Women's Role In The Civil Rights Movement

The key factor is always seen as the most successful, but in this situation success can be defined in many ways. Is success a practical change? Or a political and legal change? Male civil rights activists have a very good reputation for making change resulting in many people forgetting about the women but it can be argued that the men did not work completely alone. This is one of the main factors I will be looking into and comparing the role of women to the main male civil rights figures and who made more of a significant development in the civil rights movements.

Ida B. Wells (1862-1931) was a major female civil rights activist whose main focus was lynching. She wrote many articles about how lynching was “a systematic attempt to subordinate
Du Bois and Booker T. Washington could have made great political change if they had worked together but they fought against each other. They both made astonishing political change in education as Washington created the Tuskegee Institute in 1881. If they joined they could have made amazing achievements but they decided to slander each other and try to knock to other out of the limelight. Ida B. Wells criticised men as being a “disorganised mass” . This proves women were very significant in the fight for civil rights, they worked together with the grass-roots, ordinary people who participated in the protests and campaigns; black women, churches etc., to get themselves further. For example, Ella Baker worked with the grass roots in the 1960s stated “The major job was getting people to understand that they had something within their power that they could use, and it could only be used if they understood what was happening and how group action could counter violence…” This shows how she believe the ordinary people needed to believe in their rights and if people work together progress can be made. Women like Ida B Wells had much more of a battle on their hands than just civil rights; they fought sexism and economic discrimination meaning they were more significant as they could still make progress whilst having much more on their shoulders. However, it can be argued that men are more significant as they are more in the limelight and influential, as the NAACP continued to make unbelievable progress, Smith V Allwright 1944 and Sweatt V Painter 1950, with the guidance of Du Bois and without Wells being involved. Finally, Du Bois and Washington were able to make legal change when Wells could only make practical