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Appreciation For Women Is Overdue

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By DORIS WEATHERFORD

The Tampa Tribune

Published: June 15, 2008

Remember, I'm an historian, so I see everything in historical terms.

I think this hurt is so particularly painful because African-American men generally fail to appreciate what women of both races have done for them. They rarely say thank you.

I'm thinking of people like Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, who were abolitionists first.

They stopped having the Women's Rights Association meetings and put all their efforts into ending slavery. ... When Stanton went to the World Congress Against Slavery, she was not allowed to be seated as a delegate because she was a woman...

When the 15th Amendment was passed (in 1870) it said no citizen shall be denied the right to vote based on race or human condition.

Women thought that included women. But when they tried to vote, they couldn't.

They went to the Supreme Court on a Missouri case, Virginia Minor v. the supervisor of elections in St. Louis. The court ruled that Congress didn't intend to include women.

It took until 1920, when the 19th Amendment was passed, to grant women this right. To me, the Minor vs. Happersett case should be as well known as Brown v. Topeka.

Subconsciously, especially older women who have witnessed a lot, resent the fact that nobody ever says thank you, and that our issues are put off until later.

Doris Weatherford is a noted historian living in Tampa.

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