Existing comment:
Elizabeth Cady Stanton, 1815-1902
Susan B. Anthony, 1820-1906
When the Fifteenth Amendment was ratified, it became the first time the federal government interfered in the state prerogative of voting eligibility. Many educated white women were appalled when they saw formerly enslaved black men obtain the right to vote before they did. Consequently, the women's rights movement split into two groups focused solely on suffrage: the National Woman Suffrage Association, led by Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, opposed the Fifteenth Amendment and insisted that the gender restriction of "male" should be struck down before the racial designation of "white." Conversely, the American Woman Suffrage Association, led by Lucy Stone, supported the enfranchisement of black men as a progressive development and continued to work to enfranchise women.
Napoleon Sarony, c 1870 |