The Women's Rights Movement: Jane Addams And Martin Luther King Jr.

Prominent historical figures are often categorized based on their respective movements. For most people, Frederick Douglass was an abolitionist, Jane Addams helped the poor, and Martin Luther King Jr. was the face of civil rights. More often than not, prominent figures of one movement are strong supporters of another. The reality is that all of these people and the causes they supported were all connected to the fight for women’s rights. The women’s rights movement has never been about only women, and it is likely that it never will be. The movement both grew out of and inspired other movements, forever linking women’s rights to abolition, civil rights, and human rights in general.
From the very beginning, women’s suffrage was connected to

The fight against slavery and the fight for women’s rights were intertwined, until “the two movements later split over the 15th Amendment,” (Stansell 2) which allowed black freedmen to vote. Because of this, the small amount of suffragists against slaves’ rights grew into a majority. The nadir of race relations within the women’s rights movement was immediately after the ratification of the fifteenth amendment. Although abolitionists were alienated from the movement, other groups gravitated towards the suffragists. Jane Addams is most associated her work at Hull House, which is known for supporting working women, and the reform movements that came out of some Hull House residents. With the help of Addams and other founders, “reformers initiated programs to address poor working conditions, malnutrition, low wages, poor sanitation, and a host of other pressing problems,” (“Hull House” 1). The reforms of the Progressive Era corrected the effects of the Gilded Age, and the women at Hull House were partly responsible for the successes of these movements. The women at Hull House were not the only women making efforts outside of the suffrage cause; “By the beginning of the new century, women's clubs in towns and cities across the nation were working to promote suffrage, better schools, the regulation of child labor, women in unions, and liquor prohibition,” (“Progressive

Martin Luther King Jr. has been the face of civil rights since then and probably always will be. Unfortunately, he is only known for his work with civil rights activists, and very few know that he was also a supporter of women’s rights. “While King was advocating for civil rights, he was also speaking out for the basic human right of women and couples to decide for themselves the number of children they wanted and were able to care for,” (Seager 1). Contraceptives, abortion, and women’s bodily autonomy in general were huge topics of debate in the 1970s, especially after Roe v. Wade granted women the right to choose. King was an advocate for women in the sense that he wanted them to be able to make personal decisions, such as whether or not to use birth control or get an abortion, for themselves. Despite his fervent support for causes other than civil rights, Martin Luther King Jr. is known for his work with civil rights and rarely anything else. Another civil rights activist, Ella Baker, is rarely known at all. She has become a forgotten face in both the fight for civil rights and women’s rights. Baker organized the meeting at Shaw University that became the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. With Baker’s “guidance and encouragement, SNCC became one of the foremost advocates for human rights in the country,” (“Who Was Ella Baker?” 3). Ella Baker advocated for civil rights, women’s rights, and