The Fight For The Right Of Suffrage
America is a great country with many
liberties. Although many rights and
privileges were hard fought to attain, it is a well-known fact that the
discrimination of women and African American men has been an ongoing struggle
for progress in America. The plight of
freedom for both women and African American men in many ways is a similar
process.
Most people know of the harsh realities of
slavery for the African American man and the cruel bondage associated with
this. The African American man was
reduced to an existence on an animalistic level. He had no rights of humanity or a chance for an education. This evil system of slavery, seriously set
the wheels in motion for the plight of the African American man, as he had an
existence of forever non self -inflicted turmoil.
On the other hand, women of all
races were seriously treated wrong and as a matter of fact, in the past women
could not vote or own property. Women
were seen as a property owned by their husbands or the man of the household. As time progressed, when women started to
become a part of the workforce their wages were lower than their male
counterpart. Women who were more
qualified than men, still made less money.
These injustices showed the struggle for women’s rights were just as
important as the struggle for racial equality for the African American man.
As for the voting conspiracy theory,
African American men were believed to be a part of the constitutional
amendments passed by Congress on February 26, 1869 and was ratified on February
3, 1870. This read as, “Section 1 the
Right of Citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged
by the United States or by any state on account of race, color, or previous
condition of servitude. Section 2. The Congress shall have the power to enforce
this article by appropriate legislation.”
(Citation ). With this amendment
passed, it gave African American men the right to vote. Although this is well documented, there is a
believed conspiracy that African American men would take the short end of the
stick on this then newly passed law. It
may have seemed that African American men had achieved a great
accomplishment. Rightfully so they did,
but at the same time there was a devious reason why they were allowed such a
liberty. With African American men
gaining their right to vote, this process deviously hurt African American men
due to the procedures of voting.
Devices were set in place such as poll tax and literacy tests, which not
only hurt but discouraged African American men from voting. Rights won by African American men were a
purposely hidden dagger formed to keep them in bondage knowing that they were
not going to be able to vote anyway.
This voting procedure was a clever weapon used to discourage African
American men from voting. For example,
how could a man who was once a slave and was hindered from ever learning to
read or write be able to pass a test of literacy? Or at the same time, with slavery ending in 1865, how was a
former slave to have the money to pay poll taxes? After slavery was abolished and African American men had won
freedom and later their right to suffrage, it is sad to say but in many ways it
seemed as if it was in vain. Due to
the fact that those fortunate African American men could have slipped through the cracks of being able to exercise their right of
suffrage, they were easily influenced on whom to vote for due to bribes and not
having a chance of a proper education.
By stating these issues of trickery, it was these methods that kept
African American men down.
On the other hand, women of all races were not
allowed to have their right to suffrage until 1919. With the hard fought efforts of Susan B. Anthony, Sojourner
Truth, and Elizabeth Candy Stanton, they were some of the women who spearheaded
the fight for women’s rights to suffrage.
A direct product of their work was Amendment XIX which was passed by
Congress on June 4, 1919 and ratified on August 18, 1920. This amendment stated, “The right of citizens of the United States
to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on
account of sex.” (Citation) If women received their right to vote first,
they could have made more of an impact politically. Women other than African American women, were not slaves so they
had some type of education already set in place so they could form their own
political opinions. Before passing
Amendment XIX, women were held silent from their political choices. This continued to enable well- established
political figureheads not to be challenged.
In most cases, men were the head of their households and women were not
able to vote. This kept many men with
the misinformed idea that if women were allowed to vote in 1870, they would be
influenced by their husbands on whom to vote for. With this faulty argument, this would keep women from not only
voting but from not having equal rights and opportunities.
The right to
suffrage for African American men and women can be seen as a voting
conspiracy. This allowed racial
equality to be seen and at the same time, it was a smoke screen diversion that
came with a devious plot to superficially appease African American men. Women other than African American women,
were seen as more of a threat than African American men when the issue of voting
was discussed. With this being known,
political figures of those times knew that women other than those out of
slavery could pose a serious threat due to the fact that they had some
education and were last at winning their right to suffrage.
