Women of Color in the First
Wave of Feminism
When discussing the First Wave of feminism and the fight for women’s suffrage, there are women whose names roll off the tongue without a second thought. Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Alice Paul are undoubtedly a few of the most recognizable suffragists of the early 20th century.
But what about Maria Guadalupe Evangeline de Lopéz, Tye Leung Schulze, or Zitkála-Šá? These incredible women of color fought alongside their white counterparts but are often omitted from the conversations of suffrage. This could be because erasing their stories helps erase the harsh truth that women of color didn’t gain the right to vote when white women, like Anthony and Stanton, did with the passing of the 19th Amendment. In fact, many women of color did not gain the right to vote until the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Their stories have been silenced for too long, but now it’s time to investigate the incredible women of color who fought tirelessly during the First Wave of feminism.
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Maria Guadalupe Evangelina de Lopéz
On October 3rd, 1911, Maria Guadalupe Evangelina de Lopéz became the first woman to give a speech promoting Californian women’s suffrage completely in Spanish. As a translator, de Lopéz helped motivate a multitude of Mexican-American women to support suffrage simply by translating information into Spanish and handing out pamphlets. When Spanish-speaking women gained access to new information about their rights, they were eager to join the movement. De Lopéz’s work was not in vain; women in California gained the right to vote in 1911, eight years before suffrage would be realized nationally.
Born in 1881, she spent most of her life in California and was even invited to represent the state in Alice Paul’s 1913 suffrage parade in Washington, D.C.; however, it is unclear if she attended. While studying at the Los Angeles State Normal School (known today as UCLA), de Lopéz was the President of the College Equal Suffrage League and an active member of the Votes for Women Club. From the 1920’s through the 1940’s, she was a widely sought-after speaker and translator at UCLA. Her service didn’t stop at suffrage; During World War I, de Lopéz took a leave of absence while teaching at UCLA to become an ambulance driver. She trained in New York City and then moved to France where she drove through the War. De Lopéz died in 1977 and rests eternally at the San Gabriel Christian Church in Los Angeles.
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Tye Leung Schulze is credited as the first Chinese voter in American history and possibly the world. In May of 1912, Schulze submitted a ballot in the presidential primary while residing in San Francisco, California. She talked about how she painstakingly researched candidates and policies on the ballot before casting her vote; she felt it was important not to take such a privilege lightly.
She was born in 1887 San Francisco, the eighth of ten children to Chinese immigrant parents. After running away at age 12 to escape an arranged marriage, Schulze sought shelter with her teacher, Donaldina Cameron. Cameron took Schulze in, and Schulze quickly became a star student. Their friendship proved to be valuable beyond Schulze’s rescue; the two worked together to save women and children trapped in sex slavery.
Schulze continued helping these women after becoming a court interpreter and then became the first Chinese woman employed by the federal government as a translator for detained Chinese immigrants. She married Charles Schulze in Washington State, as anti-miscegenation laws in California did not allow whites and Asians to marry. She ultimately died in 1972 in San Francisco.
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Born on the South-Dakotan Yankton Indian Reservation in 1876, Zitkála-Šá grew to become an accomplished author and political activist during the First Wave of feminism. When she graduated from Indiana Manual Labor Institute in 1895, she gave a speech openly advocating for women’s rights.
She worked tirelessly to gain the right to vote for women as well as all Indigenous peoples throughout the United States. Along with her husband, Captain Raymond Talefase Bonnin, Zitkála-Šá established the National Council of American Indians in 1926. From its inception, she served as a speaker, fundraiser, and the President of the Council until her death in 1938.
Zitkála-Šá was honored with her own quarter design in 2024, along with other historical American women chosen for the American Women Quarters Program. She is buried in Arlington Cemetery under her Anglo name, Gertrude Simmons Bonnin.