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Remembering a Civil Rights Hero.
Author: Raine    Date: 02/15/2010 17:01:42

During Black History month, we rightfully call attention the the civil rights movement of the 1960s. What is often not mentioned, is the first civil rights movement, abolition and suffrage and ultimately the right for all Americans to have access to vote.

On this day in history, in 1820, Susan B. Anthony was born. By the age of 16, she was active in in the anti-slavery movement, and by the time she was 29 she was one of the leaders of the Women's suffrage. She is commonly known as the face of Women's Suffrage.

She, along with Elizabeth Cady-Stanton, Amelia Bloomer and many other women forced wonderful and radical change in this nation. She died 14 years before she was legally allowed to vote in this country. Anthony was arrested for voting in the 1872 Presidential Election -- claiming that the Fourteenth Amendment, which guaranteed to "all persons born or naturalized in the United States" the privileges of citizenship, and which contained no gender qualification, gave women the constitutional right to vote in federal elections. She never spent time in jail, and was instead fined. She swore she would never pay the fine, and kept that promise until she passed away in 1906. That was quite radical at the time, in some respects, it still is today.

What I have always found interesting regarding Abolition and Suffrage, is that prior to the civil war, they often worked together, however after passing the Fourteenth Amendment, these two movements drifted apart. The American Equal Rights Association (AERA), which had originally fought for both blacks’ and women’s right to suffrage, voted to support the 15th Amendment to the Constitution, granting suffrage to black men, but not women. This ended what was known at the time as Universal Suffrage, which sought for voting rights for all. Anthony and other Suffragettes went on to focus solely on Women's rights and to secure the passage of what would become the 19th Amendment. Passed August 18, 1920, it states:
The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.
Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.
Sex.
That one little word is never mentioned in the 14th Amendment. It was passed July 9, 1868, 52 years earlier:
Section 1. All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

Section 2. Representatives shall be apportioned among the several States according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each State, excluding Indians not taxed. But when the right to vote at any election for the choice of electors for President and Vice President of the United States, Representatives in Congress, the Executive and Judicial officers of a State, or the members of the Legislature thereof, is denied to any of the male inhabitants of such State, being twenty-one years of age, and citizens of the United States, or in any way abridged, except for participation in rebellion, or other crime, the basis of representation therein shall be reduced in the proportion which the number of such male citizens shall bear to the whole number of male citizens twenty-one years of age in such State.

Section 3. No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability.

Section 4. The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned. But neither the United States nor any State shall assume or pay any debt or obligation incurred in aid of insurrection or rebellion against the United States, or any claim for the loss or emancipation of any slave; but all such debts, obligations and claims shall be held illegal and void.

Section 5. The Congress shall have power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article.
One word missing denied millions of people access to the process of choosing our leaders for 52 years. Susan B. Anthony and her colleagues didn't give up.

We have far to go in this country to ensure equal rights for all, but on this day, let's take a moment to remember another true hero of our nation's ongoing civil rights movement. We still have work to do. There are still people who would deny others the right to vote given a chance. There are still millions of people that don't have marriage equality. Change may come slowly, but it will only happen if we continue to move forward.

Sojourner Truth famously noted how difficult it was for men to give women the vote:

"I know that it is hard for one who has held the reins for so long to give up; it cuts like a knife."

How right she was, and still is today.

&
Raine
 

20 comments (Latest Comment: 02/15/2010 23:15:16 by trojanrabbit)
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