34. This Suffragist Gave a Stridently Racist Speech to Oppose Giving Black Men the Vote
Stanton made no bones about her opposition to giving black men the right to vote. She embraced fairness in the abstract, while publicly voicing racist views about black men, whom she referred to as “Sambos” and potential rapists. As she put it in a speech opposing the 15th Amendment which enfranchised black men and naturalized immigrants:
“Think of Patrick and Sambo and Hans and Yung Tung, who do not know the difference between a monarchy and a republic, who cannot read the Declaration of Independence or Webster’s spelling book, making laws for…Susan B. Anthony …[The amendment] creates an antagonism everywhere between educated, refined women and the lower orders of men, especially in the South“.