Women’s heroes are everyone’s heroes! In celebration of the 100th anniversary of the passage of the 19th amendment giving women the right to vote, we read books that are by, for, and about powerful women of all ages. A pre-teen who helped discover the world’s first dinosaur bone, a young women in the early 20th century who braved the illness and death of the radium factories and fought a groundbreaking battle for workers’ rights, or teens—one black, one white—who rely on each other to survive a night of violent race riots in their city—these are the stories of remarkable women of history and resourceful everyday girls. Unfortunately, Black women suffragists faced a unique battle in their fight for equality, as their identity was often split between sex and race. White women who were involved in the suffrage movement still made Black women protest separately from them. Oftentimes the topic of race was ignored by white suffragists even though Black women were organizing for the same rights as them. Eventually, Black women started strategically organizing by working in churches, education, and even newspapers so they would be able to get their message across and build a larger platform. Needless to say, Black women also had their issues amongst themselves. While some Black women were able to put themselves through school and work in education, poor Black women started to feel a disconnect from the middle-class Black women. Despite those issues, Black women collectively came together to fight sexism and racism, which later became the framework for future movements like the Civil Rights Movement and Black Lives Matter. We celebrate the women’s suffrage movement because we understand that women are important factors in how our community and society work. While it took decades to get women the vote, Black women remained focused on ensuring every voice in American has an opportunity to influence their government.
