The Never-Ending Fight for Equality in an Unjust America
While White women were fighting for the right to vote, along the way, they intentionally excluded African American women. In 1920, The 19th Amendment gave voting rights to women, but African American women would have to wait another 45 years, before they would be able to exercise their right freely. The National American Women Suffrage Association was formed to give women the right to vote, but they quickly learned that if they wanted to speed their campaign ahead, they would have to exclude African American women whom they saw as slowing down and distracting to their efforts. They faced sexism, racism and often did not have husbands in positions of power to sway or convince friends to vote in favor of women's rights. Southern white women did not even want African American women to get the right to vote for fear of them gaining more political power.
So, just as this country always does, it places unfair barriers in the way for African Americans, and calls it all just and lawful. They implemented a poll tax, knowing most African Americans would not be able to pay. For those who were registered to vote, they would have to wait in lines for up to 12 hours and then forced to read and interpret parts of the Constitution. Since most southern blacks had no proper schooling, they could not read and were then unable to vote. Many were beaten and hundreds more killed by whites, when they attempted to exercise their right. It wasn't until 1965, 45 years after white women were given the right to vote in this country, that African American men and women could actually go freely to a poll. That year, Lyndon B Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act and outlawed poll taxes and reading assessments from voting stations. Today, we vote for those that struggled and fought the good fight and even gave their lives so that their children and their children's children would have rights that were not afforded them. African Americans, especially women, face the constant battle with receiving equality- equality that this unjust country just refuses to give.
