The Era of Reconstruction 1865-1877 - Women’s Suffrage

ASU HST 200 (Historical Themes) The Era of Reconstruction, 1865–1877 Women’s Suffrage Although the Fifteenth Amendment was widely welcomed, prominent women's rights advocates who had been fighting for the right to vote for decades considered it as a significant setback. Even more depressing was the knowledge that a number of women's rights advocates, like Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, had been heavily involved in the abolitionist struggle that preceded the American Civil War. With the stated goal of securing "equal Rights to all American citizens, especially the right of suffrage, irrespective of race, color, or sex," women and men, Black and White, formed the American Equal Rights Association (AERA) after the war. Two years later, with the passage of the Fourteenth Amendment, section 2 of which specifically qualified the liberties it extended to "male citizens," it appeared as though the progress made in support of civil rights was not only passing women by but also purposefully codifying their exclusion. There were several in Congress who hoped that the Fifteenth Amendment would finally provide women the right to vote. The final wording chosen by Congress crushed their aspirations. As a result of these dashed promises, a civil rights movement that had previously been unified in support of women and African Americans effectively broke apart. Frederick Douglass, a staunch supporter of Stanton, found it difficult to make the case for a piecemeal strategy that would give Black men's franchise priority if it was the only choice available after witnessing this division. He maintained that while he really supported women's voting rights, granting Black males the same privilege was "of the most urgent necessity" since "this country's government loves women." "The black people detest them even though they are the mothers, spouses, sisters, and daughters of our rulers. ......Women's rights activists and AERA members like Lucy Stone and Henry Browne Blackwell, who thought that more time was required to bring about female suffrage, mostly supported these arguments. "The negro needs suffrage to protect his life and property, as well as to ensure him respect and education," the activists said. Others called for quick action. Stanton and Anthony were among those who didn't let the setback stop them. They were deeply resentful that other abolitionists, with whom they had collaborated for years, had not insisted on including language pertaining to women in the amendments. Stanton maintained that in order to combat the influence of illiterate freedmen in the South and the influx of low-income European immigrants into the East, women must have the right to vote. Stanton and Anthony participated in the founding of the National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA) in 1869. The organization's goal was to guarantee that women would have the right to vote right away rather than at some unspecified later time. A few women took action; among them was Virginia Minor, a NWSA member, who made an attempt to register to vote in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1872. Minor filed a lawsuit in Missouri state courts when election authorities denied her entry, claiming that the Fourteenth Amendment guaranteed her citizenship and her right to vote. Eventually, this legal battle for women's suffrage reached the Supreme Court, which rejected Minor's claim in 1874 by ruling that "the constitution of the United States does not confer the right of suffrage upon any one."