Insight: Democracy is a debate in motion

Our Annual Lecture for 2022 was Professor Martha Jones and her talk “Democracy, Voting Rights and Black Women as the Vanguard”. During her lecture, Professor Jones provided great insight into the history of voting rights in America and the journey of black women in our country’s democracy. 

One of the quotes that stood out to me was: “America is the white man’s country”. Now, this has been proven to be true throughout many of our lectures but also throughout history books. American education surrounds the way that America has done well and should be celebrated but seems to leave out the ways we could have done better or even the ways we have failed.

This lecture focuses on one of the times our country's historical moments were not as uplifting as painted in our history lessons. As a country, we are proud of the passing of the 19th Amendment, legislation that is supposed to allow all women across the country to hit the polls. However, the 19th Amendment was not for all women. While black women were supposed to have the equal right to vote, hurdles were being set up across different states to avoid this act of democracy from happening. We fail to recognize as a nation the way this legislation failed.

Professor Jones details the ways in which black women were kept away from the polls. Literacy tests and polling tax were implemented along with acts of violence and the threat of lynching. Although federally black women had the right to vote there was nothing that stopped the states from preventing that from happening. Black women were faced with challenge after challenge if they wanted to cast their ballot. 

However, what stood out to me amongst the violence and discrimination was the way that black women came together to tackle these obstacles head-on. In St. Louis Missouri there were suffrage schools that taught black women how to conquer hurdles and prepare them to register to vote. They taught each other how to pay poll taxes and how to pass literacy tests and showed up together to register. 

Although devastated by the way our country continues to let down women, especially women of color, I am inspired by the way black women have continued to fight for themselves and refuse to be left behind from participating in the democracy we were all promised to have. Professor Jones said, “ Democracy is a debate in motion fabricated together by our disagreements”. In order to have a healthy debate, and a healthy democracy, everyone’s voice should be recognized with equal power. 

The people who hold office are not there to represent the white men of this country but everyone in this country of all ages, races, ethnicity, religions, and genders. The legislation that is being passed should be protecting minority voices not diminishing them. We continue to see the way today that democracy is failing minority women and this time around we cannot let them fight alone. White women must use their privilege to stand up and support other women because in this “white man's country” we must stick together. 

You can watch the video of Professor Jones’ lecture here.

About the Author

Meredith is a senior at the University of Maryland majoring in Marketing and Management. After college, she hopes to travel the world and learn more about different countries and cultures. Meredith wants to combine her interest in business with her passion for helping others.