Brother Baptis’ on Woman Suffrage
Women's Rights
Literary Writing
Jonas, Rosalie in The Crisis (1912) examines how woman suffrage intersects with race, arguing Black women face shared oppression and illusory freedom.
When hit come ter de question er de female vote,
De ladies an’ de cullud folks is in de same boat.
Ef de Boss feelin’ good, an’ we eats out his han’,
We kin shout fur freedom, an’ foller de ban’.
We kin play at freedom, so long’s we play.
But ef we gits thinkin’, an’ comes out an’ say:
Case one’s borned a female, an’ one’s borned black,
Is dat any reason fur sottin’ way back?
Is dat any reason fur sottin’ da-put?
You kin betcher bottom dollar dat de Boss’s fut
Gwine ter sprout big claws, till dey comes clar thoo,
An’ he climps hit heavy on bofe us two.
Case de tears er de mudder, nur de sign er de cross,
Ain’t shame all de debbil yit, outen de Boss!
Citation
For attribution, please cite this work as:
Rosalie, Jonas. 1912. “Brother Baptis’ on Woman Suffrage.”
The Crisis 4 (5): 247. https://www.dareyoufight.org/Volumes/04/05/brother_batis.html.