Katie Darmofal - Timeline 2: African American Women's Suffrage from 1900-1940 lyrics

At the start of the twentieth century African American women were becoming increasingly adamant in their fight for equal rights. The changing times brought about an emergence of African American organizations as well as women's abolitionist leaders who became cultural markers of their time. Despite their efforts, many were met with resistance and faced numerous amounts of criticism. Still, several women during this time were able to gain monumental achievements that facilitated a desire for the growth and recognition of women within American society. In this timeline I hope to address both the trials and accomplishments of African American women from 1900 to 1940 and how they inevitably shaped the course of history in various ways. 1910 – Creation of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People Excerpt from James Weldon Johnson's “Lift Every Voice and Sing” (1900) “Lift every voice and sing Till earth and heaven ring, Ring with the harmonies of Liberty; Let our rejoicing rise” 1913 – Segregation of Public Spaces is made Legal Excerpt from James Weldon Johnson's “Fifty Years” (1913) “For never let the thought arise That we are here on sufferance bare; Outcasts, asylumed ‘neath these skies, And aliens without part or share” 1915 - National Negro Health movement Excerpt from Fenton Johnson's “Tired” (1919) “I am tired of work; I am tired of building up somebody else's civilization. Let us take rest, M'Lissy Jane.” 1920 - 19th Amendment to the US Constitution Excerpt from W.E.B. Du Bois' “The Damnation of Women” (1920) “With that freedom they are buying an untrammeled independence and dear as is the price they pay for it, it will in the end be worth every taunt and groan. Today the dreams of the mothers are coming true.” 1921 - Bessie Coleman became the first African American woman to earn a pilot's license Excerpt from Georgia Douglas Johnson's “The Heart of a Woman” (1918) “The heart of a woman goes forth with the dawn, As a lone bird, soft winging, so restlessly on, Afar o'er life's turrets and values does it roam In the wake of those echoes the heart calls home.” 1924 - Mary Montgomery Booze became the first African American woman elected to the Republican National Committee Excerpt from Alice Moore Dunbar Nelson's “April Is on the Way” (1927) “I met a woman in the lane; Her burden was heavy as it is always, but today her step was light, And a smile drenched the tired look away from her eyes.” 1930 - Association for the Prevention of Lynching Excerpt from Claude Mckay's “If We Must Die” (1919) “If we must die, O let us nobly die, So that our precious blood may not be shed In vain; then even the monsters we defy Shall be constrained to honor us though dead!” 1935 - National Council of Negro Women Excerpt from Zora Neale Hurston's “Their Eyes Were Watching God” (1937) “But, all de same Ah said thank God, Ah got another chance. Ah wanted to preach a great sermon about colored women sittin' on high, but they wasn't no pulpit for me.”