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| timetoast.com |
Many women gained voting rights 100 years ago, but that wasn’t reality for minorities. Native Americans were given voting rights between 1924-1948 depending on the state. Prior to that, some Native men could vote, but appallingly was determined only by their willingness to leave their tribe and become a U.S. citizen.
Chinese immigrant citizens, both men and women, wouldn’t be allowed to vote until the 40s.
But this article is about black women. As great as white suffragists were for white women, they discriminated against black women in spite of black women fighting for the rights of all women. After the 19th Amendment passed, black women continued to be prevented from voting in many states (mostly Southern) until the anti-discrimination law passed in 1965, a full 45 years later.
The issue is still not over for those living in poor and rural conditions with reduced access to their polling station. I see it first hand here in public housing, where a lot of my neighbors can’t drive or have no vehicle, there is no taxi service, and they probably couldn’t afford the taxi anyway. They can walk or roll in their wheelchairs to the grocery across the street, but the polls are miles away. Classism, Racism, Sexism, and Ableism are real and oppressive.
