While they profited off the work of their Black sisters, many white women in the movement furthered their own rights over that of Black women, using the white fear of Black communities to push their aims.īut enough of that - the point isn’t to center white women in this historical narrative - this book is not about them and shouldn’t be. It reveals real truths about the women’s suffrage movement, which was overwhelming white-led. Out Sept 8th, this masterpiece highlights the work of Black women, who are more often than not at the forefront of major movements, their essential grassroots work exploited for political gain or taken for granted by major political parties. I feel like a have a vague foundation of knowledge about black women in politics that I hope to build on. It was worth going back to though and I am glad that I finished it. The long break wasn’t helpful to engagement. My lack of engagement due to the writing and reading styles caused me to take a long time to get through this, so much so that my audiobook library check-out expired and I had to wait to go back to it. I found the reading style over-dramatic and emotional and never got fully used to it. (I assume the written version has one.) I listened to this on audio-book with Mella Lee narrating. There is some interesting information in this book and I think, with the use of an index, it could be used nicely as “who’s who�� of prominent African-American women through our history. Lack of detail and a plethora of jargon terms and catchwords added to my overall muddle.

The focus to bring in the names and stories of as many women as possible obscures the greater arc of history, which is my interest.

Very loosely structured, Jones wanders widely through time and location with few road signs. While this held information I was interested in, I found the style difficult to engage with.

Vanguard martha s jones