Religious Resolve: Stories from Our Past, for Our Future (Program 2)

Citizen Activists: African American Suffragists, Faith and the Hard-Won Right to Vote

The second in the Freedom Forum’s series, Religious Resolve: Stories from Our Past, for Our Future, highlights stories of two little-known African Americans who put their religious faith into action to better the lives of women and ensure their right to vote. While several more well-known suffragists have been honored during 2020, the 100^th anniversary of the 19^th Amendment’s ratification, lesser-known women like Emma France Landcaster and A.L.T. Waytes are equally deserving of our attention. Landcaster escaped enslavement in a contraband camp in Arkansas during the Civil War, became a Quaker at Southland College and an activist for suffrage in Oregon. Devoted to the principles of the social gospel, Waytes went on a multi-state speaking tour in 1912-14, advocating for women and women’s suffrage. She later was a leader in the Republican Colored Women’s Club in New York, where she continued to fight for the right to vote.

Speakers include:

• Thomas Dublin, Ph.D., distinguished professor emeritus, State University of New York at Binghamton and editor, Online Biographical Dictionary of the Woman Suffrage Movement in the United States
• Blair Forlaw, contractor, Religious Freedom Center’s Leadership for a Multi-Faith Democracy Project, and volunteer citizen researcher, Online Biographical Dictionary of the Woman Suffrage Movement in the United States

Moderator:

• The Rev. Tess Powell, founder, Perfecting Community Full Gospel Baptist Ministry, empowering women and girls to be community change agents

For more information about the series, contact [email protected].

This series is made possible by generous support from The Arthur Vining Davis Foundations.