"A Great Many Needs": Black Women Suffragists and Voters in Indiana

Abstract

ABSTRACT:Little information exists about Indiana's Black suffragists and voters, making it difficult to draw a complete picture of their role in the suffrage movement and in state politics. Black women's suffrage groups sometimes organized with the help of their churches and worked with other civic groups such as the NAACP. Black suffragists and voters had in common a dedication to community service and improvement, approaching the vote as the means to achieving better schools and housing and greater access to employment and health care. The officers of Indiana's Black suffrage groups were middle-class and, in at least two cases, published authors. In Indianapolis, the three most visible Black suffrage leaders were teachers in the city's segregated public schools, making them very similar to prominent Black suffragists in other states. Unfortunately, these Hoosier suffragists left few statements about their suffrage work, and the groups they worked with left no minutes of their meetings. Their actions, if not their words, demonstrate that their efforts to win the vote were tied to community goals.