Suffrage: Women’s Long Battle for the Vote

UCLA history professor DuBois (coeditor, Unequal Sisters) delivers a comprehensive and well-paced account of the 75-year campaign for women’s voting rights in the U.S. Disputing claims that women’s suffrage was a “single issue” crusade marred by the “fatal flaw” of racism, DuBois details the movement’s roots in the temperance and abolitionist causes; highlights suffragists’ advocacy for trade unions, birth control, and other social justice issues; and contextualizes the exclusion of black women from the mainstream suffrage movement in the Jim Crow era. She documents Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony’s leadership of the first national universal suffrage campaign in the 1850s and details the schism within the movement that developed during debates over the enfranchisement of free black men after the Civil War. At the turn of the 20th century, suffragist leaders focused on changing state voting laws, while antilynching activist Ida B. Wells and others fought to desegregate the movement. In 1912, Quaker reformer Alice Paul launched the constitutional campaign that led to the ratification of the 19th amendment in 1920. DuBois rightly focuses on the colorful personalities that defined the distinct eras of suffragism, and effectively marshals a wealth of source material. This thorough, evenhanded presentation offers valuable lessons for readers interested in women’s rights and the history of progressive activism in America. (Feb.)