The epic history of African American women's pursuit of political
power -- and how it transformed America.
In the standard story, the suffrage crusade began in Seneca Falls in
1848 and ended with the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment in
1920. But this overwhelmingly white women's movement did not win the
vote for most black women. Securing their rights required a movement of
their own.
In Vanguard, acclaimed historian Martha S. Jones offers a new history
of African American women's political lives in America. She recounts how
they defied both racism and sexism to fight for the ballot, and how they
wielded political power to secure the equality and dignity of all
persons. From the earliest days of the republic to the passage of the
1965 Voting Rights Act and beyond, Jones excavates the lives and work of
black women--Maria Stewart, Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, Fannie Lou
Hamer, and more--who were the vanguard of women's rights, calling on
America to realize its best ideals.