Did you know that Massachusetts was at the center of the national struggle for women’s rights? Or that this struggle was intertwined with the abolitionist movement? Barbara Berenson, the author of Massachusetts in the Woman Suffrage Movement: Revolutionary Reformers, delivered a history talk about the Bay State’s prominent role in women’s fight for the vote.
Long before the Civil War, Lucy Stone and other local abolitionists were among the first to oppose women’s exclusion from political life. After the war, the Boston-based American Woman Suffrage Association led campaigns across the country. Their work laid the foundation for the next generation of suffragists to triumph over tradition. Berenson highlighted the many ways in which Black activists and working-class organizers fought for suffrage, even as many white leaders ignored their efforts. She also discussed the battle over historical memory that continues to influence how we remember the women’s suffrage movement.
