OP EDITORIAL
HARLEM COMMUNITY NEWSPAPERS
OP-ED: Redefining Suffrage, Unerasing Black Women By Gwen McKinney
S
Black women’s demand to be
This centennial year is an ap-
ojourner Truth. Harriet Tub-
equal and heard extends beyond the
propriate time to redefine universal
man. Ida B. Wells. Shirley
century run-up to the 19th Amend-
suffrage through the prism of tri-
Chisholm. Rosa Parks.
ment. It was intersectional and
umphs and tragedies. Trust Black
These household names, span-
linked with abolition of slavery, an-
women must be more than a cliché.
ning a couple of centuries, qualify
ti-lynching battles, literacy drives,
Unerased Black Women prom-
for the Suffrage Hall of Fame.
sharecropper land rights campaigns
ises to create brave spaces and in
Almost a buzz word syn-
many Black women led suffrage
and the establishment of a radical
alliance with Black newspapers
onymous with the Year of the
campaigns, the 19th Amendment
Black press that was led by many
across the country, unfurl a frank
Woman, in 2020 the centerpiece
put white women on an empower-
Black women suffragists.
public conversation about Suf-
of suffrage will be marked by
ment tract to electoral engagement.
Our suffrage quest continued
the 100th Anniversary of the
Interestingly, the suffrage move-
through the Civil Rights Era and
Through a digital destination,
19th Amendment granting wom-
ment, festooned in the symbolic
passage of the Voting Rights Act
we’ll turn our ear to a beating heart
en’s voting rights. Referred to as
color white, is often portrayed
of 1965 which finally, for the first
of resilience, resistance, words and
a bold justice movement, suffrage
through a narrow window uncom-
time, delivered the franchise to
deed. Daughter of slaves, descen-
will be celebrated as America’s
plicated by the strictures of race
Black people in the South.
dants of warriors, writers, journal-
march to full democracy.
and power that framed the Amend-
Rewind centuries earlier.
ists, teachers, mentors, activists
ment then and now.
Our demand to self-govern
– universal suffragists all – have
In popular parlance, can we unpack the significance of suffrage
Look no further than the his-
predates the formation of this re-
and inclusive democracy for Black
torical landscape of that moment.
public, beginning in 1619 when
Frances Ellen Watkins Harp-
women? Words matter. But the im-
Congressional approval of the Act
the first Africans, snatched from
er. Anna Julia Cooper. Mary Ann
pact and impetus of their meaning
in 1919 was the same year as the
their ancestral home, landed on
Shadd. Harriet Jacobs. Josephine
matter more.
infamous Red Summer, a tumultu-
these shores. Those nameless suf-
St. Pierre Ruffin. Mary McLeod
ous white supremacist reign of ter-
frage pioneers joined with their
Bethune. Fannie Lou Hamer. Ella
ror and lynching in Black commu-
men to resist and carry the torch
Baker. Gertrude
Suffrage is the right to vote
nities across the country. One year
for all people – Native Americans,
ell. Charlotta Bass. Marvel Jackson
in public elections. Universal suf-
after the 19th Amendment was
Chinese immigrants and even Irish
Cooke.
frage means everyone gets to vote,
adopted in 1921 racist mobs set
indentured servants – denied fun-
Most of these women can’t
as opposed to only men or property
ablaze Tulsa, OK, decimating what
damental liberty. Then and now,
claim household name status in the
holders… For example, after trying
was revered as Black Wall Street.
we wage claims to own our bodies,
traditional suffrage roll call. But
voices and choices.
their noble stories will be unerased.
Here’s a composite definition
Harlem Community Newspapers | January 30. 2020
from online dictionaries:
6
frage, Race, and Power.
something to say.
Vol. 25, No 5 January 30, 2020
Bustill-Moss-
for about a hundred years, Amer-
The Year of the Woman battle
ican women were granted suf-
cry is perversely at odds with Black
We build on that truth by rede-
frage and voted for the first time
women’s unbroken quest for liber-
fining suffrage beyond the limited
in 1920.
ation. Although lauded today as the
act of casting a ballot. For Black
Gwen McKinney is campaign
The 19th Amendment was
most reliable and consistent voting
women, the narrative is rooted
director of an initiative, “Suf-
adopted Aug. 18, 1920, after the
bloc for democratic change, we’ve
in telling herstory, unerasing the
frage. Race. Power: Unerased
required number of states ratified
historically endured being margin-
achievements of yesterday and the
Black Women,” that will launch in
the constitutional measure. Though
alized, dismissed and erased.
possibilities for the future.
March.
Stay tuned as suffrage, redefined, meets our truth.
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