Suffrage for All – Women of Color Who Fought for the Vote
Updated 09/30/2024
Although the 19th Amendment was an important step in the fight for voting rights, it did not guarantee voting access for all women. Even after the ratification of the 19th Amendment, Black, Indigenous, Asian, Latinx, and queer women continued to fight for equal representation in face of discrimination and violence.
It was only after decades of organizing and activism that the Voting Rights Act of 1965 finally prohibited states from enacting discriminatory laws barring citizens from the elective franchise. We want to honor and recognize the Black, Indigenous, Asian, Latinx, and LGBTQ+ heroes that have paved the way to equal voting rights for all.
Ida B. Wells-Barnett (1862-1931)
Ida B. Wells-Barnett was a journalist and political activist. She led the nation’s first anti-lynching campaign, which urged state leaders to develop and implement anti-lynching legislation. In 1913, Wells-Barnett founded the Alpha Suffrage Club (ASC), Chicago’s first Black suffrage organization. She created a coalition of Black women that wielded decisive political power and enacted impactful change. In that same year, ASC canvassed Chicago’s 2nd Ward and registered thousands of women voters who in-turn elected Oscar DePriest, the city’s first Black councilman. Wells-Barnett continued to fight for Black representation and desegregation within the larger suffrage movement. She became a founding member of the National Association of Colored Women (NACW) and was the first Black woman to run for Illinois state senate.
Mary Church Terrell (1864-1954)
Mary Church Terrell was a founding member of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and the NACW. Terrell campaigned for a form of women’s suffrage that was centered around fighting for both racial justice and Black advancement in American society. She coined the phrase “Lifting As We Climb” which became a motto for Black suffragists and the NACW. She actively fought against violent intimidation practices and racist voting laws such as poll taxes and literacy tests that disenfranchised the Black voters. She saw the right to vote as an important step in achieving both gender and racial equality. In 1953, Terrell secured a major civil rights victory when she challenged the Supreme Court to rule that segregated eating establishments were unconstitutional.
Mary McLeod Bethune (1875-1955)
Mary McLeod Bethune was one of America’s top educators and civil rights leaders. She founded the Daytona Educational and Industrial School, a boarding school for young Black girls which later transformed into Bethune-Cookman College, a four-year university that still exists to this day. Throughout her life, Bethune founded and led numerous organizations and clubs. She founded the National Council of Negro Women, was elected president of the NACW and served as vice president of the NAACP. Bethune held voter registration drives and led Black voters to the polls to vote for the first time despite violent opposition. She dedicated her life to educating voters about the importance of political participation and fighting racist measures that sought to exclude Black voters.
Mabel Ping-Hua Lee (1897-1966)
Mabel Ping-Hua Lee was the first Chinese woman to earn her doctorate in America. During her lifetime, she was a feminist activist and an advocate for the Chinese community in the US. In 1921, at the age of 16, she was accepted to Barnard College and led a prominent suffrage parade. She championed not only women’s suffrage, but also for equal educational and employment opportunities. She educated white suffragists on the struggles of Chinese women facing both sexism and racism. Although women won the right to vote in New York in 1917, it did not include Chinese women. The Chinese Exclusion Act (1882-1943) barred the Chinese community from citizenship and the right to vote.
Zitkala-Ša “Red Bird” (1876-1938)
Zitkala-Ša “Red Bird” also known as Gertrude Simmons Bonnin was an Indigenous activist and a member of the Yakton Sioux Nation. After leaving the Reservation to study music, she returned home to find it destitute and occupied by white settlers. She then joined the Society of American Indians and wrote for American Indian Magazine, emphasizing the importance of preserving Indigenous culture while also advocating for Native Americans the right to gain US citizenship and the right to vote. Even though the Indian Citizenship Act of 1924 granted Native Americans citizenship status, states still had the power to bar them from voting. Following this, Zitkala-Ša founded the Indian Welfare Committee of the Federation with which she led mass voter registration drives, lobbied for Indigenous rights legislation, and fought for suffrage for all Indigenous people.
Jovita Idár (1886-1946)
Jovita Idár was a Mexican-American educator, journalist, and political activist. She was born and raised in Laredo, Texas where the Mexican-American community was constantly under threat of violent discrimination and lynchings. Idár began writing for her father’s newspaper La Crónica where she wrote about racism, women’s suffrage, and solidarity with those fighting for Mexican independence. In 1911, she founded the La Liga Femenil Mexicaista (League of Mexican Women) to provide educational opportunities for the Mexican-American community. During the Mexican Revolution, she crossed the border to serve as a field nurse. When Idár came back to Texas, she continued to write in support of Mexican-American rights, the preservation of Mexican heritage, and women’s suffrage.
The heroism and accomplishments of these brave women along with countless other civil rights activists led to the establishment of the Voting Rights Act in 1965. This watershed piece of legislation prohibits state and local governments from denying citizens the right to vote on the basis of race.
However, this landmark protection is currently under threat. In 2013, the Supreme Court voted to invalidate a key section of the law requiring jurisdictions with histories of racial prejudice to have approval before changing voting regulations. This has allowed states to pass voter suppression laws that prevent many Americans from being able to vote. Voter ID laws, voter purges, and gerrymandering particularly affect the queer community, communities of color, people with disabilities, and the elderly.
As of 2024, discriminatory voting laws barring electoral participation on the basis of gender, class, and race still exist. The proposed John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act to expand voter rights permanently remains in congressional limbo. The fight for voting rights in the United States and around the world continues to this day. Write to your elected officials and demand that they support the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Act because everyone deserves the right to vote.
Resources to learn more about voter suppression:
NPR – Voting Rights Act Challenges in 2024
HRC – LGBTQ+ Voting Barriers
ACLU – Voter Suppression in 2020
Brennan Center – The New Voter Suppression