Electioneering at the South

While the 15th amendment to the U.S. Constitution guaranteed the right to vote to all citizens (defined then as men) “regardless of race, color, or previous condition of servitude,” Black women were still active participants in political life. Frequently at the center of African American family and community networks, women debated issues, helped with voter mobilization, and ensured Republican party discipline among the men in their lives. This illustration from the national magazine Harper’s Weekly shows Black women as attentive participants at the kind of political meeting that was a frequent and critical part of developing Black political culture during Reconstruction; they also accompanied men to polling places on election day as a show of community solidarity in the face of efforts to intimidate Black voters.

Source: W. L. Sheppard, “Electioneering at the South,” Harper’s Weekly July 25, 1868, 468.