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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