black women

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Recommended: The role of women in the civil rights movement

The abolition of slavery in the South forced all people—men, women, blacks, and whites alike—to reconsider how they defined their freedom in America. The plantation hierarchy, which had enforced the relative stratification of the southern population for centuries, placing white men at the top, followed by white women, then black men, and finally black women at the bottom, was put into jeopardy by the emancipation of the slaves. In particular, the demarcation between white women and freed black men was obscured. The curtailment of a clear division between the two groups led each to band together and vehemently advocate for and prioritize their freedom and rights. During discussions surrounding rights and freedom, the white women assumed one side of the debate and the black men the other. The double discrimination that characterized this epoch left black women positioned in the middle. This arrangement denied black women from reaping the benefits that were extended to either group—effectively excluding them from being a part of either group. Mary Eliza Church Terrell summarized this unique position eloquently during her address at the first National Association of Colored Women meeting (Brown, 39). She declared, “we refer to the fact that this is an association of colored women, because our peculiar status in this country at the present time seems to have demanded that we stand by ourselves” (Mary Eliza Church Terrell, 39). To pursue their rights and freedom, it was necessary, not only for black women to unite and fight together, but to advocate for the rights of all citizens of the United States of America. In the years leading up to and following 1870, when the ratification of the Fifteenth Amendment guaranteed black me... ... middle of paper ... ...e and gender, were by default always arguing for universal equality. In no instance could black women argue specifically for their rights and freedom, without necessarily raising up the all blacks and females. As the famous phrase declares, black women were “lifting as they climb” (Brown, 44). In their fight for enfranchisement, they were advocating for universal suffrage; in their movement to end lynching, they were urging, “that every human being should have a fair trial;” in the demand for fair, living wages, they were insisting that all people should have the capacity to live honestly and adequately from their pay (Brown, 34). Black women, not only assumed a peculiar position in society, where they had to band together to fight for their own rights, but also they were in a powerful situation, which granted them the capacity to fight for everyone’s rights.

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