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The year 2020 is the 100th anniversary of the ratification of the 19th amendment to the United States Constitution.  The amendment says the right to vote cannot be denied based on sex.  The adoption of this amendment gave many women the right to vote in all elections. 

In fighting for the vote, African American suffragists confronted racism in addition to discrimination based on their gender.  Historian Rosalyn Terborg-Penn has written that “African American women were universal suffragists in the sense that their voices called for the vote for all citizens, not just for themselves.”  It was not until the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 that all African American women gained the right to vote. 

The contributions of women of color have often been excluded from the broader history of women’s suffrage.  This exhibition honors and celebrates the contributions of Iowa’s African American women to win the vote.

Toward a Universal Suffrage is organized by Allyn Benkowich and Kristen Corey of the Office on the Status of Women, Iowa Department of Human Rights; Dr. Karen M. Kedrowski of the Carrie Chapman Catt Center for Women and Politics at Iowa State University; and Eric Morse of the Central Iowa Community Museum.

See the Exhibition

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Book the Exhibition

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Questions to Consider

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For Schools: The Exhibition and Iowa HF802

We encourage schools to host the exhibit. Please review these frequently asked questions about the exhibition and HF802.

 
Sue M. Wilson Brown. Courtesy of the State Historical Society of Iowa.

Sue M. Wilson Brown. Courtesy of the State Historical Society of Iowa.

Women OF COURAGE AND PERSEVERANCE

Iowa’s first African American female lawyer.

An organizer at the local, state, and national levels.

A founder of African American women’s clubs.

The only student of color at the University of Northern Iowa in the 1910s.

A resident of Buxton, Iowa.

Meet some of Iowa’s African American suffragists.

VOTING RIGHTS HISTORY AND TIMELINE

When the United States Constitution was written in 1787, it said little about voting rights. States determined who had the right to vote. Every state restricted voting rights to male property owners, and sometimes only to white male property owners.

Learn how women and people of color brought universal suffrage to our democracy.

The Voting Rights Act of 1965. Courtesy National Archives.

The Voting Rights Act of 1965. Courtesy National Archives.

Charlotta Gordon Pyles. Photo courtesy Mississippi Valley Traveler.

Charlotta Gordon Pyles. Photo courtesy Mississippi Valley Traveler.

women activists: from slavery to suffrage

When women asserted their right to organize, speak, and act on public and political issues, they ended slavery and won the right to vote. Learn about the diversity and difference that existed in the women’s suffrage movement.

Willie Stevenson Glanton. Courtesy the Iowa Department of Human Rights’ Women’s Hall of Fame.

Willie Stevenson Glanton. Courtesy the Iowa Department of Human Rights’ Women’s Hall of Fame.

Leaving a Legacy

African American women in Iowa did not stop at the ballot box. They continued the hard work toward equity in all facets of life. Building on the legacy of those that went before them, these women continued the work of the suffragists. Read their stories.

Putting Iowa’s African American Women on the Map: Important Places in Suffrage and Civil Rights History

Learn about six Iowa communities where important contributions to Iowa’s African American suffrage and Civil Rights history were made.