{"id":320,"date":"2020-02-17T18:00:26","date_gmt":"2020-02-17T23:00:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/roger-glass.com\/?p=320"},"modified":"2022-08-01T00:14:55","modified_gmt":"2022-08-01T04:14:55","slug":"momma-addie-helps-win-voting-rights-for-women-in-new-york-state","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/roger-glass.com\/?p=320","title":{"rendered":"Momma Addie helps win voting rights for women in New York state"},"content":{"rendered":"

In August 2019, the Washington Informer newspaper published an article I wrote on the role that black women played in winning voting rights for women in New York state. My great grandmother, Addie Jackson, was one of the black women at the forefront of that effort. She\u2019s singled out in a recent book on the women\u2019s suffrage movement in NYS. Here\u2019s the full Washington Informer article.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Screen<\/a><\/p>\n

By Roger S. Glass<\/p>\n

When voters in New York rejected a 1915 measure that would have given women in that state the right to vote an undaunted coalition of the state\u2019s suffragist groups didn\u2019t skip a beat. Led by the National American Woman Suffrage Association, they immediately began preparing for another referendum.<\/p>\n

Two years later, in what is widely considered a watershed moment in the women\u2019s suffrage movement, voters in New York\u00a0state\u00a0approved a referendum giving women\u00a0there\u00a0voting rights.<\/p>\n

\u201cHistorians of the national suffrage movement suggest that the New York passage marked a pivotal point in the struggle for women\u2019s votes because once New York enfranchised its female citizens, the emphasis of the movement shifted away from state-by-state campaigns to the federal campaign,\u201d\u00a0Susan\u00a0Goodier and\u00a0Karen\u00a0Pastorello\u00a0wrote in\u00a0their 2017 book,\u00a0\u201cWomen Will Vote:\u00a0Winning Suffrage in New York State.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"IMG-008\"<\/a>

Great grandmother Addie Jackson<\/p><\/div>\n

The coalition that came together to win voting rights for women in New York\u00a0state\u00a0included the\u00a0Negro Women\u2019s Business League and the Empire State Federation of Women\u2019s Clubs,\u00a0an\u00a0affiliate of the National Association of Colored Women\u2019s Clubs (NACWC).<\/p>\n

\u201cVirtually every African American women\u2019s club in the state advocated for suffrage regardless of the ostensible purpose of the organization. Black women, like white women, saw the vote as a panacea, able to solve their specific problems relating to racial violence, education, employment, and workers\u2019 rights,\u201d\u00a0Goodier\u00a0and\u00a0Pastorello\u00a0wrote\u00a0in the introduction to their\u00a0book.<\/p>\n

My great-grandmother, Addie Jackson,\u00a0was an active member\u00a0of the Empire State\u00a0Federation of\u00a0Women\u2019s Clubs, serving for\u00a0several\u00a0years as the organization\u2019s financial secretary\u00a0in the early 1900s. Goodier\u00a0and\u00a0Pastorello\u00a0had this to\u00a0say\u00a0about\u00a0my great grandmother\u00a0in their book. \u00a0\u201cAny study of women of color confounds our understanding\u00a0of class. The suffrage activist Addie Jackson, for example, took in washing and ironing, \u2018day\u2019s work,\u2019\u00a0or housecleaning, in the Brooklyn area during the 1880s.\u00a0Her class status improved significantly over the decades, as illustrated by her mobility and volunteerism.<\/p>\n

\u201cBy the 1910s she lived in Tarrytown, and the\u00a0New York Age\u00a0noted her as a participant in a number of activities related to suffrage and other activism. She also attended the fifth annual meeting of the Empire State Federation of Women\u2019s Clubs in Buffalo for a two-day session in July 1913. Members of the club made sure that the\u00a0New York Age\u00a0announced its support for woman suffrage.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"beatrice<\/a>

Aunt Beatrice Jackson’s 1917 Woman Suffrage Party registration card<\/p><\/div>\n

In preparation for the 1917 vote, suffragists and their male supporters spread out across New\u00a0York City\u00a0and the state of New York\u00a0to campaign for the referendum. One of the black women who registered\u00a0to work on behalf of the Woman Suffrage Party was\u00a0Addie Jackson\u2019s daughter,\u00a0my great aunt Beatrice Jackson.<\/p>\n

Though just\u00a022\u00a0years old at the time, Aunt Beatrice understood the significant role that black\u00a0people\u00a0could \u2014 and would \u2014 play in the suffrage movement. She wrote this in a Letter to the Editor published in\u00a0the\u00a0Tarrytown (N.Y.) Daily News. The letter was in response to blacks not being allowed to participate in a local Y.M.C.A. talent show.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery nationality was represented in the show except the negro. In fact the\u00a0negro\u00a0is never thought of until election. The\u00a0negroes\u2019 vote can decide suffrage. They were not needed for the show, but their vote is.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Nov. 6, 1917, Aunt Beatrice\u00a0was a poll watcher\u00a0for the suffrage party\u00a0at\u00a0an elementary school\u00a0in Harlem, NY.\u00a0On that day,\u00a0a measure that would amend the New York state\u00a0constitution and give women the right to vote won by 113, 000 votes.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen New York women won the right to vote in 1917, they changed the national political landscape. The victory was a critical tipping point on the road to a constitutional amendment,\u201dHuffington Post contributor Louise\u00a0Bernikow, who has written extensively about the campaign to gain voting rights for women in New York state, told the blog\u00a0New York Rediscovered.<\/p>\n

A graduate of Howard University, Roger S. Glass is a former staffer for the Washington Afro-American newspaper. He recently retired\u00a0after more than 30 years as a writer and editor for the American Federation of Teachers.\u00a0 <\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In August 2019, the Washington Informer newspaper published an article I wrote on the role that black women played in winning voting rights for women in New York state. My great grandmother, Addie Jackson, was one of the black women … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[94,40,91,92,93,48,90],"class_list":["post-320","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-1917-womens-suffrage-vote","tag-addie-jackson","tag-new-york-state-womens-suffrage","tag-washington-informer-newspaper","tag-winning-suffrage-in-new-york-state","tag-womens-suffrage","tag-womens-suffrage-movement"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/roger-glass.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/320","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/roger-glass.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/roger-glass.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/roger-glass.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/roger-glass.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=320"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/roger-glass.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/320\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":371,"href":"https:\/\/roger-glass.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/320\/revisions\/371"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/roger-glass.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=320"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/roger-glass.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=320"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/roger-glass.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=320"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}