A REVIEW OF MARTHA JONES' BOOK VANGUARD.

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Summary and Argument

Martha S. Jones, a famous sociopolitical scholar of African American women, authored

Vanguard. She provides a comprehensive perspective for the times in this work, founded on the

multi-generational battle of women of color for emancipation and justice that could not

exclusively accomplish their interests but also inspire a bigger, transformative struggle for civil

liberties globally. The book encompasses more than two centuries of Black women's political

experience and is courageous, ambitious, and wonderfully produced. Jones demonstrates how

this foundation of American culture supplied the nation's founding liberals and antiracists via the

artfully linked narratives of renowned and overlooked African American women reflecting eons

of history. The book is a deeply investigated assessment of the discrimination and bigotry Black

women faced in their desire of democratic involvement and leadership. It is a highly praised

recounting of the chronology of suffrage in America. It also looks at how Black women utilized

their position to ensure justice and participation for others, contending that Black women have

been forgotten as forerunners of American democratic principles.1

Forgotten Black Women Contribution to Suffrage Campaigns

In general, conventional institutions ignored the problems that Black women

confronted as a result of their ethnicity, such as unfavorable preconceptions, bullying, and

uneven accessibility to employment, shelter, and learning. Through conventional suffragists and

institutions like the National American Woman Suffrage Association, women of color took an

active part in the fight for full liberation. Many people did not pay interest to them

notwithstanding their attempts. Civil rights organizations were mostly led by black men and

1
Wilson, Tiana, Vanguard: How Black Women Broke Barriers, Won the Vote, and Insisted on
Equality for All by Martha S. Jones, (Not Even Past: Books, 2020), 1-5.
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white women, who set the benchmark. As a result, Black women confronted multiple challenges,

including exclusion from groups and engagements by erstwhile collaborators. Women motivated

to mobilize inside the African Methodist Episcopal Church, for instance, discovered that their

endeavors were not consistently appreciated by the Black male leadership, who characterized

their African American females as "helpmeets" rather than administrators.2

Furthermore, the women's suffrage campaign depicted a typical timeline of occurrences

that excluded Black women. According to Jones, majority suffrage movement academics had

solely concentrated on nineteenth-century investigations to reassess the beginnings of the

women's empowerment revolution ending in the enactment of the Nineteenth Amendment. As a

matter of fact, the extensive large proportion of Black women's efforts were overlooked and

neglected. Despite the reality that a significant proportion of African American women did not

acquire full rights to voting machines besides the white women in 1920; instead, Black females

had to proceed fighting for this basic straight until mid-1960s, after the Voting Rights Act had

been allowed to pass.3

Understanding Black Women's Activism Through Jones Book

Through her work, Martha Jones provides a current reappraisal of the American women's

liberation campaign. While prevalent recollection of the movement has largely ignored the

commitments of Black women, focusing instead on white women such as Elizabeth Cady

Stanton and Susan B. Anthony, Jones convincingly demonstrates that African American women

performed essential, multifaceted, and significant efforts in the fight for universal equality. Her

2
Elaine Elinson, A Book Review by Elaine Elinson: Vanguard: How Black Women Broke
Barriers, Won the Vote, And Insisted on Equality for All, (New York Journal of Books, 2020),
par. 9-11.
3
Yarbrough, Cappy, Vanguard: How Black Women Broke Barriers, Won the Vote, and Insisted
on Equality for All by Martha Jones (Review), (Ohio Valley History 21, no. 3, 2021), 99.
 3

extensive historical investigation is brought to life via exquisite narration, recreating the lives of

Americans who are frequently overlooked in the rhetoric of not just the women suffrage battle,

but also the campaign for fairness and independence in general. Jones' piece complements a

rising body of writing that tries to more realistically reflect the formerly disregarded women's

liberation campaign by interweaving throughout the lives of Black women who possess, via hard

struggle, established more justice in the United States. 4 As a reader of the book, one is given a

complete account of the many techniques used by Black women to win civil liberties not only for

themselves, but also for other communities. The book's success resides in Jones’s capacity to

depict Black women's different opinions, which were both reasonable and revolutionary at the

same time. The annals of the political labor demonstrates that black women had not been and are

not a monolithic demographic.

Sources Jones Uses to Support Her Argument

Jones gives significant visibility into these women's views and deeds by discovering mail,

publications, written reports, and other crucial resources, often firsthand via their own writings.

But she also provides a panoramic vision of American, notably African American, background

by combining rich historical information with essential political and social contexts. 5 Jones was

effective in filling a glaring void in the suffrage discourse by utilizing these materials. She was

competent of conveying the stories of numerous women who made significant contributions to

American history. Despite the fact that some of them are well-known, she was capable to shine

new light on their efforts. The individuals Jones included in Vanguard exemplified the diverse

4
Yarbrough, Cappy, Vanguard: How Black Women Broke Barriers, Won the Vote, and Insisted
on Equality for All by Martha Jones (Review), (Ohio Valley History 21, no. 3, 2021), 99.
5
Elaine Elinson, A Book Review by Elaine Elinson- Vanguard: How Black Women Broke
Barriers, Won the Vote, And Insisted on Equality for All, (New York Journal of Books, 2020),
par.11.
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elements of this ideological heritage, particularly Black women's idea that their fight for

representation was a fight for freedom in humanity.6

Topic that Jones leaves out of her Book that Might Further Support Her Argument

A topic I think Jones could have further tackled in Vanguard in supporting her argument

that Black women had been forgotten by the suffrage movement is on intersectionality. As a

response of one-dimensional interpretations of social inequality, the intersectionality paradigm

originated in the late 1990s in the realm of black feminist movement in the United States. 7 This

would aid in comprehending how numerous types of inequality might have piled in a single

person's life. Jones would have promoted consciousness of the reality that individuals are

typically burdened by numerous forms of injustice, such as wealth, racism, gender and/or

spirituality, by tackling this issue. My view is that Jones avoided the issue in Vanguard since

there was insufficient evidence to show that some of the revolutionary Black women featured in

the publication experienced the intersectionality theory well before academics emerged to utilize

it to describe Black women's lives.

Bibliography

Couto, Marcia Thereza, Elda de Oliveira, Marco Antônio Alves Separavich, and Olinda do

Carmo Luiz. "The feminist perspective of intersectionality in the field of public health: a

6
Wilson, Tiana, Vanguard: How Black Women Broke Barriers, Won the Vote, and Insisted on
Equality for All by Martha S. Jones, (Not Even Past: Books, 2020), 5.
7
Couto, Marcia Thereza et al, The feminist perspective of intersectionality in the field of public
health: a narrative review of the theoretical-methodological literature, (Salud Colectiva 15,
2019), 1.
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narrative review of the theoretical-methodological literature." Salud Colectiva 15, (2019):

1-14. doi: 10.18294/sc.2019.1994

Elinson, Elaine. "Vanguard: How Black Women Broke Barriers, Won the Vote, and Insisted on

Equality for All – A Book Review". New York Journal of Books (2020)

https://www.nyjournalofbooks.com/book-review/vanguard-how-black-women.

Wilson, Tiana. "Vanguard: How Black Women Broke Barriers, Won the Vote, and Insisted on

Equality for All by Martha S. Jones." Not Even Past: Books (2020): 1-5.

https://repositories.lib.utexas.edu/bitstream/handle/2152/83621/

Yarbrough, Cappy. "Vanguard: How Black Women Broke Barriers, Won the Vote, and Insisted

on Equality for All by Martha Jones (Review)." Ohio Valley History 21, no. 3 (2021): 99-

100. https://muse.jhu.edu/article/806808.