African American Women in the Struggle for the Vote, 1850–1920 (Blacks in the Diaspora)

I know the records are extremely sparse for researching African American women who worked in the Suffrage Movement. However, there is a Nashville, TN woman who was left out and for no good reason. Her information is well documented an easy to find. I am the founder of a monument to five suffragists including Juno Frankie (Seay) Pierce, an African American who was very active here in Nashville. She spoke at the first meeting of the Tennessee League of Women Voters and founded a school for orphaned girls who were being threatened with jail. She is buried at Greenwood Cemetery on Elm Hill Pike in Nashville. The statue is in Centennial Park in Nashville and includes 4 Tennessee women as well as Carrie Chapman Catt. I am the lawyer who set up the non-profit and selected a board of nine women who raised $750,000 in private donations to commission the statue by local artist Alan LeQuire. Frankie Pierce should have been included in this book, but sadly she was not.

Thanks to Rosalyn Terborg-Penn, founder of the Association of Black Women Historians for her research and determination to bring into focus the African American women in the struggle for the vote for seven decades. As a researcher on suffrage and women's rights between 1900 and 1920 I have found so little information about the contributions of women of color to the cause. They were excluded from white women's clubs and even segregated in the marches, parades and protests. More attention has always been paid to the upper middle class, The NEW WHITE Women and the affluent women who could fund the cause and wield their power connected to their husbands and the General Federation of Women's Clubs founded in 1890. Ms. Terborg-Penn analyzes the racism and classism that prevailed in the society and politics of the time. Anyone interested in knowing about the divisions in education and social status needs to absorb this book for the truth and the heroic and independent black women who braved the cruelty and prejudice to establish their own identity in the struggle for the vote and equality.

I am a women's history historian and I simply cannot finish this book. I have invested the majority of my education and research concerning myself with the issue of race in regards to woman suffrage - which is ultimately the primary reason I purchased this book. At the suggestion of a professor, I picked up the book and began to read. I simply could not deal with the vast amount of disregard Terborg-Penn has for the facts. Throughout the narrative, her own "agenda" seeps through the pages in an effort to convey her own beliefs without offering up any real hard evidence. While the subject of race is very sensitive in regard to suffrage, the lengths at which Terborg-Penn goes to make her own opinions known almost disregards her entire scholarship on the subject. Why does anyone want to hear your disagreements with other historians when there is no "hard evidence" to back up your interpretation of events? I just simply cannot review this book in a positive light because of the gaping holes in her argument. For example - in the early pages of the narrative, Terborg-Penn is arguing her belief that Stanton was (more or less) a racist, and in the event that Stanton, given a choice between fighting for the plight of slaves or that of elite white women - she would most certainly choose the latter. Terborg-Penn further elabortes by discussing Elisabeth Griffin's argument on Stanton, which explained Stanton's attack against black men on account of their gender- not race. Terborg-Penn follows this up with "I disagree. The facts do not support this argument." (No facts listed after this.... paragraph ends.....) Her argument for black women never addressed the plight of the slaves or even black women supporting other black women- but rather, Terborg-Penn insisted that black women could fight racism and sexism simultaneously. How are those scenarios even similar?

Order received in good condition. This book is an excellent resource to me. I'm taking an American history class and I'm writing a paper on women's rights. This book is just what I needed to incorporate the African American women who fought for women's right's in this time period.

Herstory not taught in our white male culture dominated school system.

Important part of history that should be taught in school-

Same as the above review.excellent historical perspective