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68 & 1–2 may 1896 [Chicago, 1892], 2:486–87; Edward Leo Lyman, “Isaac Trumbo and the Politics of Utah Statehood,” Utah Historical Quarterly 41 [Spring 1973]: 128–49; New York Times, 14 June 1896, 9 November 1912; Los Angeles Times, 14 June 1896, 9 November 1912.) 3. This was Frank L. Perkins (1878–?), recently hired as a reporter at the San Francisco Call. In her statement, SBA observed that “it is positively the first time that any great political paper has made the announcement that it intended to advocate the cause of the weaker sex.” (SBA diary, 27 April 1896, and San Francisco Call, 3 May 1896, Film, 34:877ff, 35:727; city directories, 1895 to 1897; Federal Census, 1900.) Y Excelsior Diary 1896, n.p., SBA Papers, DLC. ••••••••• 23 • Lecture by SBA at the A.M.E. Zion Church in San Francisco Editorial note: SBA spoke in the evening to members of the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church on Stockton Street,also known as the Starr King A.M.E.Zion Church.The congregation acquired its building from Unitarians in 1864 when the Reverend Thomas Starr King died. After “the customary devotional exercises,” SBA took her place at the pulpit and spoke for an hour. (San Francisco Call, 4 May 1896, Film, 35:726.) [3 May 1896] “This pulpit,” commenced Miss Anthony, “was once the place from which the great Starr King1 swayed the minds and hearts of men by means of his brilliant eloquence and noble piety. This grand man I knew in Boston . He was a great battler for equal rights. How gloriously he stood up for the victims of oppression! “We know that before the war, both in the North and in the South, the negro had nothing in life worth living for. However, the attempted secession of the Southern States forced President Lincoln to free the slaves as a military measure. He himself said that if it were possible to put down the Rebellion without freeing a single slave, he would not have freed one. But the slaves were freed at last, and then came the question as to whether the negro should vote. “The fourteenth amendment to the constitution originally provided ^ 69 that all citizens, whatever their color or race, might vote. This, however, would admit negro women to the privilege, or rather the right of the ballot. The dreadful result was foreseen, and in order to save the country from so terrible a calamity the grand patriots in Congress assembled, amended the amendment so as to make it apply only to ‘male’ citizens. Still some of the States hung fire, and until the passage of the fifteenth amendment to the constitution the negro was not free to vote in whatever part of the Union he might live. The first time all the colored men of the Republic were allowed to vote was in the spring of 1870. “Thirty years ago I told the colored women and men of Kansas that the time was coming when they would have to vote.2 So far as the black men were concerned my prophecy came true. Let us hope that the prophecy I voice to-day may come true in its entirety. Women of California, black and white, I tell you you are going to get the vote here in your own State. When the day comes use your power rightly.The black man has proved his ability to make a right use of the elective privilege. Can we believe that woman, black or white, is inferior to the negro, only recently let loose from slavery? “Now I have one petition to present to you colored men.I beg you when you approach the polls at the coming election to mark your tickets in favor of woman suffrage. “You make a good use of your right to vote; why cannot your wives or your mothers do the same? It is only just. One of the cornerstones of our Republic is the equality of rights for all the citizens. The first violation of this principle of equal rights took the form of denying the franchise to the poor. The last and only remaining violation, now that male negroes can vote, is the unjust discrimination made against women. “Taxation without representation is tyranny for women now, as it was for men in the days of King George.3 But, thank heaven, though we have no representation before the lawmaking tribunals of this State, we have a representation before the...

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