What does “white feminism” look like in its purest form? I give you some primary source material from the records of the ERA Club of New Orleans—a white women’s suffrage organization. Their 1918 Suffrage referendum campaign literature:

"On the part of the women of Orleans Parish who believe in democracy, we earnestly ask for your vote."

Democracy! Yes! Everyone should get to vote in a democracy! Right?

Nope.

"We appeal for your vote on another score. The women of your state are the political inferiors of negro men in their United States citizenship. We ask that your hands remove this stigma of inferiority..."

Note that white supremacy defines black women OUT of womanhood entirely.

There is no way to read this document and believe that its authors thought democracy "the right of the individual to self-government" should apply to either black men or black women. American democracy was supposed to be white. Just without gender qualifiers.

Also: the document is pushing on the link between the Democratic Party and this whites-only version of democracy."STATE'S RIGHT TO DEFINE ITS ELECTORATE WITHOUT FEDERAL INTERVENTION" is about maintaining the whites-only electorate they preferred (despite Guinn v. U.S. in 1915).

But wait! There’s more! What happens when the referendum fails? It must be the most grave injustice—and the fault of a less American force in politics: the “German” mayor of New Orleans. He doesn’t value white supremacy enough!

"using his political power to thwart the will of the sovereign state of Louisiana and by the autocratic use of such power to keep in subjugation as political inferiors of negro men women of this state who have stood beside their men [of the White League]..."

This machine boss in New Orleans had the NERVE to not deliver the votes for white women. (P.S.: don't forget to pay your poll tax to vote this guy out!)

(My note: the women of the club had gone against the mayor previously--*if* he delivered anything it was likely revenge.)

Fusion of whiteness with a partisan interest, "American-ness," "state sovereignty"--they were all ready tools for Louisiana's white woman suffrage movement.

These women weren't pushing for a more equal society. They were pushing for their place to be higher in the hierarchy.

Those writing now about "democracy" and "American identity" and race, etc. might want to look here ( @jbouie @lebron_chris @MRogers097)

I’m going to keep adding documents to this thread as they strike me as helpful to *showing you* the racial dynamics at play within the suffrage movement—and how it embraced “white feminism.” For now, we’ll stay in Louisiana.

This is a letter from Kate Gordon—one of 2 sisters who played a BIG role in Southern white suffrage organization. She is writing on ERA letterhead at a time she was an officer of it and the Louisiana State Suffrage Association. The letter is archived in NAWSA files.

The starkest part of the letter is the closing paragraph. She is blaming black people for the rise of the KKK—they are “instigating” organizing for their rights. And she’s got the trope of scared white lady down:

“I suddenly came across one and positively I was almost paralyzed with fear. Think of living constantly with that peril possible.”

She’s implying rape in case you missed that.

She is going to pack a LOT in the next 3 sentences though: regional animus, white ownership of the South, and anti-semitism to go with that racism:

“Oh how I wish they would all go north. Particularly the Jew mulattos who are in evidence everywhere...”

But I want you to take a good look at the side bar of the letter head. It is a list of ERA club “achievements.” And I want you to re-think what the suffrage movement meant—because it embraced her whole list.

Linda Gordon’s _Second Coming of the KKK_ turns to the Klan to issue a challenge to understanding feminism as “liberal”—showing KKK women’s version of feminism. The point here is: you can stay in the NAWSA and find the same phenomenon.

The lesson was really in the 2nd to last paragraph, where she strings her “life work” together: she’s been working for voting rights for privileged white women to “purify” the South—the reform goals are for its white population—while seeking to maintain black oppression.