08/18/2020
100 years ago, the 19th Amendment was ratified, formally granting women the right to vote. African American women were largely excluded from the growing women’s suffrage movement because of their race. Early suffragettes like Mary Church Terrell and Charlotte Forte Grimke took up the cause, despite the racism they faced. In 1913, Ida B. Wells formed the Alpha Suffrage Club, believed to be the first organization focused on African American women’s suffrage in the United States. After the passage of the 19th Amendment, African American women still faced barriers exercising their right to vote. This could include waiting hours to register, facing violence, or taking new tests.
It took 95 years—3 generations of African American voters—after the 1870 Enforcement Acts, before Congress would enforce equal voting rights for African American men and women, with the passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act. In 2013, SCOTUS struck down a provision of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, holding that the racist practices which necessitated the law no longer present a problem.
