Meet the Advocates

“Black women have always been at the center of the feminist struggle in this country. On issues such as the right to vote, to earn a fair wage, to have control over one’s body, no group has held stronger convictions or acted upon them more intently.” - Paula Giddings

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“Black women have always been at the center of the feminist struggle in this country. On issues such as the right to vote, to earn a fair wage, to have control over one’s body, no group has held stronger convictions or acted upon them more intently.”

Paula Giddings

[meettheadvocates]

Why?

I started this blog as a means of creating public awareness about some of the women advocating for women’s rights movement and the anti-racism movement in the United States before 1920. I have decided to focus solely on Black women and organizations lead by women of color due to the fact that they have been all but excluded from traditional histories of the women’s rights and feminist movement. I have created short biographies of a number of Black women. Some names will be easily recognizable and some may be new. As Nancie Caraway writes in her book, Segregated Sisterhood: Racism and the Politics of American Feminism, “standard feminist histories of the first wave contain obligatory references to ‘great Black women’ such as Sojourner Truth and Harriet Tubman. Their feminism is depicted as ‘exceptional’ and as not shared by other Black women, whose deficiencies as producers and consumers of feminist theory have rendered them minor characters in the overall feminist drama” (Caraway, 118). I have chosen to include both “prominent” women as well as lesser-known names, as a way to create a platform to celebrate the work and achievements of various women of various levels of fame.

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The National Association of Colored Women’s Clubs (1896)

The National Association of Colored Women’s Clubs, Inc. (NACWC) was established in 1896 as a union between the National League of Colored Women and the National Federation of Afro-American Women, allowing the NACWC to act as a unifying group for local and regional Black women’s organizations. The club promoted self-help for African American women, illustrated in their motto “Lifting as We Climb.” The NACWC supported issues of temperance, moral purity, and suffrage much like white women’s groups, but the club also saw their organization as a way to support both gender and race. For the NACWC, suffrage was the right to vote for all women, as well as black men who were still experiencing marginalization by political white supremacists. The organization's support of temperance and moral purity supported gender norms and ideals, especially in promoting the cult of true womanhood. However, this also provided a platform for the NACWC to find support within mainstream culture, even while advocating for women’s suffrage and racial equality.

Some of the most prominent members of the NACWC included activists such as Harriet Tubman, Frances E.W. Harper, Josephine St. Pierre Ruffin, Margaret Murray Washington, Ida B. Wells, and Mary Church Terrell.

sources: blackpast.org nacwc.org pbs.org

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The Phyllis Wheatley Women's Clubs (1895-present)

The Phyllis Wheatley Women’s Clubs were named after Phyllis Wheatley who was an enslaved poet who lived from 1753 to 1784. The first club was established in 1895 in Nashville, Tennessee and served African American women by providing housing for women, the elderly, and the ill. They created educational and recreational programs for young people and platforms for understanding and talking about political issues of the time. As more clubs were established in the North, leaders helped find work and housing options for African American women who otherwise had trouble settling in once moving from the South. This included providing employment referrals and skills training classes to help women find employment quickly. Some clubs focused on specific tasks relative to their geographic and political alliances. For example, the Buffalo, New York club raised money for a monthly pension to send to Harriet Tubman for the Underground Railroad.

            After 1900, some clubs began to align themselves with the Young Women’s Christian Association and received funding from the board of supervisors, who were often white and were able to exercise control over the club. Accepting funding and leadership from the YWCA helped some of the clubs by providing a means of furthering their work; however, this came at the expense of taking some power and decision making action away from Black women. By 1931, the clubs were able to combat white leadership by aligning themselves with the National Association of Colored Women, which provided similar funding and leadership services. This resulted in some challenges, as the NACW did not experience mainstream support from the women’s movement; however, this decision retained power for Black women who could eliminate issues of racism within clubs by excluding white women.

sources: blackpast.org unc.edu

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We are all bound up together in one great bundle of humanity, and society cannot trample on the weakest and feeblest of its members without receiving the curse in its own soul.

Frances E. W. Harper in her speech "We Are All Bound Up Together"

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Ida B. Wells (1862-1931)

Ida B. Wells was born into slavery in northern Mississippi in 1862. In the 1880s, Wells began advocating for the anti-racism movement after an incident in which a train conductor told her to move to the smoking car despite the fact she had bought a first class ticket; after refusing, the conductor and other passengers physically removed Wells from the train. As a result, Wells began writing editorials for black newspapers that challenged racist Jim Crow laws in the South, later purchasing a share of The Free Speech and Headlight newspaper in Memphis to help further her civil rights advocacy work. Her editorials included expositions and examinations of African American disfranchisement, segregation, lack of education and economic resources, and violence against Blacks by whites.

Wells was also a prominent activist in the anti-lynching movement. In 1892, she published “Southern Horrors” which was a pamphlet in which she investigated the ways in which whites tried to justify lynching African Americans. In response to her investigation, the offices of the Free Speech were destroyed and mobs threatened to kill Wells, later forcing Wells to flee to England in 1895 where she established the British Anti-Lynching Society. Later, she returned to the United States and settled in Chicago where she helped establish the National Association of Colored Women and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

Ida B. Wells’ writing and speeches were known for being extremely forward and explicit, often calling out bystanders for their complicity within injustice. Within the context of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Wells was described as authoritative and often criticized for her lack of “womanliness” in her work. She defied gender roles, allowing her to be more radical and clear in what she was trying to achieve. However, this also challenged Wells as she received push back – especially from white women who repeatedly excluded her from organizations and events because of her blackness and “manly” nature of activism.  

Sources: Man Cannot Speak for Her vol. 1 by Karlyn Korhs Campbell history.com blackpast.org

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You white women speak here of rights. I speak of wrongs. I, as a colored woman, have had in this country an education which has made me feel as if I were in the situation of Ishmael, my hand against every man, and ever man's hand against me.

Frances E. W. Harper in her speech "We Are All Bound Up Together

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Mary Church Terrell (1863-1954)

Born in 1863 to wealthy parents, Mary Church Terrell grew up in Memphis Tennessee before leaving her hometown to attend school in Yellow Springs, Ohio. In 1884, Terrell graduated from Oberlin College with a Bachelors degree in Classical Languages and earned a Master’s degree four years later. After learning of a close friend’s death from lynching in 1982, Mary Church Terrell became an advocate for social justice and established the Colored Women’s League in Washington D.C. to combat oppression against African Americans and the black community. In 1896, Terrell cofounded the National Association of Colored Women (sometimes referred to as the National Association of Colored Women’s Clubs) and became the association’s first president, serving from 1896 to 1901. She also worked for organizations such as the National American Suffrage Association, National Association for the Advancement for Colored People, and the Women’s Republican League. Among her many leadership and participatory roles within justice organizations, Terrell wrote articles and performed speeches as a way to promote racial and gender equality. In 1898, she spoke at the National American Woman Suffrage Association advocating for the immediate suffrage for all women as well as the injustices of segregation and lynching.

In addition to all the support she found in her popular work and leadership, Mary Church Terrell faced significant opposition throughout her life. Before making a career out of being an advocate, she first faced opposition on a personal level. After graduating college, her father discouraged her from becoming a teacher, as he didn’t believe she should be working. Even after she became a teacher, she eventually had to quit to marry her husband since married women were not permitted to work as teachers in Washington D.C.. On a larger scale, Mary Church Terrell faced public setbacks, particularly by segregationists who tried to exclude black women from the women’s rights and suffrage movement.

Sources: blackpast.org biography.com Man Cannot Speak For Her vol  2 by Karlyn Kohrs Campbell

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“The colored woman feels that woman’s cause is one and universal; and the pursuit of happiness is conceded to be inalienable to all…”

Anna Julia Cooper’s speech “Women’s Cause is One and Universal”

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If one link of the chain be broken, the chain is broken. A bridge is no stronger than its weakest part, and a cause is not worthier than its weakest element. Least of all can woman's cause afford to decry the weak.

Anna Julia Cooper's speech "Women's Cause is One and Universal"

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Olivia A. Davidson (1854-1889)

Olivia A. Davidson was born in Virginia in 1854 to an ex-slave and a freeborn mother. At the age of three, she and her family moved to Ohio where she grew up and became highly influenced by anti-racist and women's rights advocates. When she turned sixteen, Davidson began teaching at a local school in Ohio. Two years later, she moved to Mississippi where she taught former slaves and their children. In 1886, she delivered her speech "How Shall We Make the Women of Our Race Stronger" to the Alabama State Teacher Association. Like this speech, Davidson spent much of her career advocating that African American girls were the "hope of the race" and crucial to the advancement and furthered opportunities of African Americans. In 1886, Davidson married Booker T. Washington, a former classmate at Hampton Normal A & I School in Virginia. 

Sources: spartacus-educational.com aaregistry.org blackpast

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Anna Julia Cooper (1858-1964)

Anna Julia Cooper was born a slave in North Carolina in 1858. At the age of 9, Cooper started school at Saint Augustine’s Normal School and Collegiate Institute where she earned her high school diploma. Later, she attended Oberlin College where she earned her B.A. in 1884 and Masters in Mathematics in 1887. In the following years, Cooper worked as a teacher at various schools before publishing her first book, A Voice from the South by a Black Woman of the South. In her writing, Cooper advocated for the education of black women as a way of improving conditions for all African Americans. A Voice from the South became very popular and as a result, Cooper joined the lecture circuit, traveling across the country giving speeches about education, civil rights, and women’s rights for black women. Despite the fact that she lectured to many white audiences, Cooper often spoke critically of white scholars and emphasized the importance of privileging Black voices.

Sources: cooperproject.org blackpast.org

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If the first woman God ever made was strong enough to turn the world upside down all alone, these women together ought to be able to turn it back, and get it right side up again! And now they is asking to do it. The men better let them.

Sojourner Truth in her speech "Ar'nt I a Woman?"

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Frances E. W. Harper (1825-1911)

Frances E. W. Harper was born to free parents in 1825 in Baltimore, Maryland where she was raised by her aunt and uncle after the death of her mother. She was formally educated by her uncle, who taught at the Academy for Negro Youth. At the Academy, Harper found a passion for writing poetry. At the age of twenty-one, she published her first book of poetry, Forest Leaves, and nine years later, published her second book, Poems on Miscellaneous Subjects. In 1850, Harper moved to Ohio where she began her political activism. In 1853, she joined the American Anti-Slavery Society and worked as a traveling lecturer delivering speeches such as “Education and the Elevation of the Colored Race.” Harper was an advocate for abolition, prohibition, and women’s rights and involved with organizations and events such as the National Women’s Rights Convention, the Maine Anti-Slavery Society, and the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union. In addition to her involvement in these organizations, Harper cofounded the National Association of Colored with the help of Ida B. Wells, Harriet Tubman, and a number of other advocates. Within her advocacy, Harper experienced backlash and tension from white women, stating that, “being black means that every white, including every white working-class woman, can discriminate against you.” This proved to be difficult in finding massive public support akin to that enjoyed by her white counterparts, but aided her in creating inclusive spaces and strongly advocating for racial equality.

Sources: biography.com poemhunter.com Frances E. W. Harper, “Woman’s Political Future” by Shirley Wilson Logan at University of Maryland

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There is a great stir about colored men getting their rights, but not a word about the colored women; and if colored men get their rights and not colored women theirs, the colored men will be masters over the women, and it will be just as bad as it was before. So I am keeping the thing going while things are stirring; because if we wait till it is still, it will take a great while to get it going again.

Sojourner Truth, Address to the First Annual Meeting of the American Equal Rights Association

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Sojourner Truth (1791-1883)

Sojourner Truth was born Isabella Baumfree in 1791 as a slave to enslaved parents in New York. As a child, she was sold numerous times, traveling around New York to various slaveholders. In 1827, Isabella Baumfree was emancipated by the New York State Legislature, despite the defiance of her owners. At the age of fifty-two, she took on the role and name, Sojourner Truth, beginning her work within abolitionist and women’s rights advocacy. In 1851, she delivered her speech, “Ar’nt I A Woman” at the Women’s Rights Convention in Akron, Ohio. The speech was not written down by Truth, as she chose to remain illiterate in resistance of white supremacist standards of education. As a result, all records of the speech are biased and reflect as such. Despite the fact that she remained illiterate her entire life, Truth became highly educated by listening to people read books to her and learning to recite the Bible from memory. As a way to control her image outside of writing, Truth distributed photographs of herself depicted in fine clothing, holding books, and holding religious objects. Truth was able to support herself by performing speeches, joining the lecture circuit, and publishing her book, Narrative of Sojourner Truth, which was written down by a colleague as she orated. Truth faced a lot of opposition for her advocacy work, both by whites and by Blacks who disapproved of her approach. For example, Fredrick Douglass criticized Truth for her decision to remain illiterate and stated that her lack of formal education took away from her position as an activist. Whites often criticized Truth for being outspoken and dominant in her speaking style as well as privileging the voices of people of color over the voices of whites. It is difficult to find unbiased accounts of Truth’s advocacy, as she never wrote down her own speeches. As a result, much of what we know of her speeches came from her opponents, often characterizing Truth as an uneducated, Southern slave, despite the fact that she was highly educated, from the North, and probably spoke in a Northern dialect. This prejudice is often found in the naming of her speech, “Ain’t I a Woman” rather than what she (probably) said, “Ar’nt I a Woman?”

Sources: aoc.gov blackpast.org history.com “Representing Truth” by Nell Irvin Painter