A Woman's Place · Episode 5 of 12 · 23 min
The Color Line: From Ida B. Wells to Marian Anderson
In 1913 organizers asked Black women to march at the back, and Ida B. Wells-Barnett refused. In 1920 the Nineteenth Amendment enfranchised citizens, and then poll taxes and literacy tests decided which citizens counted. In 1939 the DAR barred Marian Anderson from Constitution Hall. The episode follows the color line inside the women's movement and the same quality-of-the-vote problem across the Andes.
Who's who
- Ida B. Wells-Barnett+2 more episodesjournalist who rejoined the Illinois delegation mid-route
- Mary Church Terrellfirst president of the National Association of Colored Women
- Alice Paul+3 more episodesorganizer of the 1913 procession
- Marian Anderson+1 more episodecontralto barred from Constitution Hall in 1939
- Eleanor Roosevelt+2 more episodesFirst Lady who resigned from the DAR in protest
- Harold Ickes+6 more episodesInterior Secretary who approved the Lincoln Memorial concert
- Mabel Ping-Hua LeeChinese-born suffragist barred from citizenship
- Antonieta de Barrosfirst Black woman elected a state deputy in Brazil, 1934
Where it happens
- Constitution Hall, Washington, D.C.DAR venue that refused Anderson
- Lincoln Memorial, Washington, D.C.where Anderson sang on Easter Sunday 1939
- Santa Catarina, Brazilstate where Antonieta de Barros was elected
Timeline
- March 3, 1913Black women directed to the rear of the Washington procession
- August 1920Nineteenth Amendment ratified
- February 1939DAR refuses Anderson; Eleanor Roosevelt resigns
- April 9, 1939Anderson sings at the Lincoln Memorial to about 75,000
- August 6, 1965Voting Rights Act makes the Nineteenth Amendment real for Black Southern women
Still debated
Accounts differ on how explicit and uniform the 1913 march-at-the-back instruction was. The number of DAR members who resigned in 1939 is not precisely known.
← PreviousThe Suffrage Race: The First Woman to Vote Wasn't AmericanNext →Evita and the Immigrant Nations: The Vote From Above
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