Women’s Suffrage

Black women and Black women’s organizations have a long history of demanding equal representation in politics and the right to vote. This gallery highlights many of the organizations, movements, and suffragettes of the 19th and 20th century that focused on gender equality.

“A Woman Living Here Has Registered to Vote” window sign

This sign was designed to be placed in the window of a home so that all who passed would know that the woman within had exercised her right under the 19th amendment and registered to vote. It also served as a reminder to other women to do the same. 1920. Source: National Museum of American History, https://collections.si.edu/search/detail/edanmdm:nmah_1414548?q=voting&fq=online_media_type%3A%22Images%22&record=20&hlterm=voting&inline=true

Petition for Woman Suffrage from DC

Petition sent to 45th Congress in favor of women’s suffrage signed by Black men and women. c. 1877-1879. Source: NARA, https://www.docsteach.org/documents/document/douglass-petition-woman-suffrage

Early Suffrage Map

Map depicting which states have suffrage rights ranging from no suffrage to full suffrage by 1920. 1920. Source: The Woman Citizen/Wikimedia, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:US_Suffrage_Map_1920.png

Sojourner Truth

Sojourner Truth posing for a carte de visite which she sold to make money. Image captioned “I see the shadow to support the substance.” 1864. Source: LOC, http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.rbc/lprbscsm.scsm0880

The Phyllis Wheatley Club, Buffalo NY

NACW Buffalo, NY Branch Photo shows, seated (left to right): Mrs. Powell, unknown, Mrs. Saunders, Penolia McAden. Standing (left to right): unknown, Bette S. Anderson, Amelia Grace Anderson, Mary B. Talbert, Frances Nash, unknown, unknown, Theresa G. Anderson, Beatrice Chase, and Mrs. Chase. between 1911 and 1930. Source: LOC, https://lccn.loc.gov/94513827

NACW Banner

Banner used by the Oklahoma Federation of Colored Women’s Clubs in 1910 displaying the NACW motto “Lifting As We Climb” 1910. Source: NMAAHC, https://nmaahc.si.edu/object/nmaahc_2010.2.2a-d?destination=edan-search/collection_search%3Fedan_q%3D%252A%253A%252A%26edan_fq%255B0%255D%3Dp.edanmdm.indexedstructured.name%253A%2522National%2520Association%2520of%2520Colored%2520Women%2527s%2520Clubs%2522%26op%3DSearch

Headquarters for Colored Women Voters

Black women suffragists holding sign reading “Head-Quarters for Colored Women Voters,” in Georgia. 1910-1920. Source: Johnson’s Studio/Schomburg Center, https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/09740960-d940-0136-3dde-3d48f083c992

Frances E.W. Harper

Frances Ellen Watkins Harper portrait. 1898. Source: LOC, https://lccn.loc.gov/97513270

Delta Sigma Theta founders

Founding members of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Inc with banner. 1913. Source: Wikimedia, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Deltasigmathetafounders.jpg

Bernice Robinson, 1961

Black and white photograph of Bernice Robinson standing in a Citizenship School classroom. 1961. Source: Avery Research Center , https://lcdl.library.cofc.edu/lcdl/catalog/lcdl:93313

Anna Julia Cooper

Photograph of Anna Julia Cooper seated. 1901-1903. Source: C.M. Bell/LOC, https://lccn.loc.gov/2016702852

Angela Davis at the 2017 Women’s March

Photo of Angela Davis speaking at the 2017 Women’s March in DC. 2017. Source: Wikimedia, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Women%27s_March_-_Washington_DC_2017_(31771083973).jpg

Georgia Association Opposed Women’s Suffrage

Card sent to 64th Congress from Georgia Association Opposed to Woman Suffrage. 1915. Source: NARA, https://www.docsteach.org/documents/document/ga-opposed-woman-suffrage-card

“Juntos Se Puede” poster

Poster from Women’s March on Washington reading “Juntos se puede” which translates to “Together We Can.” 2017. Source: NMAAHC, https://collections.si.edu/search/record/ark:/65665/fd515bce75afe714af5817d0258880178e6

Ida B. Wells at suffrage parade, likely with Alpha Suffrage Club members

Ida B. Wells at 1913 suffrage parade, in Chicago Daily Tribune May 1913. March 5, 1913. Source: Chicago Daily Tribune/Wikimedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Iht319630cm1.jpg

Nannie Helen Burroughs holding Women’s National Baptist Convention banner

Nannie Helen Burroughs, an African American educator, orator, religious leader, and business women holding a Woman’s National Baptist Convention banner. 1905-1915. Source: Wikimedia, http://loc.gov/pictures/resource/cph.3c06646/

SC Federation of Colored Women’s Clubs, 1959

The Executive Board of the South Carolina Federation of Colored Women’s Clubs in front of the Wikinson Home in 1959. 1959. Source: Wikimedia, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:SCFCWC_executive_board.png

Sarah J. S. Garnet

Portrait of Mrs. Sarah J. S. Garnet, founder of Equal Suffrage League. late 1800s. Source: Schomburg Center, https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/7f591b21-5c9e-fa9a-e040-e00a18063d1c

Hettie B. Tilghman

Portrait of Hettie B. Tilghman, co-founder of the Phyllis Wheatley Club of East Bay and member of the Fannie Jackson Coppin Club. 1919. Source: Wikimedia, https://www.flickr.com/photos/internetarchivebookimages/14775789481/

hand sketched image of a woman warding off eagles labeled: "Jim Crow Law" and "Segregation."

Woman to the Rescue

John Henry Adams, “Woman to the Rescue,” The Crisis: A Record of the Darker Races, Vol. 12, No. 1, 1916. Image courtesy of Modernist Journals Project

black and white group photograph of Harriett Tubman and members of the NACW

Harriett Tubman and NACW

Harriett Tubman and the members of N.A.C.W. at the First Annual Conference of the National Federation of Afro American Women, July 20, 1896 Courtesy: National Park Service, Mary McLeod Bethune Council House NHS, National Archives for Black Women’s History

Mary Ann Shadd Cary

Mary Ann Shadd Cary. Photo courtesy of the National Archives of Canada, C-029977.