African American Women and the Vote, 1837-1965

Written by leading scholars of African American and women's history, the essays in this volume seek to reconceptualize the political history of black women in the United States by placing them "at the center of our thinking." The book explores how slavery, racial discrimination, and gender shaped the goals that African American women set for themselves, their families, and their race and looks at the political tools at their disposal. By identifying key turning points for black women, the essays create a new chronology and a new paradigm for historical analysis. The chronology begins in 1837 with the interracial meeting of antislavery women in New York City and concludes with the civil rights movement of the 1960s.

The contributors focus on specific examples of women pursuing a dual ambition: to gain full civil and political rights and to improve the social conditions of African Americans. Together, the essays challenge us to rethink common generalizations that govern much of our historical thinking about the experience of African American women.

Contributors include Bettina Aptheker, Elsa Barkley Brown, Willi Coleman, Gerald R. Gill, Ann D. Gordon, Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, Cynthia Neverdon-Morton, Martha Prescod Norman, Janice Sumler-Edmond, Rosalyn Terborg-Penn, and Bettye Collier-Thomas.

Ann D. Hordon is editor of the papers of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony at Rutgers University.

Arlene Voski Avakian (women's studies), Joyce Avrech Berkman (history), and John H. Bracey (Afro-American studies) are professors at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

Founder and former director for the Mary McLeod Bethune Museum and Archives, Bettye Collier-Thomas is director of the Center for African American History and Culture at Temple University.