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Negotiating and Transforming the
Public Sphere: African American…
Negotiating and Transforming the
Public Sphere: African American Political Life in the Transition from Slavery to Freedom
Thesis: This essay explores the processes of public discourse within Richmond and other southern black communities and the factors that led to increasingly more clearly gendered and class spaces within those communities to understand why women by the 1880s and 1890s needed to create their own pulpits from which to speak—to restore their voices to the community.
People of color struggled to define the terms of freedom in their communities in Richmond and in American Society
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Black women were still able to find a place for themselves in influencing the vote, even though they could not participate in the vote throughout the 1860's and 70's
The vote took on a sacred meaning, because of the need for the black population to protect themselves and each other
In a sense, the black population voted together through black men, black women cast their votes through the votes of black men
Black men, women, and children regularly met to construct their own story of freedom and community
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they were not being passive in the fight for voting rights, especially women, even though they were still being bared from voting
Those who took off of work to participate in election days were threatened by white politicians and newspapers with violence, loss of employment, homes, and even their lives
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The authority of the church in writing the narrative of personal and civil matters decreased leading into the 20th century
state of Virginia rejected the 14th amendment, bringing it under the Reconstruction act of 1867
the Black population of Richmond actively chose to participate in the states constitutional convention where equal rights had the chance of coming into question
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Only men eventually obtained voting rights from the convention, black women were still being excluded while being active in the political arena to the extent they could be
there were ideas that black women came to political prominence in the early 20th century because black men had lost political power
Inn the late 19th century working class black men and middle class black women were experiencing disenfranchisement in the black community as middle class black men had in greater society