Week Nine: The Suffragettes- Cooper, Hopkins, and Barnett-Wells
As their male counterparts made strides in the literary world as at least technically free men, women still had no legal rights. For well educated women, the fight for equality was a predominant issue. African American women worked alongside other women in the struggle for women's suffreage and alongside all African Americans in the struggle to overcome social evil caused by prejudice.
For Anna Julia Cooper, the key to progress of any race the was advancement of women. Education was of utmost importance, and leading by example she became one of the first African Americans to received a PhD. Writing in the vein of a Mary Wollstonecraft calling for women to rise up as proper examples, she wrote eloquently of how African American women controlled the destiny of the race. Calling for women to follow Christian virtues and embrace education and opportunities, she called for workers to make the South a mission field and help bring about equality.
Pauline Hopkins was a gifted writer, historian, and biographer of famous African Americans such as Booker T. Washington. Her gift of writing provided her with a platform to chronicle history as well as through literature create works that would allow readers to consider issues from a different perspective. Many of her works had themes which highlighted prejudice in a light that allowed the reader to consider the faulty reasoning on which it was grounded. Through her works, the social realities of injustices were recorded.
In contrast, Barnett was a journalist who used the press and media to call attention to discrimination and illegal oppression of African Americans. Ida Wells Barnett in the first chapter of A Red Record provides the means for the Southern Negro to “give to the world his side of the awful story” exposing the truth of the injustices which were occurring in the South (Wells-Barnett 679). She documents the number of lynchings in the South, more than the legal executions, and exposes the root causes of the problem (Wells-Barnett 682). Under slavery, the Southern whites had a financial incentive to keep the slaves alive. This prevented the slave owners from killing their slaves. However, the chattel status of the slaves also allowed them to be mistreated in any way. After the Emancipation Proclamation and ensuing Constitutional amendments, the financial incentive to keep the slaves alive was removed, but the desire to subdue the Negros was not. Southern Whites did not want to acknowledge the freedoms granted and the necessity of legally treating the Negros. Because the Southern legal system refused to enforce the laws, Southern Negros were exposed to horrendous deaths at the hands of mobs of Southerners.
The Southerners claimed there were three causes that triggered the need for vigilante justice. First, they claimed there were “race riots” occurring (Wells-Barnett 677). Second, the franchise of Negro voting was abhorrent to the whites who through intimidation attempted to prevent voting and thereby control the government (Wells-Barnett 678). Third, the white Southerners claimed that black men were attacking white women (Wells-Barnett 679). In fact, the first and third arguments were totally unfounded. The second claim, that the blacks were attempting to vote, was in fact true. Herein lies the concerns that brought about the lynchings. The anarchistic nature of the South because of the unwillingness of the established government offices to protect the blacks was an outgrowth of racism.
In chapter ten of A Red Record Wells-Barnett suggests the remedy to the problem reminding readers that it was in fact ”the white man’s civilization and the white man’s government that were on trial” (Wells-Barnett 684). First, she claims that readers must become educated in facts “bringing them to the knowledge of every one” thereby exposing the false nature of the Southern claims (Wells-Barnett 683). Second, she urges social groups to get involved in protesting through petitions and resolutions (Wells-Barnett 683). Her third suggestion is to use financial means and fourth calls for independent thought (Wells-Barnett 684). Her final suggestion which is mirrored again in “A Field for Practical Work” calls for not only blacks, but all supporters of their cause to become vocally involved through petitions, pamphlets and any other means to expose the truth and petitioning the government to actually enforce the laws. Wells-Barnett’s hope in exposing the truth is to promote the feeling invoked by Lowell’s poem “And, with heart and hand, to be earnest to make others free!” (Wells-Barnett 685).
In the writings of these ladies, we find three different approaches the worked together to call attention to the injustices occuring in America at the beginning of the 20th century to both African Americans and women. Cooper called for African Americans to rise up and develop to their greatest potential. Hopkins sought to chronicle the struggle and call attention to the absurdity of the situation at the time, and Barnett point by point analyzed and refuted the supposed reasons for the oppression.
Wells-Barnett, Ida B. “A Red Record.” (1895). Eds. Henry Louis Gates, Jr. and Nellie Y. McKay. The Norton Anthology of African American Literature. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2004. 676-686. Print.
For Anna Julia Cooper, the key to progress of any race the was advancement of women. Education was of utmost importance, and leading by example she became one of the first African Americans to received a PhD. Writing in the vein of a Mary Wollstonecraft calling for women to rise up as proper examples, she wrote eloquently of how African American women controlled the destiny of the race. Calling for women to follow Christian virtues and embrace education and opportunities, she called for workers to make the South a mission field and help bring about equality.
Pauline Hopkins was a gifted writer, historian, and biographer of famous African Americans such as Booker T. Washington. Her gift of writing provided her with a platform to chronicle history as well as through literature create works that would allow readers to consider issues from a different perspective. Many of her works had themes which highlighted prejudice in a light that allowed the reader to consider the faulty reasoning on which it was grounded. Through her works, the social realities of injustices were recorded.
In contrast, Barnett was a journalist who used the press and media to call attention to discrimination and illegal oppression of African Americans. Ida Wells Barnett in the first chapter of A Red Record provides the means for the Southern Negro to “give to the world his side of the awful story” exposing the truth of the injustices which were occurring in the South (Wells-Barnett 679). She documents the number of lynchings in the South, more than the legal executions, and exposes the root causes of the problem (Wells-Barnett 682). Under slavery, the Southern whites had a financial incentive to keep the slaves alive. This prevented the slave owners from killing their slaves. However, the chattel status of the slaves also allowed them to be mistreated in any way. After the Emancipation Proclamation and ensuing Constitutional amendments, the financial incentive to keep the slaves alive was removed, but the desire to subdue the Negros was not. Southern Whites did not want to acknowledge the freedoms granted and the necessity of legally treating the Negros. Because the Southern legal system refused to enforce the laws, Southern Negros were exposed to horrendous deaths at the hands of mobs of Southerners.
The Southerners claimed there were three causes that triggered the need for vigilante justice. First, they claimed there were “race riots” occurring (Wells-Barnett 677). Second, the franchise of Negro voting was abhorrent to the whites who through intimidation attempted to prevent voting and thereby control the government (Wells-Barnett 678). Third, the white Southerners claimed that black men were attacking white women (Wells-Barnett 679). In fact, the first and third arguments were totally unfounded. The second claim, that the blacks were attempting to vote, was in fact true. Herein lies the concerns that brought about the lynchings. The anarchistic nature of the South because of the unwillingness of the established government offices to protect the blacks was an outgrowth of racism.
In chapter ten of A Red Record Wells-Barnett suggests the remedy to the problem reminding readers that it was in fact ”the white man’s civilization and the white man’s government that were on trial” (Wells-Barnett 684). First, she claims that readers must become educated in facts “bringing them to the knowledge of every one” thereby exposing the false nature of the Southern claims (Wells-Barnett 683). Second, she urges social groups to get involved in protesting through petitions and resolutions (Wells-Barnett 683). Her third suggestion is to use financial means and fourth calls for independent thought (Wells-Barnett 684). Her final suggestion which is mirrored again in “A Field for Practical Work” calls for not only blacks, but all supporters of their cause to become vocally involved through petitions, pamphlets and any other means to expose the truth and petitioning the government to actually enforce the laws. Wells-Barnett’s hope in exposing the truth is to promote the feeling invoked by Lowell’s poem “And, with heart and hand, to be earnest to make others free!” (Wells-Barnett 685).
In the writings of these ladies, we find three different approaches the worked together to call attention to the injustices occuring in America at the beginning of the 20th century to both African Americans and women. Cooper called for African Americans to rise up and develop to their greatest potential. Hopkins sought to chronicle the struggle and call attention to the absurdity of the situation at the time, and Barnett point by point analyzed and refuted the supposed reasons for the oppression.
Wells-Barnett, Ida B. “A Red Record.” (1895). Eds. Henry Louis Gates, Jr. and Nellie Y. McKay. The Norton Anthology of African American Literature. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2004. 676-686. Print.