White Suffragists Exclude Black Women and Accept Southern Segregation to Win White Support

The mainstream white women's suffrage movement systematically excluded Black women and accepted Jim Crow segregation to build Southern white support. Ida B. Wells-Barnett and Mary Church Terrell were excluded from leadership. When the 1913 suffrage parade demanded Black women march separately at the back, Wells-Barnett defied the order and marched with the Illinois delegation. The 19th Amendment formally enfranchised women but was unenforceable for Black women in the South.