Recording available here: A Brief History of African American Suffragists

STC Library is proud to invite Marcia Walker-McWilliams, Executive Director of the Black Metropolis Research Consortium at the University of Chicago Library, who will be presenting a brief history on African American suffragists.

“This presentation will explore the generations of African American women who have sought the vote for themselves and their communities, from the earliest efforts of African American women suffragists in the eighteenth century to the work of African American suffragists in the 2020 election. At times their efforts aligned with the broader women’s suffrage movement, but the ‘double cross’ of race and sex dictated that African American women’s suffrage efforts confront the ways in which race discrimination in addition to sex discrimination influenced their disfranchisement. Whereas the broader suffrage movement largely culminated in 1920 with the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment, African American suffragists continued their pursuit of a vote held captive by Jim Crow. This presentation offers insight into their struggles and explores how African American suffragists are born every day.”