BY: JACQUELINE QIU, WINTER 2021 COLLABORATOR AT POWER AND PLACE
Speaking out against the injustices of the world is an example of high moral integrity in a human being. For these women who advocated for the suffragette cause, in the 19th & 20th centuries, their status, credibility, and words would be questioned in their contemporary society. However, the potential of being ostracized by societal institutions did not stop them from speaking our from structural inequities. These women did not let their voices be silenced in the welfare of female generations in the past, present, and future.
- Frances Ellen Watkins Harper (1825-1911), an African American writer, poet, and suffragette who popularized gender and racial equality through her poetry, short stories, and widely circulated writings.
- Susette La Flesche Tibbles (“Bright Eyes”) (1854-1903), a Native American activist and suffragette who represented Native American rights against U.S. Federal Policy and viewed women’s suffrage as a conjoint end.
- Nannie Helen Burroughs (1879-1961), an African American suffragette who established the Women’s Convention, as a church branch of the National Baptists Convention, that was the largest body of African American women in the U.S. and opened the National Training School of Women and Girls for poor, working class African American women.
- Jovita Idár (1885-1946), a Latina journalist, suffragist, and activist who advocated for the plight of Mexican Americans in Texas as well as the socio-political equality of Mexican American women in obtaining the right to vote.
- Josephine St. Pierre Ruffin (1842-1924) a prominent African American journalist and suffragette who formed the Massachusetts Suffrage Association in 1875 and urged black women to participate in politics through her writings in her own newsletter, The Women’s Era.
- Adella Hunt Logan (1863-1915), a professor at Tuskegee Institute, which was headed by Booker T. Washington, and major contributor to the philosophy of the black women’s suffrage movement by combining white suffrage rationale with the necessity of obtaining the right to vote for black women.
References:
Wicker, Jewel. “16 Best Quotes About Women of Color Deserving the Right to Vote.” Teen Vogue. 2020. https://www.teenvogue.com/story/best-quotes-women-right-to-vote
Gomez, Skylar. “12 African American Suffragists who shouldn’t be overlooked.” Literary Ladies Guide. 2019. https://www.literaryladiesguide.com/other-rad-voices/12-african-american-suffragists/
Jacqueline Qiu is a junior at Middlebury College, double majoring in French and Political Science. She is passionate about humanitarianism, women in politics, mental health awareness and advocacy, and French language and literature. On campus, she is the Co-President of the French club and Active Minds Middlebury.