Vanguard : how Black women broke barriers, won the vote, and insisted on equality for all

Title:

Author:

Jones, Martha S., author.

Personal Author:

Jones, Martha S., author.

ISBN:

9781541618619

Edition:

First edition.

Physical Description:

339 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm

Contents:

Introduction: our mothers' gardens -- Daughters of Africa, awake! -- The cause of the slave, as well as of women -- To be black and female -- One great bundle of humanity -- Make us a power -- Lifting as we climb -- Amendment -- Her weapon of moral defense -- A way to express themselves... and make change -- Conclusion: candidates of the people.

Abstract:

"According to conventional wisdom, American women's campaign for the vote began with the Seneca Falls convention of 1848 and ended with the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment in 1920. The movement was led by storied figures such as Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony. But this women's movement was an overwhelmingly white one, and it secured the constitutional right to vote for white women, not for all women. In Vanguard, acclaimed historian Martha Jones offers a sweeping history of African American women's political lives in America, recounting how they fought for, won, and used the right to the ballot and how they fought against both racism and sexism. From 1830s Boston to the passage of the Voting Rights Act in 1965 and beyond to Shirley Chisholm, Stacey Abrams, and Kamala Harris, Jones excavates the lives and work of Black women who, although in many cases suffragists, were never single-issue activists. She recounts the lives of Maria Stewart, the first American woman to speak about politics before a mixed audience of men and women; African Methodist Episcopal preacher Jarena Lee; Reconstruction-era advocate for female suffrage Frances Ellen Watkins Harper; Boston abolitionist, religious leader, and women's club organizer Eliza Ann Gardner; and other hidden figures who were pioneers for both gender and racial equality. Revealing the ways Black women remained independent in their ideas and their organization, Jones shows how Black women were again and again the American vanguard of women's rights, setting the pace in the quest for justice and collective liberation. In the twenty-first century, Black women's power at the polls and in politics is evident. Vanguard reveals that this power is not at all new, but is instead the culmination of two centuries of dramatic struggle"-- Provided by publisher.

Subject Term:

African American women suffragists -- History.

African American women social reformers -- History.

African American women political activists -- History.

African Americans -- Suffrage -- History.

Women -- Suffrage -- History.

Genre:

Instructional and educational works.

Creative nonfiction.

Biographies.

Summary:

Holds:

Available:*

Library	Material Type	Shelf Number	Status
Searching... East End	Book	324.6 J	Searching... Unknown
Searching... Main Library	Book	324.6 J	Searching... Unknown
Searching... Main Library	Book	324.6 J	Searching... Unknown
Searching... Westover Hills	Book	324.6 J	Searching... Unknown

Bound With These Titles

On Order

Summary

The epic history of African American women's pursuit of political power -- and how it transformed America.

In the standard story, the suffrage crusade began in Seneca Falls in 1848 and ended with the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment in 1920. But this overwhelmingly white women's movement did not win the vote for most black women. Securing their rights required a movement of their own.

In Vanguard , acclaimed historian Martha S. Jones offers a new history of African American women's political lives in America. She recounts how they defied both racism and sexism to fight for the ballot, and how they wielded political power to secure the equality and dignity of all persons. From the earliest days of the republic to the passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act and beyond, Jones excavates the lives and work of black women--Maria Stewart, Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, Fannie Lou Hamer, and more--who were the vanguard of women's rights, calling on America to realize its best ideals.

Reviews (1)

Kirkus Review

Johns Hopkins history professor Jones turns in a searching portrait of African American women who agitated for voting rights over generations. Born into slavery in 1840 in Kentucky, Susan Davis--the author's great-great-grandmother--learned a valuable truth: "without the vote, Black Americans had to build other routes to political power." During the Reconstruction Era, in Davis' case, this involved building women's clubs to consolidate political power. She lived to see passage of the 19th Amendment, but that constitutional guarantee did not stop white Kentuckians from attempting to suppress the Black vote. Other activists adopted various tactics to press their cases, from Rosa Parks' refusal to move to the back of a bus to the sit-ins at lunch counters throughout the South. As Jones writes, the truth of Davis' conviction endured: "The women of my family, like so many Black women, constructed their political power with one eye on the polls and the other on organizing, lobbying, and institution building." Naturally, they met opposition from Whites--and often from Black men, who, notes the author, were glad to accept women as helpmeets in political situations but expected them to hold subsidiary roles. In many instances, Black women neatly sidestepped racism; in the case of her great-grandmother, Jones writes, "she would link arms with white women when they shared her sense that American women, even after the Nineteenth Amendment, had a distance to go before they realized their full influence upon politics and policy." In the end, though, many of the voting rights and civil rights activists realized that they had to build their own movement, cultivating a strong emergent leadership that included lawyers, politicians, and the first Black woman to serve as a priest in the Episcopal Church. The work continues today: Jones' sharp chronicle closes with Stacey Abrams, the Georgia politician who wages a constant campaign against voter suppression meant to keep Black voters away from the ballot box. Highly charged, absorbing reading and most timely in the era of renewed advocacy for civil rights. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.