Race and Gender

Race and gender are two interconnected elements of identity that have shaped social and political landscapes. At F&C, we'll look at W.E.B. Du Bois, Anna Julia Cooper, and the Seneca Falls Convention. These scholars and activists have made major contributions to understanding and addressing racial and gender intersections. Their work has expanded knowledge of the complicated ways race and gender intersect, as well as the importance of inclusive and comprehensive approaches to social justice.

W.E.B. Du Bois (1868 - 1963) was a sociologist, historian, and civil rights activist. He grew up in Massachusetts, where he was able to attend school alongside white children and not be subject to racial prejudice. It wasn't until visiting the south and seeing firsthand the effects of Jim Crow laws that Du Bois began to understand the racial divide in the U.S. He went on to become the first African American to receive a Ph.D. from Harvard in 1895. After his schooling, Du Bois gained celebrity as a professor, writer, and activist; being particularly famous for his disagreements with Booker T. Washington, specifically over the role of higher education for African Americans. Alongside his views on education, Du Bois had a talent for brilliantly articulating the African American experience. His notions of the "veil" and the "double self" remain relevant metaphors to this day.

Anna Julia Cooper (1858-1964) was a prominent African American scholar, educator, and activist. Her work is still prevalent today since she made substantial contributions to the disciplines of race and gender studies. Born into slavery in Raleigh, North Carolina, Cooper pursued education as a means of empowerment. She succeeded academically when enrolled in St. Augustine's Normal School and Collegiate Institute (now Saint Augustine's University). Cooper later graduated from Oberlin College with a bachelor's degree and Columbia University with a master's degree in mathematics. Cooper's book "A Voice from the South: By a Black Woman of the South," which was released in 1892, is her most well-known composition. The intersectional oppressions of race, gender, and class were addressed in this seminal piece of feminist literature.

The Seneca Falls Convention was the first large-scale women’s rights convention in the United States. Organized by Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton after they were both excluded from the convention floor of the 1840 World Anti-Slavery Convention due to their gender. 200 women showed up to the first day of the convention, where the “Declaration of Sentiments and Grievances,” a document heavily inspired by the Declaration of Independence, was read aloud. The following day, when men could join the convention, the group adopted and signed the declaration alongside 12 resolutions they had passed. The only resolution that met opposition detailed women’s “right to the elective franchise” (the resolution for which the convention met intense opposition across the country), though that was eventually agreed upon.

As you read these texts, consider the founding documents. Who is included in the language of these texts, who is excluded (whether directly or indirectly)? Also, consider the different social contract theorists ideas on the state of slavery, and when it is appropriate for a group of people to demand more of their governing powers.