American Equal Rights Association
Encyclopedia
The American Equal Rights Association (AERA), also known as the Equal Rights Association, was an organization formed by women's rights
and black rights activists in 1866 in the United States
. Its goal was to join the cause of gender equality
with that of racial equality
. Tensions between proponents of the dissimilar goals caused the AERA to split apart in 1869.
and Susan B. Anthony
proposed the idea at an American Anti-Slavery Society
meeting in Boston
in January 1866. Stone had been involved with abolitionism
through the American Anti-Slavery Society for 18 years, and had shifted her energies mainly to women's rights issues. Anthony's focus was primarily women's suffrage
. The goal was to unite the energies of the two movements and focus on the common goal of universal suffrage
. Anthony, Stone, Elizabeth Cady Stanton
and Frederick Douglass
founded the group.
Three weeks prior to the first AERA meeting, on May 10, 1866 in New York City, the eleventh National Women's Rights Convention
was called to order by Stanton. A stirring speech against racial discrimination was given by African-American activist Frances Ellen Watkins Harper
, in which she said "...You white women speak here of rights. I speak of wrongs. I, as a colored woman, have had in this country an education which has made me feel as if I were in the situation of Ishmael, my hand against every man, and every man's hand against me..." Anthony and Stanton had begun to be perceived by some as elitist or racist, as being less concerned with the underprivileged.
. Feminist groups moved away from the Republican Party
and in fact the entire political party system, while the black rights movement aligned itself even more closely with the Republicans. The second issue was based on differences over the understanding of the function and necessity of suffrage. By 1869, each movement no longer respected the other's legitimacy. Much of the women's suffrage leadership considered that the passage of the Fourteenth Amendment
accomplished the goal of black male suffrage at the expense of a combined amendment that would have provided universal suffrage, and few black activists could ignore the important demands made on their energies by the critical needs of the post-Civil War community of former slaves.
, 80 years old, spoke at the second annual (first anniversary) AERA meeting in New York City on May 9, 1867. She noted how difficult it was for men to give women the vote, saying "I know that it is hard for one who has held the reins for so long to give up; it cuts like a knife."
Lucretia Mott
presided over the meeting. In regard to the upcoming ratification of the Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution
which would give African-American men the right to vote, Mott said that "woman had a right to be jealous of the addition of so large a number of men to the voting class, for the colored men would naturally throw all their strength upon the side of those opposed to woman's enfranchisement." She was questioned as to whether she was opposed to the "colored man" getting the vote unless women received the same right at the same time. Stanton fielded the question, saying "...I would not trust [the colored man] with all my rights; degraded, oppressed himself, he would be more despotic with the governing power than even our Saxon rulers are." She demanded the ballot for all. Susan B. Anthony spoke to say "some think this is harvest time for the black man, and seed-sowing for woman. Others, with whom I agree, think we have been sowing the seed of individual rights, the foundation idea of a republic for the last century, and that this is the harvest time for all citizens who pay taxes, obey the laws and are loyal to government."
Abby Kelley Foster then spoke for giving the freed slave his right to vote. Henry Ward Beecher
argued for the convention to pass a resolution demanding universal suffrage, and to be satisfied if by doing so they were able to win only suffrage for African-American men.
accused Stanton of advocating "Educated Suffrage"—the right of upper-class white women to vote. Foster implied strongly that Stanton should step down as president. Henry Brown Blackwell tried to calm the waters by saying that all present, including Stanton and Anthony, believed in "negro suffrage". Frederick Douglass widened the gap when he stood up and stated his position against Stanton's use in her address of the pejorative term 'Sambo' and her denigration of lower-class people such as gardeners and boot-blacks. He said he couldn't see how "the daughters of Jefferson and Washington" were different than any other daughters. In this way a major split separated women's rights activists into two camps; those like Stanton and Anthony who felt that educated women deserved the right to vote before or at the same time as uneducated men, and those like Stone, Douglass and Foster who felt that the political situation called for a drive to achieve suffrage for the African-American man, followed by a new focus on suffrage for women of all races.
The American Equal Rights Association disbanded after that; no large-scale effort to fuse the causes of black and women's civil rights activism took place until Lucy Stone proposed it in 1887. Plans were drawn up, and, at the annual meetings of AWSA and NWSA, propositions were heard and voted on, then passed to the other group for evaluation. Stone's daughter Alice Stone Blackwell
served as a go-between to help bring about resolution. By 1890, the organizations resolved their differences and merged to form the National American Woman Suffrage Association
(NAWSA). Stone was too weak with heart problems and respiratory illness to attend its first convention, but was elected to chair the executive committee.
(NAWSA) in 1890. NAWSA was guided much more strongly by NWSA'a brand of women’s suffrage than Stone and Harper’s, partly in response to the progress toward parity in voting rights for black men after the passage and ratification of the Fourteenth Amendment, and the issue of race was less emphasized in popular American feminism
until the mid-20th century.
Women's rights
Women's rights are entitlements and freedoms claimed for women and girls of all ages in many societies.In some places these rights are institutionalized or supported by law, local custom, and behaviour, whereas in others they may be ignored or suppressed...
and black rights activists in 1866 in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. Its goal was to join the cause of gender equality
Gender equality
Gender equality is the goal of the equality of the genders, stemming from a belief in the injustice of myriad forms of gender inequality.- Concept :...
with that of racial equality
Racial equality
Racial equality means different things in different contexts. It mostly deals with an equal regard to all races.It can refer to a belief in biological equality of all human races....
. Tensions between proponents of the dissimilar goals caused the AERA to split apart in 1869.
History
Lucy StoneLucy Stone
Lucy Stone was a prominent American abolitionist and suffragist, and a vocal advocate and organizer promoting rights for women. In 1847, Stone was the first woman from Massachusetts to earn a college degree. She spoke out for women's rights and against slavery at a time when women were discouraged...
and Susan B. Anthony
Susan B. Anthony
Susan Brownell Anthony was a prominent American civil rights leader who played a pivotal role in the 19th century women's rights movement to introduce women's suffrage into the United States. She was co-founder of the first Women's Temperance Movement with Elizabeth Cady Stanton as President...
proposed the idea at an American Anti-Slavery Society
American Anti-Slavery Society
The American Anti-Slavery Society was an abolitionist society founded by William Lloyd Garrison and Arthur Tappan. Frederick Douglass was a key leader of this society and often spoke at its meetings. William Wells Brown was another freed slave who often spoke at meetings. By 1838, the society had...
meeting in Boston
Boston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...
in January 1866. Stone had been involved with abolitionism
Abolitionism
Abolitionism is a movement to end slavery.In western Europe and the Americas abolitionism was a movement to end the slave trade and set slaves free. At the behest of Dominican priest Bartolomé de las Casas who was shocked at the treatment of natives in the New World, Spain enacted the first...
through the American Anti-Slavery Society for 18 years, and had shifted her energies mainly to women's rights issues. Anthony's focus was primarily women's suffrage
Women's suffrage
Women's suffrage or woman suffrage is the right of women to vote and to run for office. The expression is also used for the economic and political reform movement aimed at extending these rights to women and without any restrictions or qualifications such as property ownership, payment of tax, or...
. The goal was to unite the energies of the two movements and focus on the common goal of universal suffrage
Universal suffrage
Universal suffrage consists of the extension of the right to vote to adult citizens as a whole, though it may also mean extending said right to minors and non-citizens...
. Anthony, Stone, Elizabeth Cady Stanton
Elizabeth Cady Stanton
Elizabeth Cady Stanton was an American social activist, abolitionist, and leading figure of the early woman's movement...
and Frederick Douglass
Frederick Douglass
Frederick Douglass was an American social reformer, orator, writer and statesman. After escaping from slavery, he became a leader of the abolitionist movement, gaining note for his dazzling oratory and incisive antislavery writing...
founded the group.
Three weeks prior to the first AERA meeting, on May 10, 1866 in New York City, the eleventh National Women's Rights Convention
National Women's Rights Convention
The National Women's Rights Convention was an annual series of meetings that increased the visibility of the early women's rights movement in the United States. First held in 1850 in Worcester, Massachusetts, the National Women's Rights Convention combined both male and female leadership, and...
was called to order by Stanton. A stirring speech against racial discrimination was given by African-American activist Frances Ellen Watkins Harper
Frances Harper
Frances Ellen Watkins Harper was an African American abolitionist and poet. Born free in Baltimore, Maryland, she had a long and prolific career, publishing her first book of poetry at twenty and her first novel, the widely praised Iola Leroy, at age 67.-Life and works:Frances Ellen Watkins was...
, in which she said "...You white women speak here of rights. I speak of wrongs. I, as a colored woman, have had in this country an education which has made me feel as if I were in the situation of Ishmael, my hand against every man, and every man's hand against me..." Anthony and Stanton had begun to be perceived by some as elitist or racist, as being less concerned with the underprivileged.
1866 in Boston
Over the course of the next few years, the debates between feminists and black rights activists focused on two of the fundamental disagreements between the two movements. The first was the dependability of the political establishment, especially political partiesPolitical party
A political party is a political organization that typically seeks to influence government policy, usually by nominating their own candidates and trying to seat them in political office. Parties participate in electoral campaigns, educational outreach or protest actions...
. Feminist groups moved away from the Republican Party
History of the United States Republican Party
The United States Republican Party is the second oldest currently existing political party in the United States after its great rival, the Democratic Party. It emerged in 1854 to combat the Kansas Nebraska Act which threatened to extend slavery into the territories, and to promote more vigorous...
and in fact the entire political party system, while the black rights movement aligned itself even more closely with the Republicans. The second issue was based on differences over the understanding of the function and necessity of suffrage. By 1869, each movement no longer respected the other's legitimacy. Much of the women's suffrage leadership considered that the passage of the Fourteenth Amendment
Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution
The Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution was adopted on July 9, 1868, as one of the Reconstruction Amendments.Its Citizenship Clause provides a broad definition of citizenship that overruled the Dred Scott v...
accomplished the goal of black male suffrage at the expense of a combined amendment that would have provided universal suffrage, and few black activists could ignore the important demands made on their energies by the critical needs of the post-Civil War community of former slaves.
1867 in New York
Sojourner TruthSojourner Truth
Sojourner Truth was the self-given name, from 1843 onward, of Isabella Baumfree, an African-American abolitionist and women's rights activist. Truth was born into slavery in Swartekill, New York, but escaped with her infant daughter to freedom in 1826. After going to court to recover her son, she...
, 80 years old, spoke at the second annual (first anniversary) AERA meeting in New York City on May 9, 1867. She noted how difficult it was for men to give women the vote, saying "I know that it is hard for one who has held the reins for so long to give up; it cuts like a knife."
Lucretia Mott
Lucretia Mott
Lucretia Coffin Mott was an American Quaker, abolitionist, social reformer, and proponent of women's rights.- Early life and education:...
presided over the meeting. In regard to the upcoming ratification of the Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution
Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution
The Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution prohibits each government in the United States from denying a citizen the right to vote based on that citizen's "race, color, or previous condition of servitude"...
which would give African-American men the right to vote, Mott said that "woman had a right to be jealous of the addition of so large a number of men to the voting class, for the colored men would naturally throw all their strength upon the side of those opposed to woman's enfranchisement." She was questioned as to whether she was opposed to the "colored man" getting the vote unless women received the same right at the same time. Stanton fielded the question, saying "...I would not trust [the colored man] with all my rights; degraded, oppressed himself, he would be more despotic with the governing power than even our Saxon rulers are." She demanded the ballot for all. Susan B. Anthony spoke to say "some think this is harvest time for the black man, and seed-sowing for woman. Others, with whom I agree, think we have been sowing the seed of individual rights, the foundation idea of a republic for the last century, and that this is the harvest time for all citizens who pay taxes, obey the laws and are loyal to government."
Abby Kelley Foster then spoke for giving the freed slave his right to vote. Henry Ward Beecher
Henry Ward Beecher
Henry Ward Beecher was a prominent Congregationalist clergyman, social reformer, abolitionist, and speaker in the mid to late 19th century...
argued for the convention to pass a resolution demanding universal suffrage, and to be satisfied if by doing so they were able to win only suffrage for African-American men.
1869 in New York
At a meeting in May, 1869, striking differences emerged between activists from Boston and those from New York. After Stanton, as president, gave an opening address, Stephen Symonds FosterStephen Symonds Foster
Stephen Symonds Foster was a radical American abolitionist known for his dramatic and aggressive style of public speaking, and for his stance against those in the church who failed to fight slavery. His marriage to Abby Kelley Foster brought his energetic activism to bear on women's rights...
accused Stanton of advocating "Educated Suffrage"—the right of upper-class white women to vote. Foster implied strongly that Stanton should step down as president. Henry Brown Blackwell tried to calm the waters by saying that all present, including Stanton and Anthony, believed in "negro suffrage". Frederick Douglass widened the gap when he stood up and stated his position against Stanton's use in her address of the pejorative term 'Sambo' and her denigration of lower-class people such as gardeners and boot-blacks. He said he couldn't see how "the daughters of Jefferson and Washington" were different than any other daughters. In this way a major split separated women's rights activists into two camps; those like Stanton and Anthony who felt that educated women deserved the right to vote before or at the same time as uneducated men, and those like Stone, Douglass and Foster who felt that the political situation called for a drive to achieve suffrage for the African-American man, followed by a new focus on suffrage for women of all races.
The American Equal Rights Association disbanded after that; no large-scale effort to fuse the causes of black and women's civil rights activism took place until Lucy Stone proposed it in 1887. Plans were drawn up, and, at the annual meetings of AWSA and NWSA, propositions were heard and voted on, then passed to the other group for evaluation. Stone's daughter Alice Stone Blackwell
Alice Stone Blackwell
Alice Stone Blackwell was an American feminist, journalist and human rights advocate.-Biography:The daughter of Henry Brown Blackwell and Lucy Stone, she was born in East Orange, New Jersey....
served as a go-between to help bring about resolution. By 1890, the organizations resolved their differences and merged to form the National American Woman Suffrage Association
National American Woman Suffrage Association
The National American Woman Suffrage Association was an American women's rights organization formed in May 1890 as a unification of the National Woman Suffrage Association and the American Woman Suffrage Association...
(NAWSA). Stone was too weak with heart problems and respiratory illness to attend its first convention, but was elected to chair the executive committee.
Significance
The brief existence and ultimate failure of the AERA is significant, as it marks the separation of the women's and black rights movements after their successful collaboration in abolitionism before and during the Civil War. In the immediate aftermath of the AERA, woman suffrage activists founded two competing groups. Stanton, Anthony, and other former abolitionists created the National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA) in a meeting two days after the AERA convention. The all-female NWSA did not involve the issue of race in its mission. Those who believed that black and women’s suffrage were not mutually exclusive, including Lucy Stone, formed the American Woman Suffrage Association (AWSA). Its members continued to work for equal rights for both races and sexes, in the more traditional vein of the abolitionist movement. The impasse between the two groups continued for twenty years, until they combined as the National American Woman Suffrage AssociationNational American Woman Suffrage Association
The National American Woman Suffrage Association was an American women's rights organization formed in May 1890 as a unification of the National Woman Suffrage Association and the American Woman Suffrage Association...
(NAWSA) in 1890. NAWSA was guided much more strongly by NWSA'a brand of women’s suffrage than Stone and Harper’s, partly in response to the progress toward parity in voting rights for black men after the passage and ratification of the Fourteenth Amendment, and the issue of race was less emphasized in popular American feminism
Feminism
Feminism is a collection of movements aimed at defining, establishing, and defending equal political, economic, and social rights and equal opportunities for women. Its concepts overlap with those of women's rights...
until the mid-20th century.
See also
- History of women's suffrage in the United StatesHistory of women's suffrage in the United StatesWoman suffrage in the United States was achieved gradually, at state and local levels, during the 19th Century and early 20th Century, culminating in 1920 with the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which provided: "The right of citizens of the United States to...
- Voting rights in the United StatesVoting rights in the United StatesThe issue of voting rights in the United States has been contentious throughout the country's history. Eligibility to vote in the U.S. is determined by both Federal and state law. Currently, only citizens can vote in U.S. elections . Who is a citizen is governed on a national basis by Federal law...