Widening the lens: towards a more inclusive suffrage story

What is it about?

The purpose of this article is to illuminate the dominant narrative about the women’s suffrage movement and provide ways to counter the historical erasure of Black women in suffrage efforts. The classroom practice piece seeks to enrich teacher content knowledge and provides primary sources teachers could use with students to position them to engage in inquiry-based practices to critique the white dominant narrative and build a more comprehensive history through the examination of lesser-known stories of Black suffragists. Authors provide a historiography of women’s suffrage and share marginalized narratives that should be included in the story of suffrage. This piece is original because much of this content is missing from current history classrooms. In addition, the primary sources and additional resources provided can strengthen teacher’s ability to teach about it.

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