Women’s failed bid to be included in the black suffrage amendment forged American feminisms

Evidence

For the first time ever in American history, black women like Mary Church Terrell, Sojourner Truth, Anna Cooper, Amanda Berry Smith and others broke through the long years of silence and began to articulate and record their experiences. In particular they emphasized the “female” aspect of their being which caused their lot to be different from that of the black male, a fact that was made evident when white men supported giving black men the vote while leaving all women disenfranchised. Horace Greeley and Wendell Phillips called it “the Negro’s hour” but in actuality what was spoken of as black suffrage was black male suffrage. — bell hooks, Ain’t I a Woman_ Black Women and…, 27 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Given the psychohistory of American racism, for white women to demand more rights from white men and stress that without such rights they would be placed in a social position like that of black men, not like that of black people, was to evoke in the minds of racist white men an image of white womanhood being degraded. It was a subtle appeal to white men to protect the white female’s position on the race/sex hierarchy. — bell hooks, Ain’t I a Woman_ Black Women and…, 422 (#expands, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Suffrage politics trapped black women between racist feminists and sexist black men; White women’s rights appeals exploited racism against black men — bell hooks, Ain’t I a Woman_ Black Women and…, 422; Standard reasons for black women’s nonparticipation fail historical scrutiny. — bell hooks, Ain’t I a Woman_ Black Women and…, 547 (+3 more)

Broader Connections

• Suffrage politics trapped black women between racist feminists and sexist black men #expands (0.85)
• The 19th-century suffrage struggle privileged black men over all women #corroborates (0.82) — bell hooks, Ain’t I a Woman_ Black Women and…, 27
• White women’s rights appeals exploited racism against black men #expands (0.80) — bell hooks, Ain’t I a Woman_ Black Women and…, 422
• Black women needed a separate feminist intellectual tradition #expands (0.80)
• Standard reasons for black women’s nonparticipation fail historical scrutiny. #expands (0.78) — bell hooks, Ain’t I a Woman_ Black Women and…, 547