Black Men V. White Women II

Frederick Douglass (top left) Susan B. Anthony (top middle) & Elizabeth Stanton (bottom middle)

The recent battle between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton has suddenly taken on another historical dimension. As is well known, there has never been a female, nor (admittedly) African-American as President (if you don't count Thomas Jefferson, Andrew Jackson, Abraham Lincoln, Warren Harding & Calvin Coolidge). But, the rancor and disappointment now being expressed by the female supporters, namely, the white female supporters of Hillary Clinton, reminds me of the rancor caused by the then, long-standing abolitionist movement and the budding movement for women's suffrage and women's rights.

While not talked about, one of the disappointing moments in American politics was when the white, female base of abolitionist, turned against Blacks as they become politically aware of their own struggle. As Blacks benefitted from a succession of amendments and to gain political clout, female abolitionist began to make the realization that Blacks had progressed to the point that Black men, on the surface had more rights than they did.

And here is where the understandable, but no less sharp knife of division was thrust into the backs of African-Americans. The White Female leadership in the abolitionist movement, in effect turned against Blacks and stated that they would not advocate for more Black rights until they had gained their own rights, such as voting, political representation, etc. It was sad day in history when the strategy employed by the white suffragist included taking an active role in the stoppage of all Black rights.

The reality was that the struggle for Black rights had just begun. As Wendell Phillips stated in his speech, "This is the Negro's Hour". This statement became the battle cry for Negro suffrage over Women's suffrage.

The political climate in Washington D.C. in 1866:
Those that felt that Women and Negro suffrage were "both just and logical", also felt that the nation would not accept two reforms at one time; therefore the question of suffrage must be divided and the first chance be given to the Negro. “This is the Negro's hour” became the universal response to the woman's appeal. Opponents of both woman and Negro suffrage, chiefly Democrats, played at friendliness and contended that white women were far better qualified to vote than Negro men. They held that if the suffrage must be extended at this time the ballot given to educated white women would offset the illiteracy of the black man, and therefore women should be given the first chance.

Republicans charged Democrats with insincerity and a desire to embarrass the party in power. Democrats in turn charged the Republican leaders with insincerity, since they seemed determined to put aside the woman suffrage cause which they had long advocated and to substitute this newer proposition of Negro suffrage. Time proved that the diagnoses of motives made by the rival parties against each other were both correct. While in the middle, Blacks and White women cared less about the sincerity or insincerity of the politics that was being played out, as their goal was to obtain suffrage first.

On December 14 (1866), the Congress conferred the suffrage upon the Negroes of the District of Columbia. President Johnson vetoed the bill, January 5, 1867, upon the ground that the voters of the District had rejected Negro suffrage at the polls by an almost unanimous vote.[1]* On January 7 the Senate, and, on January 8, the House passed the bill over the veto.

The Congress followed this act by another, equally revelatory of Republican intentions toward Negro suffrage. On January 25, 1867, it passed a bill providing that “in the territories thereafter organized, the right to vote shall not be denied on account of race, color or previous condition of servitude.” Thus the Congress had extended Negro suffrage wherever it had jurisdiction so to do. This bill became law without the President's signature. Under its provisions Nebraska was admitted to statehood after agreeing that the franchise should be allowed to Negroes. It promptly ratified the Fourteenth Amendment and thereby became an historic bone of contention, the Republicans being immediately charged by the Democrats, and by members of their own party, with “gross irregularity” in their haste to secure another Legislature to ratify the Fourteenth Amendment, then pending. Whether the charge was true or false, the amendment was ratified by Nebraska, June 15, 1867.

Lost in the stuggle for suffrage, was the reality that soon after reconstruction, due to poll taxes, poll tests and threats of death and intimidation, Blacks would soon lose any hope of suffrage in almost all southern states. It was not until 1964 that Blacks in many areas of the nation were able to excercise their right to vote.

Frederick Douglass, the famous ex-slave, public speaker, politician, publisher, writer, and abolitionist,(who was the first notable Black figure to take a white wife) was dismayed by this calamitous turn of events, when White allies suddenly became enemies. He came to denounce one of the leaders of the White suffragist/Anti-Black leaders, Elizabeth Cady Stanton as being blatantly racist. Stanton was at the time, incensed about the 15th Amendment granting Blacks the right to vote over women, which in her mind placed white women on a level "classed with idiots, lunatics, and Negroes." Although she was not a "racist" per se, her choice of words reflected the impassioned push for female inclusion which pitted Blacks and Whites against one another.

Elizabeth Cady Stanton was in fact, at one time, one of the leaders of the abolitionist movement. Born in Johnstown, New York in 1815, she was the daughter of a New York Supreme Court Judge, who schooled her in the study of law. She was also a relative of Gerrit Smith, an abolitionist from New York. It was in Smith's home that Stanton met a large number of escaped slaves. Through understanding of their plight, her understanding of the law, and the philosophy of Smith, Stanton rose to become a leading abolitionist, however, once she turned her focus to women's rights she made the statement,
"shall white men so amend their constitutions as to make their wives and mothers the political inferiors of unlettered and unwashed ditch-diggers, bootblacks, butchers and barbers, fresh from the slave plantations of the South?"

Frederick Douglass' response to this was,
"When women, because they are women, are hunted down through the cities of New York and New Orleans; when they are dragged from their houses and hung from lampposts; when their children are torn from their arms and their brains dashed out upon the pavement; when they are objects of insult and rage at every turn; when they are in danger of having their homes burnt down... then they will have an urgency to obtain the ballot equal to our own.

Soon Frederick Douglass came to grips with the budding women's rights and suffrage movement. For once Blacks were freed, many whites were ready to move on to other topics, forcing Douglass to become adepth in speaking on suffrage issue, as a way to gain entree to a powerful block of historical Black allies (White Women).

Susan B. Anthony, who had her image on the $1 coin for a hot minute, was also a friend of Stanton and perhaps the best known face of the abolitionist and then women's suffrage movement. Anthony also tossed a copper coin onto the frayed connection between Blacks and White women by actively making public the strategy of proposing a full-scale stoppage in the acquisition of new Black rights, until White Women were brought to the level of the Negro. Following the ratification of the fifteenth amendment, Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton organized the National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA).

To be fair, to this day, as any sober being looks upon the situation, it can not be said that there is any group on this planet that has been more abused, exploited, diminished, dismissed, looked over, passed over, beaten, shoved aside, and taken fro granted, as women. Women, be they of any race, of any culture, religion, creed, or whatever other measure or class, has always been treated as below the station of any man, of that same race and class.

Also, to be fair, although it may be the case that women, as a group have suffered more than any other group, the reality is that White Women were absolutely not villified to the extent that Blacks in their state of bondage, servitude and 2nd class citizenship were. White women were able to move about freely, doors were opened, men doffed their hats, they lead philanthropic agencies, they had their own colleges, clubs, bathrooms, and a whole host of advantages that came along with their whiteness that Blacks in the 1800's dared not even dream about. the bottom line is that although white women were essentially held in servitude to white men, they were still several stations above Black men, not to mention that it was the rare occasion, if ever, that a white woman was raped nightly by a white man in the light of day, let alone the offspring of such unions sold off to the highest bidder.

Still, to pull back to a clear headed historical perspective, women absolutely can not be faulted for taking up their own reigns and fighting for their own rights, to the diminishement of all other issues, even that of Black rights. That is not to say that I excuse all of the harsh blows delivered back and forth in the struggle for Black and Women's rights. It is only to say that the mission, the purpose, the passion and the heartiness of the battle, can certainly be understood.

Below is a letter drafted by Elizabeth Stanton in response to a speech by the great Wendell Phillips in which he declared (in late winter, 1865) "this is the Negro's hour." and argued that suffragist, and women's rights activist, should back out of the discussion and allow the Negro to have his hour, rather than to halt all progress, to toss in their own issues. In the except below, racist language is in bold.

Elizabeth Stanton:The representative women of the nation have done their uttermost for the last thirty years to secure freedom for the negro, and so long as he was lowest in the scale of being we were willing to press his claims; but now, as the celestial gate to civil rights is slowly moving on its hinges, it becomes a serious question whether we had better stand aside and see “Sambo” walk into the kingdom first.

As self-preservation is the first law of nature, would it not be wiser to keep our lamps trimmed and burning, and when the Constitutional door is open, avail ourselves of the strong arm and blue uniform of the black soldier to walk in by his side, and thus make the gap so wide that no privileged class could ever again close it against the humblest citizen of the Republic? “This is the negro’s hour.” Are we sure that he, once entrenched in all his inalienable rights, may not be an added power to hold us at bay? Have not “black male citizens” been heard to say they doubted the wisdom of extending the right of Suffrage to women? Why should the African prove more just and generous than his Saxon compeers?

If the two millions of Southern black women are not to be secured in their rights of person, property,wages, and children, their emancipation is but another form of slavery. In fact, it is better to be the slave of an educated white man, than of a degraded, ignorant black one. We who know what absolute power the statute laws of most of the States give man, in all his civil, political, and social relations, do demand that in changing the status of the four millions of Africans, the women as well as the men should be secured in all the rights, privileges, and immunities of citizens. It is all very well for the privileged order to look down complacently and tell us, “this is the negro's hour; do not clog his way; do not embarrass the Republican party with any new issue; be generous and magnanimous; the negro once safe, the woman comes next.”

Now, if our prayer involved a new set of measures, or a new train of thought, it would be cruel to tax “white male citizens” with even two simple questions at a time; but the disenfranchised all make the same demand, and the same logic and justice that secures Suffrage to one class gives it to all. The struggle of the last thirty years has not been merely on the black man as such, but on the broader ground of his humanity.

In the end, although Black men were given the right to vote "first" the reality is that they were behind White Women by 98 years in securing the right to vote.