Susan B Anthony Doesn't Deserve ‘I Voted’ Stickers | Op-Ed | NowThis

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hello my name is luria every election year women cast their ballots and walked to mount hope cemetery in rochester new york proudly placed their i

voted

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on the headstone a hero of women's suffrage

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b Anthony They have perpetuated idealized versions of Anthony and his white colleagues like Carrie Chapman Catt and Elizabeth Cady Stanton. Evidence of his ruthless racial bias has been pushed into the shadows, allowing him to erase his female-of-color counterparts who also tirelessly fought for the right to vote. Susan the Anthony only seemed to care about blacks when the status quo was in their favor in 1864.

Elizabeth Cady Stanton, loyal president of the National League for women, and Anthony, the league's secretary, signed a congressional petition in support of the 13th constitutional amendment to abolish slavery. However, he got nearly 400,000 signatures when the Fifteenth Amendment giving African-American men the right to vote was ratified Anthony Stanton and his colleagues were furious Lori Ginsburg, a professor of history and women's studies at Penn State University, spoke with NPR in 2011 about her book Elizabeth Cady Stanton and American Life there, shared quotes in which Stanton asserted that educated virtuous white women were more worthy of the vote and his fear for future women if these debased black men were allowed to vote years Earlier when she spoke to Frederick Douglass at an 1886 meeting of the American Equal Rights Association Susan B Anthony stated that I will cut off this right arm before I work or demand the vote for the Negro and not for the woman, of course, in the 19th century, when only white men could cast their vote there. there were disagreements among activists over which disenfranchised group

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d the vote first whether Anthony was referring specifically to white women they are all women regardless of race is irrelevant when considering his abandonment of his abolitionist roots when black men were being atrocious Lee lynched across the country for trying to exercise her newly constitutionalized right to vote, some people might argue that women like Susan B Anthony were just products of the times in which they lived, that she did not live in an era that embraced progressive ideals and open opposition, but that's silly pity. it was not invented in the 21st century african americans faced injustice at an inopportune time for her susan b

anthony

did nothing sometimes silence is more damaging than words in the early 20th century Anthony was siding with the likes of Belle Kearney a Mississippi-born women's suffrage advocate and outright white supremacist, in the words of Carrie Chapman Catt, founder of the League of Women Voters, women's suffrage will strengthen white supremacy, not weaken it. intersectional validation and fighting for the plight of all who identify as women on the coming election day when you are looking for a home for your I voted stickers, I suggest you head to the Oak Hill Cemetery Crematorium in Battle Creek, Michigan , where a fearsome champion of women's rights whose 1851 speech is not a woman is still heralded by educators and historians to this day or Oakwood Cemetery in Chicago, Illinois, well, you'll find the headstone of Ida B Wells, the activists and journalists who led an anti-lynching campaign following the ratification of the Fifteenth Amendment and refused to be hidden by white suffrages who instructed black supporters to march in the back of the 1913 parade in Washington DC or place your sticker inside the Fannie Lou Hamer Memorial Garden in Ruleville Mississippi and pay tribute to the incomparably brave civil rights activists who overcame police brutality was fired from a job for trying to register to vote and the president himself lyndon b johnson tried to divert attention from her speeches she was still without a doubt one of the most powerful orators of the age the pursuit of justice

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't have to be an exclusionary journey and even though susan banthony couldn't see that doesn't mean you have to settle for her narrow view of victory i'm not saying susan banthony was the most racist fraud ever there were many more racist white suffragettes than i've mentioned here there were also white female suffragettes who didn't resort to racism to keep their agenda jesse daniel ames was a texas suffragette who founded the lynching prevention association for the south women became fully integrated and peaked at 40,000 members.

What I want is the names of women of color who faced violence and disenfranchisement while fighting for the right to vote, often without the help of their white counterparts. Given your due, do your research, learn their names, and think about who really deserves your gratitude come the next election.