By Alison Parker Expressing an early version of the theory of intersectionality at the turn-of-the-twentieth century, Mary Church Terrell identified herself as “a colored woman in a white world” who experienced both racism and sexism. Throughout her life, Terrell also publicly advocated on behalf of black girls and women who were unfairly convicted for defending themselves against assaults by whites. Today, black women activists have similar priorities. Kimberle Crenshaw’s African American Policy Forum, for instance, coined the hashtag movement #SayHerName, urging the Black Lives Matter movement to bring specific attention to police violence against black women such as Sandra Bland, […]
Lampooning Political Women
By Alison K. Lange. For as long as women have battled for equitable political representation in America, those battles have been defined by images—whether illustrations, engravings, photographs, or colorful chromolithograph posters. Some of these pictures have been flattering, many have been condescending, and others downright incendiary. They have drawn upon prevailing cultural ideas of women’s perceived roles and abilities and often have been circulated with pointedly political objectives. An excerpt from Picturing Political Power: Images in the Women’s Suffrage Movement In the mid-19th century, female reformers faced an impossible task as they advocated for rights and aimed to maintain a […]
Suffrage and Beyond: 19 Books for Women’s History Month
We’ve gathered nineteen suggestions to commemorate the centennial of the Nineteenth Amendment. All are available in ebook format, and most have audiobook versions as well. Be sure to visit your public library’s website! Your library card may get you free access to digital versions of these books via platforms such as Libby and Hoopla. Don’t have a library card? New York Public Library has expanded its online offerings — any New York State resident may apply for a card via the SimplyE app. If you want to commemorate the U.S. women’s suffrage centennial. . . …here are some recently published […]
How Black Suffragists Fought for the Right to Vote and a Modicum of Respect
Hallie Quinn Brown and Other “Homespun Heroines” By Martha S. Jones Hallie Quinn Brown knew the power of black women and urged anyone who heard her to let it flourish. Read her remarks from 1889 and you might believe she saw the future or at least had the capacity to call it into being: “I believe there are as great possibilities in women as there are in men. . . . We are marching onward grandly. . . . We love to think of the great women of our race—the mothers who have struggled through poverty to educate their children. […]
Susan B. Anthony to Wonder Woman–“Women’s Suffrage and the Media” Research Database Chronicles Right-to-Vote Movement
The original version of this post appeared here on June 19, 2017, by NYU. Women’s Suffrage and the Media,” an online database and resource site launched this month, includes primary and secondary sources that chronicle and examine the suffrage movement as portrayed in news, propaganda, advertising, entertainment, and other aspects of public life. The database, hosted by New York University’s Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute and conceived by NYU journalism professor Brooke Kroeger and a group of American Journalism Historians Association members, aims to serve a diverse group of users—from middle schoolers and life-long learners to academic researchers and journalists. […]
Interview: Bierman and Thompson, Leaders of The League of Women Voters of New York State
Interview conducted by Nicholas MacDonald, Humanities New York HNY: How did you each get started with the League of Women Voters? Laura: I joined the League in 1982, when I moved from Washington D.C. to Albany. I was worried about not being as involved in politics, that turned out to not be a concern! Dare: I was pretty apolitical for the first 25 years of my life, but then I accidentally got a job teaching middle school social studies. Having to teach the Constitution really opened my eyes to civic responsibility; after that, I became involved with the League of […]
