Differently Radical: Suffrage Issues and Feminist Ideas in the Crisis and the Masses

Abstract

The 1915 women’s suffrage issues of two periodicals, the Crisis, the NAACP magazine, and the Masses, an irreverent outlet for left-wing political eclecticism, compel a reassessment of what constitutes feminist radicalism. Given that a bedrock principle of 1910s US feminism was the valuing of all women and girls as human beings—then a radical claim—both periodicals circulated differently radical feminist messages in their suffrage issues. The Crisis insisted that black and white women were equally entitled to voting rights. The Masses promoted white women’s emancipation and regarded women’s suffrage as part of that crusade. Comparing the contents of both issues makes clear that considering race in gendered radicalism and gender in race radicalism are essential when examining suffrage media rhetoric.