The Hidden Architects Of American Feminism

A photo showing a group of women suffragists picketing in front of the White House in 1917.

When we think of the quintessential feminist thought leaders, a select few trailblazing women often come to mind: Susan B. Anthony, Gloria Steinem, Simone de Beauvoir, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, or Mary Wollstonecraft. However, as much as these changemakers have become embedded in the public consciousness, it’s essential to recognize that the feminist movement is far more diverse and intersectional than the representation of these white, primarily upper-class women. Since the inception of the feminist movement, women of color have played an influential role in championing both women’s equality and the rights of minorities.

For example, take the Reconstruction Era of the late 19th century. In 1892, Black liberation activist Anna J. Cooper wrote that the Black woman “occupies…a unique position in this country,” where “she is confronted by both a woman question and a race problem, and is as yet an unknown or an unacknowledged factor in both.” Here, Cooper makes a fascinating but unfortunate observation: Black women found themselves at a cultural crossroads, where they were left unrecognized as a dominant force in both the feminist movement and the first civil rights movement, despite their innumerable contributions to both. For instance, Black women fought (even if not always alongside white women) for suffrage by holding public protests and marches, collecting signatures, and lobbying Congress.

But even as the suffrage movement gained traction in Black and white communities alike, women of color were often excluded from white women’s politics and underrepresented in larger conversations about racial politics at the end of the 19th century. They were no less affected by systematic racism and white-supremacist violence than they were by misogynistic economic and political disenfranchisement. These women became damned by their double minority status, which made them an easy target for white women and Black men to view as less than.

In fact, many white suffrage leaders knowingly ousted Black women from the mainstream movement for strategic political gain. Prominent and well-respected white suffragists like Carrie Chapman Catt openly argued that enfranchising “educated white women” would outnumber Black men’s votes in the South and therefore win Southern white male support. White activists made the conscious choice to stand on the side of white supremacy. They refused to march with Black women at national conventions, banished them from committees, and forced them to march at the back of parades because they believed association with Black women would cost them votes and legitimacy. This created a moral and ideological divide within the suffrage movement.

Making matters worse, as lynching reached an all-time high, there were few avenues to push for social change. And yet, Black feminists refused to accept their place as second-class citizens, either as women or as Black Americans. They assembled locally, creating women’s clubs, organizations, and publications—coalition-building tactics that put them back into the spotlight. Even though not as pedestalized as their white counterparts, Black feminists like Sojourner Truth, Ida B. Wells, and Frances Harper became household names. For the first time, Black girls had fierce role models to look up to, which strengthened the Black feminist movement for decades to come. From establishing schools and daycares to providing social services, the clubs that Black feminists formed addressed community needs and uplifted women who might otherwise be excluded from mainstream conversations about social justice.

These clubs did almost everything you can imagine, raising money to open literacy programs, settlement houses, health clinics, and safe housing for migrants fleeing Southern racial violence. Many of these clubs led anti-lynching campaigns way before Congress even considered legislation. For instance, Ida B. Wells’ Chicago Woman’s Club directly investigated lynching cases, published data, and pressured newspapers to shed light on the harsh reality of racist violence. Black women also utilized club networks to pressure universities to admit Black women to higher education, train Black nurses and teachers, and establish political study groups where women learned constitutional law, civic engagement, and public speaking. These networks created the pipeline of Black women lawyers, journalists, suffragists, educators, and activists who would make their mark on the Progressive Era, the Harlem Renaissance, and the Civil Rights Movement.

Their work culminated in the founding of the National Association of Colored Women's Clubs (NACW), the first national organization for African American women. The NACW unified hundreds of local clubs under a single, coordinated national umbrella, enabling Black women to pool resources, coordinate campaigns, and amplify their political power to a level that individual clubs could not achieve on their own. Under the early leadership of Mary Church Terrell and Josephine St. Pierre Ruffin, the NACW established national task forces focused on prison reform, public health, access to education, and voter literacy.

A photo of the prominent leaders of the NACW in 1896.

They held national conventions every two years, where representatives from clubs across the country presented data, reports, and legislative goals. This helped Black women become organized political thinkers at a time when they were still denied the right to vote in most states. The NACW also launched scholarship funds and sent delegates internationally, which showed the world that Black women in the United States were not powerless victims of racism, but fighters for freedom and equality. By formalizing this structure, the NACW became the blueprint for every subsequent Black women’s organization in the twentieth century, including the National Council of Negro Women under Mary McLeod Bethune. The core principles of the NACW were also applied in women-led grassroots organizing during the Civil Rights Movement.

It is important to acknowledge that the Black women’s club movement was not entirely unified internally. Many clubwomen were middle-class teachers, journalists, nurses, religious leaders, and educated urban professionals. That economic status provided them with literacy, political mobility, and social leverage that working-class domestic laborers and rural Black women often lacked access to. This class-based divide sometimes created tension in how problems were confronted and whose problems were prioritized.

Today, as the third and fourth waves of mainstream feminist activism have taken society by storm, it is undeniable that the feminist movement wouldn’t be as inclusive as it is without the tireless work of Black feminists. Most gender studies departments across higher education now emphasize intersectional feminism, which posits that people experience layers of oppression. For example, a white woman’s experience of gender-based violence would likely be different from a Black woman’s because the woman of color would experience two types of discrimination at once: racism and misogyny. These unique challenges demand intersectional, progressive solutions, which the Black women of the late 19th century were all too familiar with.