A note about Susan B. Anthony and accusations of racism against her

Much of the accusations against lifelong activist Susan B. Anthony derives from following quote attributed to her: “I will cut off this right arm of mine before I will ever work or demand the ballot for the Negro and not the woman.”

Yes, long-time feminist and abolitionist Anthony did in fact say that in 1869, and yes, she was white when she said it.  But those comments came during debates nationally over the proposed 15th Amendment to the Constitution.  This proposed addition stated that “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 race, color, or previous condition of servitude.” 

At the time, full U.S. citizenship, meaning the right of suffrage, was still denied to women and still would be under this amendment regardless of the “race, color, or previous condition of servitude”.  Anthony was not protesting just for affuent white women but all women.

In 1833, Susan B. Anthony was one of the earliest leaders of the American Anti-Slavery Society, the foremost abolitionist organization in the United States before and during the War of the Rebellion which continued operations through to 1870. 

In 1866, she co-founded the American Equal Rights Association (AERA), whose goal was “to secure Equal Rights to all American citizens, especially the right of suffrage, irrespective of race, color, or sex”, along with Lucretia Mott, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucy Stone, Susan B. Anthony, Frederick Douglass, Abby Kelley Foster, and Henry Blackwell. 

The AERA split in 1869 on the question of whether to support passage of the Congressionally proposed 15th Amendment give its deficits regarding the rights of women (it did not include them at all), with Frederick Douglass supported by Stone arguing that AERA should support it and those opposed advocating to hold out for universal suffrage.  In the debates, Douglass was quite insistent that freedmen getting the vote was much more important than any women getting the vote, and that women’s rights should come secondary to the rights of black men, at least in this instance.  This was a complete reversal of his staunch defense of women’s right to vote at the Seneca Falls Convention in 1848.

The same debate over how extensively to increase suffrage had taken place in Congress, with more wide-sweeping versions reduced to “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 race, color, or previous condition of servitude.”

The impasse rent the organization asunder.  Anthony and Stanton forming the National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA) while Stone and Julia Ward Howe formed the American Woman Suffrage Association (AWSA).  Anthony’s infamous statement was made during the debates in the AERA at this time.

After the 15th Amendment was passed, Douglass became an active participant in the NWSA led by Anthony and Stanton.

The NWSA and the AWSA rejoined in 1890 as the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA), which became the League of Women Voters after passage of the 19th Amendment in 1920.

One might infer from his stance vis-à-vis Anthony, Stanton, and their faction within AERA over the 15th Amendment in 1869 that Douglass was just another misogynist and male chauvinist who only wanted rights for other men like him.  However, just three years after opposing suffrage being granted to any women before being granted to all black men, he stood for Vice President as running mate of Victoria Woodhull on the ticket of the Equal Rights Party, a group which before mid-1872 had been Section 12 of the North American Federation of the International Workingsmen’s Association.  Later, his chief protégé, ideological heir, and anointed successor was Ida B. Wells-Barnett.

On the day Douglass died in 1895, he sat next to Anthony on stage at a convention of the National Council of Women in Washington, D.C., a convention in which a number of Afro-American women participated.  When she heard of his death that evening, Anthony rushed to the house and stayed several days helping Helen Douglass, his (second) wife with arrangements.  She stayed in their guest room reserved for her visits, which had a portrait of her hung over the fireplace, a companion of the one of Elizabeth Cady Stanton which hung in Frederick Douglass’ study.

Judging either Susan B. Anthony or Frederick Douglass by one statement or stance taken out of context as if the same were made in the third decade of the 21st century is fucking absurd and a disservice to both them and all those for whom they struggled.