“African American Women and the Battle for Women’s Suffrage”exhibit up now at the 1978 Art Center
In honor of Black History Month, SOMA Action member Gail Safian, in conjunction with the Durand-Hedden House, researched and wrote an exhibit honoring the role of African American women in the fight for women’s suffrage.
Here, she answers a few questions about the exhibit:
1. What do you think people will get out of experiencing this exhibit?
Both before and after the Civil War, African American women had to struggle not only with the entrenched sexism faced by white women, but also with racism.
One of the misconceptions many people have is that white people were solely responsible for freeing enslaved Black people and allowing them the vote.
This exhibit will shed some light on the work Black women and men did themselves – on their own, and through organizations and state, local and federal government pressure -- to be politically engaged in the fight to reform laws and policies. African American suffragists were active in the movement from its earliest days.
2. What originally motivated you to create the exhibit?
This exhibit about African American suffragists is part of a broader one on the Long Battle for Women’s Suffrage that is actually on the walls of the Durand-Hedden House, Maplewood’s historic house museum. The larger exhibit was scheduled to open on March 17, 2020. We know what happened then. It is sitting and waiting.
When I was researching the larger issue of the long battle for women’s suffrage, it became apparent that the role of African American women was largely overlooked. In the six-volume history of women’s suffrage written by Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Black people were completely ignored. We realized that there was an important story to tell – intertwined with the main narrative, but also highlighted on its own.
3. What was the most surprising thing you learned?
The 19th amendment, passed in 1920, stating that “the right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex.”
Previously, the 15th Amendment, passed in 1870, had prohibited states from denying a citizen the right to vote based on that citizen’s “race, color or previous condition of servitude.”
Nevertheless, states – primarily (but not only) in the South – continued to deny Black people the right to vote by establishing literacy and ID requirements, poll taxes and other barriers. After the 19th Amendment passed, the states interested in suppressing the vote of Black people just expanded those efforts to include newly enfranchised women voters.
Our nation still had to pass the Civil Rights and Voting Rights Acts of the 1960s – so many years later – to allow Black, Latino and other people to exercise their right to vote.
The sad thing is that this battle is not yet won – the 2016 and 2018 elections revealed widespread voter suppression in states as disparate as Georgia and Wisconsin.
The good news is that the expanded ability to vote by mail, and the bright spotlight shone on the electoral process in 2020, have helped to overcome those efforts – for the time being. But we need to be eternally vigilant.
4. How can people experience the exhibit during the pandemic?
The exhibit on African American suffragists, along with profiles of Sojourner Truth, Mary Church Terrell, and Florence Spearing Randolph, can be seen in the windows of the 1978 Arts Center, 1978 Springfield Ave., Maplewood, throughout February, Black History Month.
The Durand-Hedden House is hopeful that by the end of this spring, or perhaps early fall, we will be able to invite people back into the museum, at 523 Ridgewood Rd., Maplewood, to see the entire exhibit.
The exhibit at the 1978 Arts Center is part of a town-wide celebration of Black History Month organized by Ana de Archuleta, Director of Maplewood’s Division of Arts and Culture.