Black Women and the Suffrage Movement: Margaret Walker and her Impact on Black Women's Suffrage in Virginia

Authors

Emmalee J. Layton, Liberty UniversityFollow

Abstract

This paper examines the women’s suffrage movement, focusing on the battle for voting rights in the state of Virginia. Specifically, it will interrogate how the women’s suffrage movement related to Black women, and what it looked like for them to seek equal access to voting, highlighting the Equal Suffrage League of Virginia and its racist history. This paper also looks into Margaret Lena Walker, and the channels that she, as a Black woman, had to take in order to advocate for Black women’s voting rights prior to the passage of the 19^th Amendment of the Constitution, as well as how she advocated for Black people, especially Black women’s, access to the vote after women’s suffrage was legalized.

Recommended Citation

Layton, Emmalee J. (2025) "Black Women and the Suffrage Movement: Margaret Walker and her Impact on Black Women's Suffrage in Virginia," Bound Away: The Liberty Journal of History: Vol. 7: Iss. 3, Article 3.
Available at: https://digitalcommons.liberty.edu/ljh/vol7/iss3/3