carrie chapman catt served as the 1st president of the national american woman suffrage association (nawsa).
carrie chapman catt served as the 1st president of the national american woman suffrage association (nawsa).
who served as the 1st president of the national american woman suffrage association (nawsa)?
carrie chapman catt
when the fifteenth amendment enfranchised african-american men, elizabeth cady stanton and susan b. anthony abandoned the aera, which supported universal suffrage, to found the national woman suffrage association in 1869, stating that black men should not receive the vote before white women. in response, african-american suffragist frances ellen watkins harper and others joined the american woman suffrage association, which was formed in the same year and supported suffrage for women and for black men. mary ann shadd cary, the second african-american woman to receive a degree from howard university law school, joined the national woman suffrage association in 1878 when she delivered their convention's keynote address. tensions between african-american and white suffragists persisted, even after the nwsa and awsa merged to form the national american woman suffrage association in 1890. by the early 1900s, white suffragists often adopted strategies designed to appease the southern states, at the expense of african-american women. at conventions in 1901 and 1903, in atlanta and new orleans, nawsa prevented african americans from attending. at the 1911 national nawsa conference, martha gruening asked the organization to formally denounce white supremacy. nawsa president anna howard shaw refused, saying that she was “in favor of colored people voting,” but did not want to alienate others in the suffrage movement. even nawsa’s more radical congressional committee, led by alice paul, which would later split to become the national woman's party, failed african-american women, most visibly by refusing to allow them to march in the nation’s first suffrage parade in washington, d.c. while the nawsa directed paul not to exclude african-american participants, 72 hours before the parade african-american women were directed to the back of the parade; ida b. wells defied these instructions and joined the illinois unit, prompting telegrams of support.
nineteenth amendment to the united states constitution
in 1890, two rival organizations, the national woman suffrage association and the american woman suffrage association, merged to form the national american woman suffrage association (nawsa). as nawsa began gaining support for its cause, its members realized that the exclusion of african-american women would gain greater support, resulting in the adoption of a more narrow view of women's suffrage than had been previously asserted. nawsa focused on enfranchisement solely for white women. african-american women began experiencing the "anti-black" women's suffrage movement. the national woman suffrage association considered the northeastern federation of colored women's clubs to be a liability to the association due to southern white women's attitudes toward black women getting the vote. southern whites feared african americans gaining more political advantage and thus power; african-american women voters would help to achieve this change.
african-american women's suffrage movement