Vanguard: How Black Women Broke Barriers, Won the Vote, and Insisted on Equality for All

An essential history of African American women’s pursuit of political power—and how it transformed America

“Elegant and expansive.” —New York Times

Winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for History

Named a Best Book of the Year by Ms. • Time • Foreign Affairs • Smithsonian

In Vanguard, acclaimed historian Martha S. Jones offers a new history of African American women’s political lives in America. She recounts how they defied both racism and sexism to fight for the ballot, and how they wielded political power to secure the equality and dignity of all persons. From the earliest days of the republic to the passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act and beyond, Jones excavates the lives and work of Black women—Maria Stewart, Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, Fannie Lou Hamer, and more—who were the vanguard of women’s rights, calling on America to realize its best ideals.

Vanguard is essential reading for anyone who cares about the past and future of American democracy.