Episode 120: Black Women’s Suffrage II
On the centennial of the ratification of the 19th Amendment, Prof. Martha S. Jones comes to the front of the class to discuss how Black women have historically led the charge for their own voting rights. She details Black women’s fight for suffrage and chronicles the story of our political voice and activism.
It’s also the week of the 2020 Democratic Convention and while L. Joy is inspired by the words of former First Lady Michelle Obama and the historic Vice Presidential nomination acceptance speech from Senator Kamala Harris, she gives us homework to revisit the inspiring words of former Texas Congresswoman Barbara Jordan.
OUR GUEST
Professor Martha S. Jones is the Society of Black Alumni Presidential Professor and Professor of History at The Johns Hopkins University. She is a legal and cultural historian whose work examines how black Americans have shaped the story of American democracy. She holds a Ph.D. in history from Columbia University and a J.D. from the CUNY School of Law. Prior to the start of her academic career, she was a public interest litigator in New York City, recognized for her work as a Charles H. Revson Fellow on the Future of the City of New York at Columbia University.
Professor Jones currently serves as a Co-president of the Berkshire Conference of Women Historians, and on the Executive Board of the Society of American Historians.
About Vanguard
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.
