Monday, November 24, 2014

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.

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