Question: speech to the american equal rights association summary

title: American Equal Rights Association
text: Disagreement was especially sharp over the proposed Fifteenth Amendment , which would prohibit the denial of suffrage because of race . In practice it would , theoretically at least , guarantee suffrage for virtually all males . Anthony and Stanton opposed passage of the amendment unless it was accompanied by a Sixteenth Amendment that would guarantee suffrage for women . Otherwise , they said , it would create an `` aristocracy of sex '' by giving constitutional authority to the belief that men were superior to women . Male power and privilege was at the root of society 's ills , Stanton argued , and nothing should be done to strengthen it . Anthony and Stanton also warned that black men , who would have voting power under the amendment , were overwhelmingly opposed to women 's suffrage . ( They were not alone in being unsure of black male support for women 's suffrage . Frederick Douglass , a strong supporter of women 's suffrage , said , `` The race to which I belong have not generally taken the right ground on this question . '' )