Editing Lucy Stone (section)

=== Split within the women's movement ===

The immediate cause of the split was the proposed [[Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution|Fifteenth Amendment]], which would prohibit the denial of suffrage, because of race. In one of their most controversial moves, Anthony and Stanton campaigned against the amendment, insisting that women and African Americans should be enfranchised at the same time. They said that by effectively [[suffrage|enfranchising]] all men, while excluding all women, the amendment would create an "aristocracy of sex" by giving constitutional authority to the idea that men were superior to women.<ref>Rakow, Lana F. and Kramarae, Cheris, editors, 2001. ''The Revolution in Words: Righting Women 1868–1871'', Volume 4 of ''Women's Source Library'', [https://books.google.com/books?id=Ahcmo4_Jko0C&pg=PA47 pp. 47–48]. New York: Routledge. {{ISBN|978-0-415-25689-6}}.</ref>

Stone supported the amendment. She had expected, however, that progressive forces would push for the [[suffrage|enfranchisement]] of African Americans and women at the same time and was distressed, when they did not. In 1867, she wrote to [[Abby Kelley Foster]], an abolitionist, to protest the plan to enfranchise black men first. "O Abby", she wrote, "it is a terrible mistake you are all making... There is no other name given by which this country <u>can</u> be saved, but that of <u>woman</u>."<ref>Letter from Lucy Stone to Abby Kelley Foster, January 24, 1867. Quoted in McMillen, 2008, p. 166. Underlining in original.</ref>
In a dramatic debate with [[Frederick Douglass]] at the AERA convention in 1869, Stone argued that suffrage for women was more important than suffrage for African Americans. She, nevertheless, supported the amendment, saying, "But I thank God for that XV. Amendment, and I hope that it will be adopted in every State. I will be thankful, in my soul, if ''any'' body can get out of the terrible pit. But I believe that the safety of the government would be more promoted by the admission of woman as an element of restoration and harmony than the negro."<ref>Stanton, Anthony, Gage, Harper (1881–1922), Vol. 2, [https://archive.org/stream/historyofwomansu02stanuoft#page/384/mode/2up p. 384]</ref> Stone and her allies expected that their active support for the amendment to enfranchise black men would lead their abolitionist friends in Congress to push for an amendment to enfranchise women as the next step, but that did not happen.<ref>DuBois, 1978, [https://archive.org/details/feminismsuffrage00dubo_0/page/199 p. 199].</ref>

Henry Blackwell, Stone's husband and an important figure in the suffrage movement in the coming years, also supported the amendment. His special interest, however, which he pursued for decades, was in convincing southern politicians that the enfranchisement of women would help to ensure white supremacy in their region.<ref>Wheeler, Marjorie Spruill, 1993. ''New Women of the New South: The Leaders of the Woman Suffrage Movement in the Southern States'', [https://books.google.com/books?id=kE6lZpmLmK0C&pg=PA113 pp. 113–14] New York: Oxford University Press. {{ISBN|0-19-507583-8}}.</ref> In 1867, he published an open letter to southern legislatures, assuring them that if both blacks and women were enfranchised, "the political supremacy of your white race will remain unchanged" and "the black race would gravitate, by the law of nature, toward the tropics."<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.loc.gov/item/rbpe.12701100/ |title=What the South can do |author=Henry B. Blackwell |date=January 15, 1867 |publisher= Library of Congress |access-date=March 7, 2017}}</ref> Stone's reaction to this idea is unknown.<ref>McMillen, 2015, [https://books.google.com/books?id=tPCRBQAAQBAJ&pg=PA166 p. 166]</ref>

The AERA essentially collapsed, after its acrimonious convention in May 1869, and two competing woman suffrage organizations were created in its aftermath. Two days after the convention, Anthony, Stanton and their allies formed the [[National Woman Suffrage Association]] (NWSA). In November 1869, Lucy Stone, [[Julia Ward Howe]], and their allies formed the competing [[American Woman Suffrage Association]] (AWSA).<ref>DuBois, 1978, pp. 189, 196.</ref> The AWSA, initially, was the larger of the two organizations,<ref>McMillen, 2015, [https://books.google.com/books?id=tPCRBQAAQBAJ&pg=PA185 p. 185]</ref> but it declined in strength, during the 1880s.<ref>Gordon, Ann D., ed., 2009, ''The Selected Papers of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony: Their Place Inside the Body-Politic, 1887 to 1895'', Vol 5 of 6, [https://books.google.com/books?id=QSWhKqKt1moC&pg=PR25 p. xxv]. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press. {{ISBN|978-0-8135-2321-7}}.</ref>

Even after the Fifteenth Amendment was ratified in 1870, differences between the two organizations remained. The AWSA worked almost exclusively for women's suffrage, while the NWSA initially worked on a wide range of issues, including divorce reform and [[equal pay for women]]. The AWSA included both men and women, among its leadership, while the NWSA was led by women.<ref>DuBois, 1978, pp. 192, [https://archive.org/details/feminismsuffrage00dubo_0/page/197 196–197]</ref> The AWSA worked for suffrage, mostly, at the state level, while the NWSA worked more at the national level. The AWSA cultivated an image of respectability, while the NWSA sometimes used confrontational tactics.<ref>Anthony, for example, was arrested in 1872 for voting and found guilty in a highly publicized trial. In 1876, Anthony interrupted the official ceremonies at the 100th anniversary of the U.S. Declaration of Independence to present NWSA's Declaration of Rights for Women</ref>