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Alfie Corteza completed assignment #1

Alfie Corteza

Dr. Bullock

WGS 10000 Section 09

In chapter 3 of “Women, Race and Class” by Angela Y. Davis, she includes an incident of segregation involving an individual who sided with the abolition movement. This event occurred in the summer of 1848, it included Frederick Douglass’ and his wife’s daughter not being able to take part in an all female seminary. The significance as to why this moment was covered in this chapter was because the person responsible for enforcing the isolation was an abolitionist woman. As the Douglas family protested the segregationist policy, the principal called for a vote if any of the other female students didn’t agree to the integration in the classroom. The result of the dilemma ended with Douglass’ daughter being excluded by only the parent’s vote of the students for exclusion, and interestingly enough not one of the students voted against the integration.

I believe that Davis included this situation as it reveals that even though there were women from the North that were pro anti-slavery, there were still issues regarding internal racism in the gender-equality movement. Davis states, that as a result of this situation, and those that were similar to it, had caused a resolution to be developed by the National Convention of Colored Freedman in 1848, that all women have the same equality (1981, 64). It reveals the flaws of the early stages of the abolitionist campaign, by displaying internal conflicts between genders, and class even though they were fighting for the same thing. It is not only disheartening but also concerning as a person fighting for women’s rights would reveal a position of superiority in regards to race, even though all of the women in the United States were suffering under gender inequality. From what was understood from the reading, the state of the coalition for women equality for all races was in the right direction but had major flaws that needed to be rectified.