Description: An essential history of African American women's pursuit of political power--and how it transformed America
"Elegant and expansive." --New York Times Winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for History Named a Best Book of the Year by Ms. - Time - Foreign Affairs - Smithsonian In Vanguard, acclaimed historian Martha S. Jones offers a new history of African American women's political lives in America. She recounts how they defied both racism and sexism to fight for the ballot, and how they wielded political power to secure the equality and dignity of all persons. From the earliest days of the republic to the passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act and beyond, Jones excavates the lives and work of Black women--Maria Stewart, Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, Fannie Lou Hamer, and more--who were the vanguard of women's rights, calling on America to realize its best ideals. Vanguard is essential reading for anyone who cares about the past and future of American democracy.Review Quotes: "Jones has written an elegant and expansive history of Black women who sought to build political power where they could.... Jones is an assiduous scholar and an absorbing writer, turning to the archives to unearth the stories of Black women who worked alongside white suffragists only to be marginalized."--New York Times