ABOUT

For Black women, the fight wasn't over in 1920. Their movement for gender and racial equality continues.

Mary Church Terrell.

Frances Ellen Watkins Harper.

Anna Julia Cooper.

Ida B. Wells-Barnett.

These women played significant leadership roles leading up to and during the United States Women’s Suffrage Movement and beyond, yet their stories and contributions are not widely known and the critical roles Black women played at the forefront of the campaign for women’s rights are too often forgotten.

This gap in America’s public consciousness is rooted in the history of racism and exclusion within the Suffrage Movement, which resulted in white women emerging as the movement’s primary protagonists, while Black women were effectively wiped from the narrative.

BLACK WOMEN’S SUFFRAGE COLLECTION

The content featured in this collection explores linkages between women’s suffrage and other social causes of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries (anti-slavery, anti-lynching, education reform and civil rights) as well as racism within the Suffrage Movement.

For Black women, the struggle to vote and to effect change through civic engagement more broadly did not end in 1920.

Their stories add new shades of context to related topics in our nation today, from the suppression of voting rights based on race and gender to the increasing number of women of color running for—and winning—elected office.

Group of Suffragists
Group of Suffragists

DIGITAL PUBLIC LIBRARY OF AMERICA (DPLA)

DPLA connects people to the riches held within America’s libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural heritage institutions.

The cultural institutions participating in DPLA represent the richness and diversity of America itself, from the smallest local history museum to our nation’s largest cultural institutions.

DIGITAL PUBLIC LIBRARY OF AMERICA (DPLA)

DPLA connects people to the riches held within America’s libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural heritage institutions.

The cultural institutions participating in DPLA represent the richness and diversity of America itself, from the smallest local history museum to our nation’s largest cultural institutions.

DPLA’S STATEMENT ON POTENTIALLY HARMFUL CONTENT

Curating the Black Women’s Suffrage Digital Collection

Materials in this collection and the language that describes them may be harmful. Libraries and archives collect materials from different cultures and time periods to preserve and make available the historical record. As a result, library materials, such as those presented here, may reflect racist and misogynoir views that may be harmful and difficult to view.

The content featured in this collection explores linkages between Black women’s suffrage and other social causes of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries (anti-slavery, anti-lynching, education reform and civil rights) as well as racism within the Suffrage Movement. These materials are presented here to recognize and celebrate the important contributions of Black women and their resiliency in the face of ongoing racism and exclusion.

SEE HARMFUL LANGUAGE STATEMENT

Credits

  • Concept + Ideation: Samantha Gibson
  • Curation + Partnerships: Shaneé Yvette Murrain
  • Copywriting: Kathleen Williams
  • Historical Review: Alison M. Parker, Ph.D., historian and author, Unceasing Militant: The Life of Mary Church Terrell
  • Design: Jasmine A. Lockwood
  • Data Engineering: Audrey Altman, Michael Della Bitta
  • Development: Audrey Altman, Kiara Contreras, Michael Della Bitta, Scott Williams
  • DPLA’s Statement on Potentially Harmful Content: Audrey Altman, DPLA Metadata Working Group Members
  • Copyrighted Images: Collection of the Massachusetts Historical Society; National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution; Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Photographs and Prints Division, The New York Public Library; The Stephen H. Hart Research Center, History Colorado; WUSTL Digital Gateway Image Collections & Exhibitions