“Either I go with you or not at all. I am not taking this stand because I personally wish for recognition. I am doing it for the future benefit of my whole race.”–Ida B. Wells-Barnett, Anti-Lynching Activist and Founder of the Alpha Suffrage Club
August 26th is Women’s Equality Day. This year will mark the 100th Anniversary of the 19th Amendment. The 19th Amendment was ratified in August of 1920. It granted women the right to vote. However, the role that Black and other women of color played in the suffrage movement is often minimized. The above quote was voiced by a determined Ida B. Wells Barnett when, during a 1913 march in Washington D. C., leaders of the movement instructed Black women in the movement to walk at the end of the parade. This was done to appease Southern white women. While some Black women acquiesced, Wells-Barnett marched alongside the white delegation from her state of Illinois.
Because of rampant voter suppression tactics, Black women would have to continue the fight well beyond 1920 to exercise their right to vote. Unfortunately, there is not much children’s literature by Black authors that explores women like Wells-Barnett, Mary Church Terrell, Nannie Helen Burroughs, Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, members of Delta Sigma Theta, and many other unsung women who played pivotal roles as early suffragists. The following books by Veronica Chambers and Evette Dionne will introduce young readers to women in the movement. While Chambers’ Finish the Fight! focuses on various BIPOC (Black, Indigenous and People of Color) women, Dionne’s Lifting as We Climb tells the stories of Black women.
Finish the Fight!: The Brave and Revolutionary Women Who Fought for the Right to Vote
Veronica Chambers | The Staff of The New York Times | Versify | Middle-Grade | August 18, 2020
Who was at the forefront of women’s right to vote? We know a few famous names, like Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, but what about so many others from diverse backgrounds–black, Asian, Latinx, Native American, and more–who helped lead the fight for suffrage? On the hundredth anniversary of the historic win for women’s rights, it’s time to celebrate the names and stories of the women whose stories have yet to be told. Purchase Here
Lifting as We Climb: Black Women’s Battle for the Ballot Box
Evette Dionne | Viking Books for Young Readers | Middle-Grade | April 21, 2020
For African American women, the fight for the right to vote was only one battle.An eye-opening book that tells the important, overlooked story of black women as a force in the suffrage movement–when fellow suffragists did not accept them as equal partners in the struggle. Susan B. Anthony. Elizabeth Cady Stanton. Alice Paul. The Women’s Rights Convention at Seneca Falls. The 1913 Women’s March in D.C. When the epic story of the suffrage movement in the United States is told, the most familiar leaders, speakers at meetings, and participants in marches written about or pictured are generally white. That’s not the real story. Purchase Here
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