On This Day in History: August 18

Women get the vote in the U.S.

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The 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution guaranteed women the right to vote. Mostly white women, that is. The suffrage movement was rife with racism; BIPOC women were left to fend for themselves. That’s why it should not surprise you that a century after the amendment’s ratification, roughly half of white female voters decided Trump deserved a second term.

--On This Day in History, Shit Went Down: August 18, 1920--

Women’s suffrage had been struggling for the vote for many decades. Women were allowed to vote in certain states prior to 1920, but there was no national law to enforce it. World War I proved something of a turning point, as the National American Women Suffrage Association (NAWSA) supported the American war effort and made the argument that it was hypocritical for the country to fight for democracy abroad yet deny it to half the population at home. The white half, I mean.

One argument made by suffragettes involved stating the 15th Amendment, ratified in 1870, demanded it. That amendment states voting rights cannot be denied “on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.” They said being a woman, even a rich white one, qualified as servitude, but it didn’t fly. In fact, it was the 15th Amendment that created a split along color lines in the suffrage movement, when Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony made the racist proclamation that Black men shouldn’t get the vote before white women did. 

In 1890, the aforementioned NAWSA came into being as a merging of two rival suffrage organizations. As the movement gained support, organizers came to the conclusion it could be even more popular, especially with southern whites, if they punted the Black women and focused solely on getting the vote for white women. Mary Church Terrell, a Black woman, stayed within NAWSA to advocate for her people within the association, preaching strength through unity. 

Lacking white support, in 1896 the National Association of Colored Women was formed as a merger of two other clubs at its first annual convention, where former enslaved person and celebrated abolitionist Harriet Tubman was the keynote speaker. She and many other Black women would fight for decades to secure their voting rights. Because with the ratification of the 19th Amendment on August 18, 1920, Black women gained the right to vote, but for most the “right” was in name only. Loopholes in state constitutions prevented a whopping 75% of Black women from exercising these rights. Black women were specifically targeted with long lineups, paying a head tax, undergoing tests, and being asked to interpret the Constitution before being allowed to register. In the south, it was also common for Black women to be physically attacked or thrown in jail for attempting to vote.

To this day many American states use whatever methods possible to prevent Black women from voting.

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