Jane Addams and Race

I. Women's Suffrage

A. Brief History of Women's Suffrage

1. Antebellum Era

a. Seneca Falls Convention (1848)--300 women and men met at Seneca Falls, New York, to advocate for women's right to vote.

b. By 1820, universal white manhood suffrage west of the Allegheny Mountains was facilitated by insecure land titles (granting all white males the right to vote also gave them the means to protect their land claims); western states also used the promise of suffrage to attract settlers (a practice continued later in the 19th century, when new western states granted women the right to vote to attract female settlers); lastly, the erosion of social distinctions also facilitated extending the voting franchise.

c. "Civic Virtue"--during the Revolutionary and Early National eras (1776-1820), property was fairly easy to acquire, and property as a qualification for voting was not particularly onerous; race and gender became disqualifing  in  its place.

B. 14th Amendment (1868)--granted  African American males the right to vote while implicitly excluding women.

1. 2nd Section--"Representatives shall be apportioned among the several States according to the respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each state, excluding Indians not taxed.  But when he right to vote for the choice of Elector for President and Vice-President of the United States, Representatives in Congress, the executive and judicial officers of a State, or the members of the legislature thereof, is denied to any male inhabitants of such state, being twenty-one years of age and citizens of the United States, or in any way abridged, except for participation in rebellion, or other crimes, the basis of representation therein shall be reduced in proportion which the number of male citizens shall bear to the whole number of male citizens twenty-one years of age in such State."

2. The Suffrage/Abolitionist split--the willingness of abolitionists to accept the14th Amendment with its exclusion of women caused an irrevocable split between the two movements--to the detriment of both, in the long run.

a. Frederick Douglass

b. Susan B. Anthony--with Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Anthony broke with abolitionists over this issue--and split the suffrage movement as well, since not all suffragists agreed with this strategy. The movement remained split until Anthony herself brought it back together with the formation of the National American Woman Suffrage Association in 1892.

C. Reforming City Politics--the ineffectiveness of the campaign against 19th ward alderman John Powers brought home to Addams of the need for women to gain the right to vote.

1. "Ethical Survivals in City Immorality: A Study of Aldermen"--written during the 1898 campaign against John Powers. In the essay, she called for middle class reformers like herself to attempt to understand the appeal of an alderman like John Powers to voters.

a. Desire for protection and kindness, which someone like Powers provided, and that was a holdover from their previous experience in Europe.

b. The effects of abject poverty--voter were often willing to sell their vote for what seemed like a pittance, because that pittance meant they were less hungry that day than they had been previously. The alderman, or the political machine of which he was a member, also had the ability to deliver jobs that were extremely important, as well, in helping politicians remain popular with their electorate.

II. Addams and Race

A. Small number of African Americans in Chicago--although during the 20th century Chicago was second only to New York City as a mecca for African American culture, before the First Great Migration (1916-1920), there were relatively few black living in Chicago.

1. 1890 Chicago population--1,099,850; African American population in the city  14,271, or 1.3%

2. 1900 Chicago population--1,689,575; African American population in the city 30,150, or 1.8%

B. Dr. Harriet Rice

1. Background--Dr. Rice was born in Newport, Rhode Island (the summer residence of choice for East Coast elites at the turn of the century), her family was relatively well off, but working-class. She graduated from Wellesley College, the University of Michigan Medical School, and  the Women's Medical College of the New York Infirmary For Women and Children.

2. Hull House Experience--unlike other Hull House residents, Dr. Rice was not at Hull House to serve the poor--but because there were no other options for her because she could not get a job at any of the "white" hospitals in the city, and could not afford to live anywhere else.

3. Addams' frustrations with Rice--because Rice had achieved everything that Addams had hoped to achieve in her life, Addams could not understand Rice's reluctance to devote her life to serving the poor, as Addams had done.

a. Provident Hospital--the "black" hospital was the only medical facility in the city, outside of Hull House, that would allow Dr. Rice to practice medicine.

C. Addams and the lynching controversy-- while Addams decried the violence and extra-legality of lynching, she failed to understand fully the reasons for such actions.

1. Addams' assumptions--Addams assumed that the reason usually given for most lynchings--black rape of white women--was actually the reason for the action to have taken place.

a. Ida B. Wells Barnett--African American journalist who demonstrated that most of the so-called rapes were actually consensual relationships--and that a rape was only alleged in about one-third of the cases.

D. Addams' Continuing Attempts to Understand--Addams realized that she lacked a greater understanding of the issues surrounding race, and she continually worked to deepen her understanding.

1. Sponsorship of Fanny Barrier Williams for membership as the first African American member of the Chicago Women's Club.

2. National Council of Colored Women--hosted a luncheon with the group at Hull House during their national meeting in Chicago.

3. National Convention of Women's Clubs--Addams advocated unsuccessfully for this group to accept black members.

E. Addams and Racial Equality--Addams, although often not understanding fully the advantages of whiteness in early 20th century American--or, perhaps, not fully appreciating the disadvantages of blackness--worked assiduously for racial equality.

1. Niagara Movement--worked with this group to persuade drama critics in larger cities not to review Thomas Dixon's racist play The Clansman (which later became the first blockbuster Hollywood film, Birth of a Nation).

2. Named to the executive committee of the NAACP in 1906.

3. Charter member of the Chicago Urban League

4. Vigorously protested Theodore Roosevelt's decision not to seat African American delegates at the 1912 Progressive Party convention.