if African Americans did not courageously answer the cry for freedom within their souls to break the oppressive chains of slavery during the abolitionist movement.

When studying the roots of feminism, I do feel that it is an inadequate endeavor to begin with the white majority perspective. Unfortunately, white women have dominated the historical writings of feminism. Schneir admits in her introduction that “the nationality of the editor (American) has influenced the contents, since works written in English by Americans are most available and best known to me.” (Schneir xv) Thus, finding a starting point for the historical context of feminism with examining the development of justification for the oppression of women is important for me as a student and a social justice activist.     

It is important to note as we read “essential” feminist texts completed by white women, that the historical context from which they are compiled and written is largely exclusively representative of the white woman voice and historical narrative. Beverly Guy-Sheftall’s work, Words of Fire: An Anthology of African American Feminist Thought  does an excellet job of allowing the voices of minority women to have a place at the table. Guy-Sheftall focuses on including African American works not already in print extensively and even includes a list of the works that she has omitted that are still very relevant to the historical roots of the “essential” narrative of feminism.

Discussion Question(s)

·       What do you consider “essential” in telling the narrative of the historical roots of feminism? Do you feel that current “essential” texts are provide a historical narrative inclusive of contributions beyond white feminists?

·       What historical ideologies affected the inclusion of the African American feminist narrative in the historical roots of feminism?

Bibliography

Freedman, Estelle B. The Essential Feminist Reader. New York: Modern Library, 2007.

Guy-Sheftall, Beverly. Words of Fire: An Anthology of African American Feminist Thought. New York: The New Press, 1995.

Monges, Miriam Ma'At-Ka-Re. "Reflections on the Role of Remale Dieties and Queens in Ancient Kemet." Journal of Black Studies 23.4 (1993): 561-570.

Schneir, Miriam. Feminism: The Essential Historical Writings. New York: Vintage Books, 1994.

Amy Jacques Garvey

As you read…….

           

           Amy Jacques Garvey is most known in for her contributions to her husband’s movement and legacy. As you read, think about how the prejudice of racism and sexism of the time played a role in the narrative written about Amy’s contributions to the historical roots of feminism. Also, even though Amy was a contributor to and editor of texts related to her husband, Marcus Garvey, and Garveyism, her contributions remain largely absent from the “essential” feminists texts regarding the roots of feminism.

Biographical Details

Amy Jacques Garvey was born in 1836 in Jamaica as the oldest child in a middle class family. Sharing in her father’s “deep interest in political issues” and “racial progress,” she spent her school age years reading “foreign newspapers and periodicals” and completing a high school education. (Adler 349)

When her father died during her young adult years, Amy became a clerk in overseeing “her father’s estate.” (Adler 351) Within four years of embarking on this endeavor, she learned and mastered “law to the point that she could” manage “every legal aspect of the estate.” (Alder 351) In 1918, Amy set out for the United States wanting “to see the “land of opportunity and limitations” according to her “father’s description.” (Adler 351) “By defying her family’s wishes and going to a foreign country alone…Amy demonstrated independence of mind, courage, and thirst for knowledge-all of which characterized…the rest of her life.” (Adler 351)

               In 1919, Ms. Garvey became “affiliated with the” United Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) and married Marcus Garvey, the leader of the association, soon thereafter. (Taylor 107) The marriage would produce two sons in 1930 and 1933. (Adler 366) Amy would endure motherhood without extensive support from her husband. In her words, “Marcus continually sacrificed his family for the movement.” (Adler 366) Amy wrote many editorials expressing the need for woman to rise up and take the lead if men were unwilling or unable to do for the sake of race. Marcus Garvey would move to London in 1935, leaving Amy and the children behind in the states. Amy and the children would join him two years later. (Adler 367) The marriage would end in 1937 when Amy returned to Jamaica at the advice of her son’s doctor without notifying Marcus, who was away in Canada. (Adler 367)

               When Marcus died suddenly of a stroke, Amy, still dedicated to the beliefs and principles of Black Nationalism and the liberation, continued to edit and publish the works of her late husband. She contributed through her intellectual, oratory, literary, activist and leadership abilities. (Adler 346) Garvey’s work and efforts have often been buried beneath her husband’s accomplishments and work in the Black Nationalist movement.  As one scholar stated, "the life and works of Amy Jacques Garvey…deserve  attention  from  students of  both  women's  liberation  and Black  nationalism" few  scholars have  heeded  this  claim.” (Adler 346)

Contributions to Feminism

               Amy Jacques Garvey was the “unofficial leader of the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA), the largest Pan-African movement in the twentieth century.”  (Taylor 104) In her editorials written in the UNIA’s newspaper editorials and the editing and publishing of her husband’s work that she herself contributed greatly to, Amy created what Ula Taylor terms “community feminism.” As Taylor states,

“Community feminism allowed black women to function within their communities as both helpmates and leaders. An examination of Jacques-Garvey’s editorials published in the Negro World, the propaganda newspaper for the UNIA, reveals her brand of community feminism and how her choices were political—transforming her from a personal secretary, editor, and wife into an indispensable UNIA leader during the 1920s.” (Taylor 104)

Absent from many narratives about Amy’s contribution to feminism and the Black Nationalist movement is the fact that Amy would skim newspapers and magazines “for important articles and then explain their content and significance to” her husband, the public leader of the movement. (Adler 353) This undoubtedly places Amy as “a cocreator” of the philosophy of Black Nationalism, aka Garveyism. (Adler 354)

Amy was an editor and contributor to the UNIA publication, the “Negro World.” Her editorial section entitled, “Our Woman and What They Think” ran from 1924-1927. (Guy-Sheftall 12) It is important to note for historical context in the roots of feminism, that white feminist were “in hibernation after winning the right to vote” beginning in 1920 and lasting until the second wave of feminism in the 1960s. (Adler 346) During the “hibernation” of white feminist, Amy successfully printed, distributed, and spoke publicly about “a distinctive theory and program for social change” in Black Nationalism. (Adler 347) Amy’s dedication, work, and priceless contributions, “sparked and sustained “the most powerful Black nationalist movement ever established in the United States” while supporting sustaining “sustain “the largest Black organization ever developed in the United States.” (Adler 346,348)).  Black Nationalism would be the basis for the black power movement throughout the 1960s and beyond. Amy Jacques Garvey’s contributions to Black Nationalism with a “community” feminist perspective and philosophy gave indispensable knowledge and “self-help” strategies to the diaspora of African people in the United States and across the world. Her contributions are very “essential” in the narrative of the historical roots of feminism and her story and her contributions need to be included in current feminist academic study.

Commentary on Amy Jacque Garvey’s editorial works in Words of Fire

In these editorials, Amy speaks to how America had further advancement on the equality of the sexes than any other country, but she also points out the added inequality present in being an African American woman versus a white woman in America. Race carried an extra burden of oppression in addition to the oppression of race. As Garvey points out, the unique strength of African American women surviving and overcoming the oppression of race and sex, "who is more deserving of admiration than the black woman, she who has borne the rigors of slavery, the deprivations consequent on a pauperized race? Yet she has suffered all with fortitude, and stand ever ready to help in the onward march to freedom and power" (Guy-Sheftall 94). This statement recognizes that America has made progress on issues of inequality, but there are still more to be addressed. Living in America was still a greater privilege to those with white skin, male and female. Garvey pointed out the greater burden of oppression experienced by African American women when she stated that "white women have greater opportunities to display their abilities because of the standing of both races" (Guy-Sheftall 94). She understood that the systemic and societal oppression African American women endured had additional chains to be broken than the chains of oppression on white women

Historical Context “Essential” to Black Feminism of Amy Jacques Garvey

            In her contributions to feminism and racial upliftment, Garvey supports Pan-Africanism and Black Nationalism, an ideology and context largely absent from the historical context of the roots of feminism, yet integral to understanding African American women’s voice in feminism. As Garvey stated, “it was essential for black women to develop a political consciousness to ‘uplift’ the race.” (Guy-Sheftall 89) It was necessary to “focus” on the needs of the race, as Garvey asserts, because of the greater and further systemic oppression and exploitation of a capitalistic society promoting consumerism and individual success through mass production that disproportionately affects African American men and women.

When Garvey states, “Ethiopia’s queens will reign again,” I feel it beckons the return to the equal existence of men and women present in civilizations past, before Europeans came into contact with African cultures and societies. The world individual or any word expressing the concept of individual did not exist in African societies whose culture understood the importance of the preserving the collective good of the whole – both human and nature.

            With this added historical context absent from the “essential” texts referenced in this blog, Garvey called African American women to remember the strength of the race before the diaspora of the black race. In ancient African civilizations women ruled alongside men, they were not intellectually or politically inferior to men. As Garvey instructs African American women, if men are unwilling to lead the way to a better existential condition for the black race and for humanity, then African American women will take the lead to ensure “victory” and “glory.” (Guy-Sheftall 94)  Drawing further on the history of the black race, Garvey teaches African American women in her writings to not be satisfied with liberation from the white male ruling class in America, but to “establish a civilization according to their own standards, and strive for world leadership. (Guy-Sheftall 93)

Discussion Question(s)

1.      Why was Amy Jacques Garvey’s contribution to feminism and racial freedom absent from “essential” feminist text?

2.      How did Amy’s work extend beyond a supportive role to her husband? Is this noteworthy to the historical roots of feminism?

References

Adler, Karen S. ""Always Leading Our Men in Service and Sacrifice": Amy Jacques Garvey, Feminist Black." Gender and Society 6.2 (1992): 346-375. November 2014. <http://www.jstor.org/stable/189992>.

Guy-Sheftall, Beverly. Words of Fire: An Anthology of African American Feminist Thought. New York: The New Press, 1995.

Taylor, Ula Y. ""Negro women are great thinkers as well as doers:" Amy Jacques-Garvey and Community Feminism 1924-1927." Journal of Women's History 12.2 (2000): 104-126.

Ida Wells Barnett

As you read…..

Ida B Wells-Barnett is most known in the narrative of feminism as the anti-lynching crusader. Although lynching was the issue, concern, and topic that catapulted Wells into social justice and activism, Wells contributed much more to the feminist narrative than her anti-lynching activism and victories. In the words of one scholar, “She stands as one of our nation's most uncompromising leaders and most ardent defenders of democracy.” (Baker) Think of how the additional information provided in the biographical details and contributions to feminism regarding Wells-Barnett is an “essential” part in the narrative of the historical roots of feminism.

Biographical Details

Ida Wells-Barnett was born in Holly Springs, Mississippi in 1862, just before slavery was abolished. Wells and her parents were former slaves and her father was the son of his former master.(Dalfiume 307). Thus, her racial roots included “white, African American, and American Indian.” (Totten 56) These roots would become part of Well’s fight for justice in speaking to the truth of sexual relationships between whites and blacks, in regards to the stereotypes placed on black women and men to justify lynchings.

Wells parents supported seven children with both contributing income to the household. Wells, her siblings and her mother attended school to learn how to read following the abolition of slavery. Wells father participated in black political organizations, “attended public "speakings," “and campaigned for local black political candidates.” (McBride) Wells later interest in politics and political organizations was most likely rooted in her father’s interests and pursuits in her childhood.

During her time in school, Wells read extensively. As one scholar notes, Wells “read every book in the school library.” With a critical lens analyzing the content and context of what she read, Wells noted the absence of African Americans available to read as authors or subjects of American literature and media. (McBride)

At the age of sixteen, Wells-Barnett lost her parents and her youngest sibling to Yellow Fever. With a spirit of fierce determination that would guide her courageous efforts and accomplishments for racial and sexual justice, Wells furthered her education while keeping her siblings together and eventually provided support by earning a job as a teacher. (McBride)

Wells-Barnett eventually moved to Memphis to join the support of other family in raising her younger siblings. She would further her education and rise from a teacher in the country to becoming a teacher in the city. It was here that Wells-Barnett would have her first personal experience with discrimination and injustice that would catapult her into an activist. Her specific contributions will be covered in the next section. It is important to note that “between 1880 and 1909” Wells-Barnett would write “dozens of newspaper and periodical articles and pamphlets about the tragedy of lynching.” (McDermott 69) Having been exiled from returning to Memphis for fear of her life threatened by a lynch mob, Wells Barnett would flee to New York and end up in Chicago.

During her time as a civil right activist and feminist, Wells-Barnett would marry an attorney, Fernidad Lee Barnett a Chicago newspaper owner, and give birth to four children. (The JBHE Foundation, Inc) Beverly Guy-Sheftall, a notable Black Women’s Studies scholar, noted that Wells Barnett “determined not to give up her public life, carried her baby…(and nurse) along with her to women’s conventions and political campaigns.” (Guy-Sheftall, Black Women's Studies: The Interface of Women's Studies and Black Studies 39) Guy-Sheftall notes also that a crucial question in the study and telling of the narrative of African American feminism “Is why these black women were better able to juggle the roles of wife, mother, and career than their white female counterparts.” (Guy-Sheftall, Black Women's Studies: The Interface of Women's Studies and Black Studies 39) Personally, I feel that the enduring of the added responsibilities and difficulties of the oppression and discrimination experienced by African American women, left them better able to cope with multiple responsibilities of motherhood and activism. African American women’s activism included the fight for life for their children and African American men in ways that white women’s activism did not, especially in regards to the “unwritten law” that allowed lynching to become such an epidemic during this time.

Wells Barnett remained an involved activist throughout later life, continuing to support and participate in various organizations social and gender justice organizations. She passed in 1931. (Dalfiume 308)

Contributions to Feminism

Ida Wells-Barnett is largely depicted as the single woman who led the ant lynching crusade of the late 1800s into the early 1900s. Even though her contributions to the gathering of data and dissemination of the data during this time in American history is unmatched by anyone, Wells contributions to feminism extends beyond national to international scope in being “one of” the “most uncompromising leaders and most ardent defenders of democracy” and justice. (Baker)

            Wells crusade for justice against racism and sexism began when she moved to Memphis. Over 70 years before Rosa Parks, in 1884, would spark the Montgomery Bus Boycotts, Wells resisted and attacked white supremacy and sexism by refusing to give up her seat on a rail car to a white male passenger. Wells resisted the white conductors attempt to physically remove her by biting his hand, requiring three men to forcefully remove her from the train. Occurring before the establishment of “separate but equal” segregation in Plessy vs Ferguson and after the Civil Rights Act of 1875 that “banned discrimination,” Wells fought and won her case in civil court where she was awarded $500. (The JBHE Foundation, Inc) The Supreme Court of Tennessee would eventually reverse the civil court victory, but Wells would begin her career as a journalist writing about her experience of racial and gender injustice. During her early newspaper publishing years in 1887, Wells “was named the most prominent correspondent for the American black press” and filled the role of assistant secretary to the National Afro-American Press Convention.

Within five years of her first confrontation with racism and sexism, Wells would leave her teaching career to become a partner in the Free Speech and Headlight in 1889. (Baker) As African Americans gained economic independence from white store owners with the opening of an African American owned grocery store, tensions among white store owners and Wells, three friends owning the other grocery store exploded Wells friends were lynched for shooting one of the attackers when defending themselves against white attackers. Using the Free Speech as a platform, Wells advised other African Americans to leave town due to the fact that they were not able to defend themselves against attack without being lynched. (Baker) Wells wrote several editorials in her paper challenging the stereotypes of racist white supremacy with blatant, non-apologetic truth. She challenged the “thread-bare lie that Negro men assault white women” and courageously asserted that “"If  Southern  white  men  are  not  careful, they will  over-reach  themselves  and  a  conclusion  will  be  reached  which  will  be very  damaging to  the  moral reputation of  their  women." (Totten 52) In response to this editorial, white supremacists destroyed the newspaper headquarters and threatened “death to anyone who revived the paper.” (Totten 52)

Leaving Memphis due to death threats from those steaming from the truth she had dared to publish, Wells headed north. Wells felt that she would be able “to tell the whole truth” for herself and her race more “freely” in the north. (Totten 52) She would travel throughout the country educating about the economic factors that contributed to lynching, the racist prejudices and stereotypes that would be used to justify the grotesque and gruesome behavior, and dispel the lies about these injustices with facts. During this time, in 1893, Wells helped establish “the first African American female suffrage organization”, the Alpha Suffrage Club.(Guy-Sheftall, Words of Fire: An Anthology of African American Feminist Thought 69) Wells would end up marching in Washington D. C. in 1913 supporting the call for universal suffrage. (Baker)

By 1895, Wells Barnett had relocated to Chicago and published the first of two major works on lynching. “Southern Horror: Lynch Law in All Its Phases” was a pamphlet speaking truth about the horrors of lynching. The pamphlet directly implicated the federal government’s lack of response in accountability for these crimes as a direct cause of the expansion of this atrocity. In her traveling in America, she struggled to be heard by white audiences with her writings and lectures. She did enlist the “support of the Black press,” understanding that they were “the only ones which will print the truth” and that it was of utmost importance to educate African Americans about the facts regarding lynching, the statistics and causes. (Nichols 78) Finding a lack of listening ears and absence of action in the white audiences in America, Wells embarked on her first international trip to the United Kingdom a year after writing her first pamphlet on lynching. (Totten 47) As stated in her autobiography, she believed in the telling of truth and facts to “stimulate” a “demand” for “justice” and she took her demand for justice overseas. (McDermott 69)

In 1893, Wells embarked on another speaking tour through Europe. During this trip abroad, Wells-Barnett did not hesitate to speak the truth regarding white feminist’s exclusion of African American women from white feminist movement and their participation in the perpetration of degrading prejudice and stereotypes. Engaging the leader of the Women Christian Temperance Union, Frances Willard, in an extended discussion about the truth of Willard’s feelings and prejudice towards the African American race, Wells exposed the truth of Willard’s racist beliefs and statements that kept her from being a supporter of the anti-lynching crusade. As Well Barnett stated regarding Willard’s refusal to acknowledge the truth of her published racist comments against the black race, “my love for the truth is greater than any alleged friend.” (Davis 82)

On her return to America in 1895, she published A Red Record: Tabulated Statistics and Alleged Causes of Lynchings in the United States, 1892-1894. In this publishing of facts regarding lynching, Wells Barnett used the writings of white men in the Chicago Tribune for data sources. (Nichols 78) She did this as she stated, to remain "safe from the charge of exaggeration." (Nichols 79) Wells Barnett speaks to the truth regarding the entire justice system in America being “in the hands” of inherently prejudice white people, pointing out truths regarding the existential condition of discrimination and oppression endured by African Americans, resulting in atrocities against humanity through lynching. (Nichols 87)

When Wells Barnett returned from Great Britain, she underwent a change in “consciousness” regarding her double existence between the racism and oppression in America and the unbiased acceptance and respect she had experienced overseas. It was during this time that Wells “emphasized the right of  individual  African  Americans  to emigrate to  Africa  or  remain  in  America” thus supporting "the  transnationalism  of  the  Black Atlantic.” (Totten 49) This would be the beginnings of what would become the platform of Marcus and Amy Garvey in Pan-Africanism and Black Nationalism. Wells suggested solutions of “self-help” that would be a foreshadowing of the “racial uplift” that Amy Jacques Garvey spoke to her black readers and listeners throughout the diaspora.

In 1900, Wells wrote “Lynch Law in America,” “a powerful critiques of the institutionalized racism and sexism that render African American men and women vulnerable to previously unspeakable acts of violence.” (Guy-Sheftall, Words of Fire: An Anthology of African American Feminist Thought 69) In this publication, Wells spoke of the “unwritten law” that protected white lynch mobs in their crimes of lynching and the “negro domination” that the acts of lynching enforced. Wells understood that legislative action to address lynching would be difficult and long in coming, so her mission included education with truth to compel actions against the acceptance, tolerance, and perpetration of lynching.

Wells continued her support as an activist in organizations when, in 1906, she lent her support to the Niagara Movement, and, in 1909, helped establish the NAACP.” (Baker) Wells also joined forces with Jane Adams and helped stop “the establishment of segregated schools in Chicago.” (Baker)

As this biographical account and narrative of contributions to feminism illustrates, Wells was a lover of truth and justice. She spent a lifetime crusading for the freedom and equality of her race and of women. Wells addressed the most daunting issues facing African American men and women of her time, often times as a lone crusader. While white feminism focused on suffrage and other issues relevant to their experience, Wells understood and acted upon the very different realities of injustice and inequality endured based on race and sex. She was fearless and determined in spreading the truth of the plight of African Americans regarding lynching and courageous in her fight for equality and justice in education, suffrage, and the right to life.

Discussion Question(s)

1.      Why is Ida Wells Barnett narrative and contributions to feminism indispensable from the “essential” narrative of the historical roots of feminism?

2.      How did her narrative differ from many mainstream white feminist narratives?

3.      What foundations did Ida Wells Barnett participate in laying for the feminist movement, as well as, the civil rights movement?

References

Baker, Lee D. Ida B Wells-Barnett and Her Passion for Justice. 1996. <http://people.duke.edu/~ldbaker/classes/AAIH/caaih/ibwells/ibwbkgrd.html>.

Cott, Nancy F. "Feminist Politics in the 1920s: The National Woman's." The Journal of American History (1984): 7.

Dalfiume, Richard M. "Crusade for Justice: The Autobiography of Ida B. Wellsby Alfreda M. Duster." The Journal of Southern History 37.2 (1971): 307-308. November 2014 . <http://www.jstor.org/stable/2205846>.

Davis, Simone W. "The "Weak Race" and the Winchester: Political Voices in the Pamphlets of Ida B. WellsBarnett." Legacy 12.2 (1995): 77-97. Novmeber 2014. <http://www.jstor.org/stable/25679164>.

Guy-Sheftall, Beverly. "Black Women's Studies: The Interface of Women's Studies and Black Studies." Phylon (1960- 49.1 (1992): 33-41. November. <http://www.jstor.org/stable/3132615>.

—. Words of Fire: An Anthology of African American Feminist Thought. New York: The New Press, 1995.

McBride, Jennifer. Ida B. Wells: Crusade for Justice. n.d. November 2014. <http://www2.webster.edu/~woolflm/idabwells.html>.

McDermott, Stacy Pratt. ""An Outrageous Proceeding": A Northern Lynching and the Enforcement of Anti-Lynching." The Journa of Negro History 84.1 (1999): 61-78. November 2014. < http://www.jstor.org/stable/2649083>.

National Womens History Museum. Ida B Wells. n.d. November 2014. <https://www.nwhm.org/online-exhibits/progressiveera/wells.html>.

Nichols, Caroline C. "The "Adventuress" Becomes a "Lady": Ida B. Wells' British Tours." Modern Language Studies 38.2 (2009): 46-63. November 2014. <http://www.jstor.org/stable/40346990>.

The JBHE Foundation, Inc. "Dedication: Ida Bell Wells-Barnett." The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education 14 (1996): 1. November 2014. <http://www.jstor.org/stable/2962795>.

Totten, Gary. "Embodying Segregation: Ida B. Wells and the Cultural Work of Travel." African American Review 42.1 (2008): 47-60. November 2014. <http://www.jstor.org/stable/40301303>.