There was an excellent article in this past Sunday’s New York Times about “white supremacy” in the Woman Suffrage movement. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/02/opinion/sunday/women-voting-19th-amendment-white-supremacy.html?ref=oembed

While doing my research into the life and work of Susan B. Anthony, this was an idea I had to confront with honesty. The suffrage movement was a large movement comprising many different viewpoints as to tactics and goals, not unlike the current Women’s March movement, which has had its share of controversy. In Miss Anthony’s case, I honestly do not believe that she was racist. She was a committed abolitionist and a close friend of Frederick Douglass. African-American men and women were frequent guests at her home in Rochester. I do think, however, that her single-mindedness when she turned her attention to woman suffrage resulted in some strange alliances. George Francis Train, the man who gave initial financing to her newspaper, was a notorious racist. When the 14th and 15th amendments were written, guaranteeing citizenship and the right to vote to freed male slaves, Miss Anthony opposed it, believing that women’s votes were the higher priority. The women at the forefront of the movement were generally well-educated and many of them recoiled at the idea of “ignorant” male immigrants being given the franchise before their own ranks. I think this was a classic case of “the ends justify the means.” As Miss Anthony, I like to tell my listeners, “If women had gotten the vote first, we would surely have brought our black brothers and sisters into the fold. Our fear, which has proven well-founded, was that giving black men the vote would not insure that they would then extend the franchise to the women.”

When doing first-person historic interpretation, it is tempting to overlook the flaws in the person you are representing. While I do prefer to accentuate the positive aspects of Susan B. Anthony’s amazing life and struggles, I do not deny the troublesome aspects of her career or her legacy. As I continue to learn and grow with her history, I will likewise continue to be as honest and forthcoming as I can with my listeners. But I want to end this post with a quotation from Miss Anthony, which I think represents her true beliefs and commitment: “There can be but one principle, and that is equal rights for all.”