The independent. [volume] (Elizabeth City, N.C.) 1908-1936, 1920-09-24
NEGRO WOMEN ORGANIZE
FOR NEW CITIZENSHIP
Leading Colored Women In Elizabeth City Get
ting Up Meetings to Post Themselves on
How to Register And Vote i'm
November Election

The white women of Elizabeth
City and northeastern North Car
Dina may not know what they
are going to do with the ballot
now that they have it, but this
isn't true Of the educated class Of
Negro women in this city who
have already started classes in
citizenship and are about to
launch county wide organiza-
ton Of colored women for the
purpose of qualifying for citizen
ship.
The leader of the proposed organiza-
F, ton in Elizabeth City is Mrs. Annie e.
Jones, the principal of the Sawyertown
public school. She says only the better
class of colored women will be organiz-
| ed and that they are not to be influenc-
| ed by politicians of any party. eve
realize, she says, "That our colored
men did not use the ballot intelligently
and for their best interests when they
had it; they blindly followed the selfish
leaders of one political party and never
did any thinking for themselves. Most
| men don't know anything about govern
| ment anyway. We colored women are go
| ing to know the subject of government
from the township unit up to the nat
ional congress and most of us already
can show you how to read and inter-
pref the constitution of the United
| States.
| This move upon the part of the color
ed women has already thrown conster-
| nation into the camp of Clarence Pugh,
the self appointed Republican leader in
I Elizabeth City who thought the color
ed women voters were his own fresh
meat and is reported to have had some
cute little plans of his own to line them
up like the old timers used to line up
the black men. But the most whole
some effect of this colored women's
movement will be to arouse the apathe-
tic and lethargic women of the white
race, most Of whom have refused to
bother their fair heads about the prob
lens of government and the how and
why of voting. There are at present just
a few white women in Elizabeth City
who are seriously interested in the new
4 privilege that is theirs. There will be
others; the white women will not stay
! at home and see the colored women car
ry an election.
The movement upon the part of the
colored women is not to be discounted.
They are intelligently directed. This
newspaper has managed to get hold of
some of the literature that is being cir
culated among the colored women. Here
is a sampler
The colored women will be less
easily intimidated and kept out of the
right of voting than the colored men
have been. This has been realized all
along by the opponents of Suffrage,
especially those in the South. Sen
ator John Sharp Williams said on the
floor of the Senate, Negro women
will not be as easily handled as Ne
gro men have been.'
But as courageous and determined
as the colored women may be- they
cannot succeed ever as voters unless
they have the necessary information
everywhere at once to learn all the
preliminary steps to voting and to get
the actual practice of marking a bal
lot. To this end study classes ought
groups that make up these classes
ought not to be too large. The per-
sons in each community who already
! have a knowledge of the machinery
I of government and politics should get
together and begin to organize these
groups.
Careful attention should be given to
each section of the city or the county.
The study classes should rotate from
church to church, from hall to hall
and from home to home. Every col
ored woman who can possibly be
classes: The work can be made quite
interesting if the leaders will thoroIy
prepare themselves. The classes might
open with twenty to thirty minute
ment, from the town on up through
county and state to the national.
There should also be talks on the ma
chinery of politics from that of the
precinct up to that of the national
the classes ought to avoid any temp
tatlon to display how much they know
aoout these subjects; rather should
they strive to make everything they
say as simple and understandable as
possible: They should get down to the
| A b. G. of it..
Then there should come painstak-
ing instruction in the requirements
and qualifications for voting in the
community and the state Informa-
ton regarding registration and the
places for registration, about mark
ing a ballot and the proper polling
place at which to vote should be.
given.
1t is apparent from the foregoing
that there is astute leadership directing
the political activities of the coIored
women and if equally intelligent lead
ership isn't applied to the white women
vote the colored women will make a
more formidable showing at the polls
this fall.
) OF course the co1ored women will be
handicapped by the North Carolina Con-
stitutional Amendment of 1908 and thou
| sands of them will be barred from vot-
ing because they can not qualify under
the educational clause provided in that
amendment. Many others who might
~ qualify will be ruled out by a certain
class of Registrars who pride them
selves on being expert in the matter of
| barring Negro voters from registration