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Join us for an evening with author and acclaimed historian Martha S. Jones celebrating her book Vanguard: How Black Women Broke Barriers, Won the Vote and Insisted on Equality for All. She will appear in conversation with Leslie Harris, professor, Department of History, Northwestern University.   

About the Book

In the standard story, the suffrage crusade began in Seneca Falls in 1848 and ended with the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment in 1920. But this overwhelmingly white women’s movement did not win the vote for most black women. Securing their rights required a movement of their own. In Vanguard, Martha S. Jones offers a new history of African American women’s political lives in America. She recounts how they defied both racism and sexism to fight for the ballot, and how they wielded political power to secure the equality and dignity of all persons. From the earliest days of the republic to the passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act and beyond, Jones excavates the lives and work of black women — Maria Stewart, Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, Fannie Lou Hamer, and more— who were the vanguard of women’s rights, calling on America to realize its best ideals.

About the Author

Professor Martha S. Jones is the Society of Black Alumni Presidential Professor and Professor of History at The Johns Hopkins University. She is a legal and cultural historian whose work examines how black Americans have shaped the story of American democracy. 

This event is presented in partnership with the Jane Addams Hull-House Museum, Reaching Across Illinois Library System, Aurora Public Library, Gail Borden Public Library, and Schaumburg Township District Library.

This event takes place on Facebook. You do not need a Facebook account to watch live at: https://www.facebook.com/arlingtonheightslibrary/

Explore more Suffrage events presented in partnership with Jane Addams Hull House.