Racism. As touchy a subject now as it has ever been, there have been frequent and numerous allegations that Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and other white, female suffragettes were racists. I completely and totally concede the point that Elizabeth Cady Stanton had her moments of complete and utter classless, racially insensitive speeches. She was wrong, but she also supported anti-slavery laws in the beginning. However, when it seemed like black men were going to get the right to vote before women, she flipped her ideals and started putting down black people in order to secure the vote for women.
All of that, however, was Elizabeth Cady Stanton. Susan B. Anthony, however, is a bit more complicated. As someone who fought hard for her beliefs, it’s obvious that people were going to be gunning for her. The thing is, Anthony was a believer in the right to vote for all. She’s widely quoted as saying she “would sooner cut off her right arm before [she] would ever work for or demand the ballot for the black man and not the woman.” Hold up, that sounds pretty dang racist. I agreed. Out of context, that sounds really, really messed up. In context, however, it’s actually an incredibly powerful statement were a woman was refusing to back down from her convictions.
Here’s the rundown: In 1886, Susan B. Anthony was approached by Wendell Phillips and Theodore Tilton- who were members of the same organization for suffrage as Anthony- and advised to allow the American Equal Rights Association to focus almost solely on getting the African American man’s right to vote. Anthony was appalled- she had helped found AERA on the grounds that it would be a universal right to vote. It was in regards to this that Anthony responded by holding up her right arm and stating, “Look at this, all of you. And hear me swear that I will cut off this right arm of mine before I will ever work for or demand the ballot for the negro and not the woman.” Translation: “Listen, you idiots, I’m here for the universal right to vote, regardless of sex, race, and country of origin and you are not going to get me to give up on women or black men in order to choose one over the other.” For Anthony, it was never about choosing a side- it was about winning for everyone.
Well didn’t she have a fight with Fredrick Douglass about this? Meh, sorta. She and Douglass got into a disagreement over who should get to vote first. Douglass felt that pushing for the universal vote was too much too fast and would result in it taking years, possibly even decades, to get the votes for anyone other than the white men who could already vote. He famously said that “when women, because they are women, are dragged from their homes and hung upon lampposts; when their children are torn from their arms and their brains dashed upon the pavement… then they will have the urgency to obtain the ballot.” So that’s pretty intense. Douglass was a long time supporter of women’s right and believed that women deserved the right to vote… after black men got the right. He believed that it was utterly imperative that they receive the right near immediately, as it would give black men more freedom and more citizenship. That’s important and justifiable.
Now comes the difficult to detangle part- Anthony, as previously established, was not about to back down. The woman had already been doing the most- including dressing up as a man to be able to vote, getting caught, and getting beaten in the streets. She was against Douglass, her long-time friend, in this matter. She believed that if African American men got the right to vote first, then women wouldn’t get the right for a long time afterward. It’s here that you see the drastic split in the women’s suffragette movement. It was now that a “side” had to be chosen that many women, see Elizabeth Cady Stanton, began to undermine both black men and black women in order to get the vote for white women. This is were people attribute Anthony’s usually out-of-context quote. They forced her into a side when in all reality, she never chose one. Why would she? Why would she have to? She believed in the right for everyone to vote and was terrified that choosing a side would result in one party suffering.
So while people continue to attempt to defame her with a misunderstood, out of context quote, remember that this woman was as BA as they come. She was really to be beaten for her beliefs and willing to cut her arm off in order to not choose a side. Susan B. Anthony was a hero. And no, Susan B. Anthony was not racist.
Sources
susanbanthonyhouse.org/blog/tag/stand-against-racism/
thoughtco.com/frederick-douglass-quotes-on-womens-rights-3530068
condor.depaul.edu/mwilson/divided/chptone.html
https://skeptics.stackexchange.com/questions/41112/did-susan-b-anthony-m…