THNOC exhibits showcase contributions of Blacks, women in progression of American democracy

28th August 2023   ·   0 Comments

By Ryan Whirty
Contributing Writer

In conjunction with a traveling exhibit from the Smithsonian National Museum of American History, the Historic New Orleans Collection is hosting its own exhibition about the evolution of the local women’s suffrage movement.

Crucially, THNOC’s current display, titled “Yet She Is Advancing: New Orleans Women and the Right to Vote, 1878-1970,” also shows how the subjects of race and civil rights were inextricably intertwined with the overall women’s suffrage movement.

“Race was a very divisive issue in the female suffrage movement from the very beginning,” said THNOC’s Libby Neidenbach, who curated “Yet She Is Advancing.”

Neidenbach said the Smithson-ian’s development of its own traveling exhibition, “American Democracy: A Great Leap of Faith,” inspired THNOC to create a locally-based exhibit at the Collection that could serve as a complimentary piece to “American Democracy” when the Smithsonian’s project arrived in New Orleans.

“American Democracy” examines the process undertaken by Americans over the centuries to create an independent, self-governing, fully realized, democratic country of their own, free from English colonial control, a philosophical and political evolution perhaps best symbolized with the U.S. Constitution.

“American Democracy” explores the way earlier generations grappled with weighty questions, Jason Wiese, chief curator at THNOC said. Questions such as, “What is democracy and how is it supposed to work?” and, “What does it mean to be a citizen in a participatory democracy?”

He added that much of “American Democracy” also scrutinizes and ponders the fraught relationship between people of color and the ideals espoused by the Constitution and American society. The exhibition examines the hypocrisy and contradictions in American thought that arose from the oppressive institutions of slavery, segregation and denial of voting rights based on race, ethnicity and gender.

While concurrently contributing items from THNOC’s holdings to the New Orleans edition of “American Democracy,” Collection officials decided that THNOC’s own companion project for the Smithsonian exhibit could be timed for the 100th anniversary of the passage and adoption of the federal Constitution’s 19th Amendment in 1920, an event that extended the right to women in the country.

When putting the exhibit together, THNOC officials reached out to other museums and archives to contribute items and text for the project, such as the Amistad Research Center at Tulane University.

Those outside contributions, when combined with THNOC’s own collections, comprise the “Yet She Is Advancing” exhibit, which reflects how Black and white women in New Orleans contributed to the overarching suffrage movements in Louisiana and throughout the country.

“Yet She Is Advancing” tells how many mid-19th-century women’s suffrage advocates were, at best, tepid and non-committal toward Black suffrage, and at worst openly hostile to extending the vote to all races.

That diversity of belief toward racial equality within the women’s suffrage movement consistently over the decades added a perplexing, troubling complexity in the suffrage effort and at times caused schisms between those who advocated and opposed universal Black voting rights, Neidenbach said.

The exhibit also shows the sacrifices women of color made – including risking arrest and bodily harm at protest events – to the greater Civil Rights Movement post-1920, reflecting how often women were doing the grunt work, so to speak, in terms of tangible action like sit-ins at segregated establishments, door-to-door registration canvassing, and monitoring polls on Election Day.

Those pivotal figures in the local suffrage movement included early suffragists Caroline Merrick and Sylvanie Williams, the latter of whom founded the local branch of the Phyllis Wheatley Club, a national organization of Black women; Deborah Johnson Guidry, who served as secretary for the New Orleans NAACP; League of Women Voters of New Orleans founder Martha Gilmore Robinson; and later civil rights activists Katie E. Whickam, a beauty school owner who founded the advocacy organization the National Beauty Culturists’ League and educator and author Sybil Haydel Morial.

Neidenbach also said THNOC is encouraging classes from local schools to visit, and partnering with area organizations and foundations to offer presentations, roundtables and visits.

One community organization that’s hoping to partner with THNOC in conjunction with “Yet She Is Advancing” is the Tate Etienne and Prevost (TEP) Center, a Lower Ninth Ward-based advocacy and educational organization that strives to exhibit, teach about and engage the community about the city’s rich civil rights history.

Leona Tate, who in the 1960s was one of the first African Americans to integrate the New Orleans school system, added that the THNOC exhibit can play a crucial role in recognizing the efforts of early African-American women who fought two battles – one against racism, the other against gender bigotry.

“It is important to understand and highlight that any gains in securing women’s voting rights did not come without a fight,” she said. “However, the struggle for African-American women was twice as hard as they had to battle not only white male opposition but also being ‘othered’ by white women-led voter organizations. You can not tell a full story without illustrating all communities’ barriers.”

“As voting rights are once again under attack, there is a need for women to lead the charge in demanding voter equity,” she said. “The biggest gains happen with voter education. It is key for local women activists to position themselves as education facilitators to galvanize their communities to make real change.”

Both the “Yet She Is Advancing” and “American Democracy” exhibits are free and open to the public at THNOC’s galleries at 520 Royal St. “Yet She Is Advancing” will be on display through Nov. 5, while “American Democracy” is on display through Oct. 8.

This article originally published in the August 28, 2023 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.