Rights Delayed
In 1870, the 15th Amendment was passed enfranchising black men, but not women, with the right to vote. American women were not granted the right until 1920.
It is amusing to see how many countries granted women this right before the United States. Poland, Russia, Germany, Canada, Finland, Austria, Ireland, Finland and Australia all allowed this before 1920. God help us, even Estonia and the Ukraine beat us to the punch. There were many others also, most a bit too difficult to spell.
We keep hearing about the foresight of the founding fathers (FF’s), but they sort of whiffed on this one. If the FF’s really wanted to be thought of as visionaries, they would have granted women all the rights they granted men.
(It was probably too much to ask, in the late 1700’s, to ask them to free slaves and give them voting rights too.)
Back then, landowners pretty much called all the shots, and apparently weren’t all that excited about sharing power. Power was based on your wealth, which is different from today because….ummm… because….uh…
Know this though, there were people back then, Americans, who were mortified by the treatment of slaves and even the concept of slavery. These objectors would surely have been jeered, and called the 18th century version of the worst of all insults….”liberal.”
(2 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)
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1Ibk g
wrote on 19 March 2009 at 23:16
What bears mentioning here is another fact that you touch upon in your post but don’t explicitly name:
- That all the rights that were fought for so hard at the time – black men getting the vote, women getting the vote, black men getting accepted into the army, black men getting accepted in sports, women getting equal rights, a non-segregated society etc. etc. – that all these achievements (because this is what we call them today) were opposed by a great deal of people at the time, considered heinous and unwanted by many and were were tough to come by. Nevertheless, they are today considered great strides, showing off the goodness of this country and are today admired and applauded by virtually everyone.
Today, we have one struggle left that is a virtual mirror image of all the struggles that came before. It is a struggle that is identical in everything but the identification of the oppressed group and that is the struggle of our LBGT (lesbian, bigender, gay, transgender) brothers and sister to be granted equal rights in this society. And just like in the centuries before, just like we had learned nothing from the struggle of the oppressed, we again oppose their rights to a dignified life with the rights to marry, have children, raise them and live just like the rest of us. I think it bears pointing this out, because people that are against gay rights usually cite tradition, the bible, etc. Those are exactly the same arguments that were used in past struggles, and yet people feel that this issue is somehow different. Well, it is not, and it is high time that in the 21st century, in this country, we owe up to that.
2fred m
wrote on 20 March 2009 at 8:06
Amen, Ibk g. The battle is far from over…