In 1866, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony joined forces to establish the American Equal Rights Association (AERA). This organization aimed to secure equal rights for all American citizens, particularly focusing on the right to suffrage, regardless of race, color, or sex¹². The AERA emerged during the Eleventh National Woman’s Rights Convention held on May 10, 1866. Its mission was to advocate for universal suffrage, uniting both white and black women and men in this cause².

However, the AERA faced challenges. In 1867, during the Kansas campaign, the state voted against separate referenda granting suffrage to both blacks and women. Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony had accepted the help of a known racist during this campaign, which led to tensions within the organization. AERA president Lucretia Mott was also alienated by this decision. Later, in 1870, Stanton and Anthony expressed their dissatisfaction with the wording and passage of the Fifteenth Amendment, which focused on black men’s suffrage but ignored women’s rights. They urged the AERA to support a 16th amendment that would grant women the right to vote. However, more cautious leaders within the AERA declined this proposal. Consequently, Stanton and Anthony left the AERA in May 1869 to form the exclusively female National Woman Suffrage Association. Meanwhile, other conservative feminists, including Lucy Stone and Julia Ward Howe, established the American Woman Suffrage Association from the remnants of the AERA in November 1869. Eventually, these two groups merged into the National American Woman Suffrage Association in 1890¹.

Caroline Maria Seymour Severance, another prominent reformer and clubwoman, played an active role in woman suffrage and other women’s issues during this period¹.

Source: AIBing