Women Suffrage and the Civil Rights Movement - Essay Example

Women Suffrage and Civil Rights Movement Struggles against discrimination have marked a considerable period after independence of United s. The first important strife was the anti-slavery movement, which heralded the gradual waning of the discriminatory line between the opposite genders in terms of social treatment. The suffrage movement of women represented many issues which till date appeared trivial but they surfaced when it was realized that it was the right to vote which could resolve the problems faced by the women in the patriarchal society where the father and the husband dominated and controlled a woman’s life. This gradually led to anti-discriminatory movements, which was renowned as the Civil Rights movement. The paper traces the development and importance of both these movements in American history. The women’s suffrage movement commenced in order to advocate the right for women towards voting. Abigail Adams could be recalled as the first female personality of the suffrage movement. Ladies were not given the power to make decisions after marriage according to the New Jersey’s law only single women could be eligible to vote since after voting all rights went into the hands of their husbands. Divorce was even more painful by law and since they had no right to vote, the lawmakers paid hardly any attention to their problems (Durrett, 25-27). The spark was initiated when the 15th Amendment was passed after the Civil War to ensure ‘voting rights for all “citizens of the United States “ regardless of race or color’. Even when the Declaration of Independence was signed in 1776 the women were not granted equal rights. However the right to vote for women was not distinctly mentioned and therefore in protest of this exclusion, Susan B. Anthony purposely challenged the law in 1872 when she cast her vote in favor of Ulysses S. Grant and the Congressmen of the Republican. She was arrested for this act sometime later and accused of voting illegally. This particular incident as well as the denial of the Supreme Court to favor her standpoint led to the 19th Amendment in 1875, which was entitled, the Susan B. Anthony Amendment. The beginning point of the movement for the rights of modern women in US was the Seneca Falls conference of New York convention of July 19-20, 1848. The members of the conference were previously associated with other processes of reform such as Lucretia Mott (associated with anti-slavery movement) and this also included some male personalities like James Mott who took over the role of chairperson and Frederick Douglass, the secretary. Issues like equal position of women in the eyes of law and access to quality education were picked up. (The Beginnings of the Womens Suffrage Movement) Stanton was introduced to Susan B. Anthony in the Seneca Falls and turned out as a significant leader of the movement. Stanton was a powerful writer, which Anthony delivered her influential speeches along with the support of her husband and Mott provided the essential wisdom to the movement. Initially the leaders worked in favor of property right of women after marriage and gathered signatures of 60 women in support of the Married Woman’s Property Act which was finally passed. Then came the dress reform and suffragists began wearing the loose fitting pants instead of the uncomfortable gowns. (Keller, 17-20) The woman suffrage movement’s history stands for an important period in American reform. The faith in republican citizenship status as derived from the American Revolution was the key to the demand for the right to the ballot. The evolution of the suffrage movement might be categorized into three stages. Prior to the Civil War the movement was more of a reform targeting the universe. During the Reconstruction period, the reform group got divided into divided groups and after 1885 the movement came up as a well-knit organization at the national level. The split occurred with respect to the 15th Amendment where Stone (Anthony’s husband) and others believed that the Amendment would bring about equal rights to vote or women too but Stanton and Anthony were against the Amendment and formed the American Woman Suffrage Association (AWSA). The suffrage movement brought to the surface several other problems affecting the larger scale of the mass but the suffrage movement alone had little capacity to alter the basic characteristic of the American society. The American Revolution showed people the “victory of natural rights over artificial restraints of church and crown” (Buhle and Buhle, 2). Following this Wright protested against the subjugation of women in marriages as the violation of natural rights and protested that marriages put women outside the domain of true citizenship. Women also participated in the abolitionist movement and this gave them a new self-confidence, which acted as the moral boost in their stand for the ballot. The Civil Rights movement in US is in reference to the African Americans’ emancipation from racial discrimination and restoration of voting rights in the states of the south. The period 1955-68 marked the Civil Movement. The election of 1876 brought an end to the Reconstruction period and the whites of the south possessed the power over the politics. The Democratic Party with majority representation of the whites gained control over the south. Disfranchisement of the blacks was taking place but racial segregation was obligatory by law. Therefore oppression of the blacks was enforced by the law of the south and the social discriminatory pressures were undergone by the blacks elsewhere. Movements of resistance gradually came up form early 50s in the twentieth century with the boycott of gas stations (led by Regional Council of Negro Leadership) in 1952 for not permitting restrooms for the African Americans. (History of Civil Rights in America - Part 3 of 3) The Montgomery Bus Boycott continued above a year unless the court was bound to desegregate the buses in Montgomery. Martin Luther King came up as a national leader from this movement. Other bus boycotts were led from this. In 1959 the Highlander Folk School in Tennessee was set up as the first Citizenship Schools to make the blacks literate such that they could pass the voting tests. This increased the participation of black voters on Johns Island. Non-violent civil disobedience was taken up as a strategy especially during the bus boycott period when Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat in the bus in 1955. The sit-in technique of 1960s gave further impetus to the Civil Rights Movement when four students gathered at a store to protest against exclusion of blacks from the lunch counter. This encouraged further practice of sit-ins in other states. The practice of freedom rides began in 1961 when the activists went further south and got into buses and restrooms in order to integrate the sitting patterns. The freedom riders that were arrested were tormented. The Birmingham Campaign also gained large-scale publicity as its planned programs aimed towards desegregation of entire Albany. King was arrested and despite many protest movements the campaigned finally failed. All the protest movements finally bore fruit as President Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 on July 2. The students non-violent coordinating committee took over a program to register voters in Selma in 1963 but against the opponent Jim Clark (sheriff) not much progress was made. Finally the Voting Rights Act was passed in 1965 and taken to be a successful civil rights law adopted by the Congress. This act also abolished the literacy exams and poll taxes imposed after the 15th Amendment of 1870 was passed, granting all African Americans the right to vote.( History of Civil Rights in America - Part 3 of 3) In conclusion one may say that both the movements have established that America has been able to come out of social inequalities and people were conscious of the same too. The struggle and position taken by the women was similar to that adopted by the blacks for their freedom. The voice of women suffrage were diluted by the other causes and reforms but what came up to the front was capacity of women to move past their restraints and enforce their demands. Despite the voting rights of blacks, discrimination was a separate issue to be dealt with and this largely reveals the awareness of the common people and a true mark of democracy. Works Cited 1. Buhle, Marie Jo and Paul Buhle, The Concise History of Women Suffrage, University of Illinois Press, 2005. 2. Durrett, Deanne, Right to Vote, Infobase publishing, 2005. 3. History of Civil Rights in America - Part 3 of 3, United States History, n.d. February 27, 2011 from: http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h2876.html 4. Keller, Kristin Thoennes, The Women Suffrage Movement, Capstone Press, 2003 5. The Beginnings of the Womens Suffrage Movement, Votes for Women, n.d., February 27, 2011 from: http://www.brynmawr.edu/library/exhibits/suffrage/beginnings.html Read More