Black History Month Spotlight: Remembering Voting Triumphs, Struggles And Racial Violence During The 1918 Flu Epidemic

History is important. We have all heard the saying “those who do not learn from their history are doomed to repeat it”. When we look at history, we must have respect for it and learn from those mistakes. And in an era where the U.S. is banning books that teach the reality of Black and Jewish history, we have to worry about repeating history. A mentor of mine who recently passed away, in the six months I knew him, caused me to have a paradigm shift – a fundamental change in approach or underlying assumptions- on my views of self care and my image of who I wanted to be. One paradigm shift he caused me to have is one I hope this article will instill in you too: it’s not just about not repeating history; it’s about changing so it won’t occur again.

We often hear the definition of insanity is repeating the same things and expecting different results; but, then why does America consistently resist change, instead embracing the same structural racism it so desperately wants to distance itself from. But it is impossible for America to heal from its generational traumas if it doesn’t discuss them; if we live in denial; if we consistently do the same things, yet are somehow surprised when we have the same results.

In an era where comments (comment # 6, March 23, 2021) are posted in forums that until the movie Watchmen came out, many had never heard of the 1921 Tulsa Massacre, things must change. In today’s article, you will find many parallels from 100 years ago to today, from a pandemic to a war to a labor shortage and massacres of Black communities- and I will leave it up to you, reader, to decide if America is repeating the same mistakes. For America to dismantle structural racism, America has to decide to take accountability, process its trauma as a nation, and CHANGE.

“‘These are sad times for the whole world, grown unexpectedly sadder by the sudden and sweeping epidemic of influenza,’ wrote Carrie Chapman Catt, president of the National American Woman Suffrage Association, in a letter to supporters in 1918.”

“Athens was a locked-down ghost town. The University of Georgia suspended classes indefinitely, and local authorities imposed a quarantine, ordering the closing of theaters, churches, restaurants and other businesses. Public gatherings were prohibited. An invisible killer stalked this city and this nation in the form of a quickly spreading pandemic, with a body count that multiplied day by deadly day. Hand in hand with the disease came fear and uncertainty in an already traumatized and divided America. In Washington, the crisis was met with a lack of leadership from the White House and Capitol Hill.

This isn’t describing 2020. “It was October 1918. Athens, the U.S. and the world were wracked by the ravages of the infamous Spanish flu that spread around the globe during and just after World War I. The plague lasted for nearly two years and, in sheer numbers, probably killed more people worldwide than the Black Death that scourged 14th-century Europe.”

“…[I]n Georgia, the Annual Report of the Georgia State Board of Health for 1918 minced no words in its appraisal of the devastation wrought by the Spanish flu pandemic. “We will never know how many succumbed to the disease in Georgia,” the report noted somberly, “but the death rate has been high.” The report said that the disease of 1918 took “a greater toll of human lives than any past epidemic as far back as we have a history… the whole world has never known such a death dealing pest to the human family as we have had from this disease.”

When American troops came home from the European trenches in November 1918, many who greeted them were still wearing surgical masks outdoors.”

“After the war ended, U.S. troops were demobilized and rapidly sent home. One unanticipated and unwanted effect of their return was the emergence of a new strain of influenza that medical professionals had never before encountered. Within months of the war’s end, over twenty million Americans fell ill from the flu. Eventually, 675,000 Americans died before the disease mysteriously ran its course in the spring of 1919. Worldwide, recent estimates suggest that 500 million people suffered from this flu strain, with as many as fifty million people dying. Throughout the United States, from the fall of 1918 to the spring of 1919, fear of the flu gripped the country. Americans avoided public gatherings, children wore surgical masks to school, and undertakers ran out of coffins and burial plots in cemeteries. Hysteria grew as well, and instead of welcoming soldiers home with a postwar celebration, people hunkered down and hoped to avoid contagion.”

“The flu pandemic that came home with the returning troops swept through the United States, as evidenced by this overcrowded flu ward [pictured below] at Camp Funstun, Kansas, adding another trauma onto the recovering postwar psyche.”

“When the 1918 influenza epidemic began, African American communities were already beset by many public health, medical, and social problems, including racist theories of black biological inferiority, racial barriers in medicine and public health, and poor health status. To address these problems, African Americans mounted efforts such as establishing separate hospitals and professional organizations and repudiating racist scientific theories. Contradicting prevailing theories about African Americans’ increased susceptibility to disease, it appears that during the 1918 epidemic the incidence of influenza was lower in African Americans. Although the epidemic had a less devastating impact on African American communities, it still overwhelmed their medical and public health resources. Observations about the lower rates of influenza in African Americans did not derail racist theories about the biological inferiority of black people or overturn conceptualizations of black people as disease threats to white people. When the epidemic ended, the major problems that African Americans faced still remained.”

When the 1918 influenza epidemic began, African American communities were already beset by many public health, medical, and social problems, including racist theories of black biological inferiority, racial barriers in medicine and public health, … Read more www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

The 1918 Flu’s Effect on the 19th Amendment and Women’s Suffrage “‘This new affliction is bringing sorrow into many suffrage homes and is presenting a serious new obstacle in our Referendum campaigns and in the Congressional and Senatorial campaigns,’ [Carrie Chapman Catt] continued [in a letter to supporters in 1918]. ‘We must therefore be prepared for failure.'” “Suffragists had been fighting for women’s right to vote for 70 years, and victory seemed almost in reach. Even with the United States fully mobilized for World War I. President Woodrow Wilson had come out in support of a constitutional amendment, and the House of Representatives had passed it. Then the Spanish flu struck, and the leaders of one of the longest-running political movements in the country’s history had to figure out how to continue their campaign in the midst of the deadliest pandemic in modern times. The first wave of the flu coursed through the country in the spring of 1918, ebbing by summertime. During that period, the Senate, dominated by southern Democrats determined to stop the enfranchisement of African-American women, was refusing to pass the bill to send the suffrage amendment to the states for ratification. Votes were announced twice, then canceled. By early fall, suffragists could see that they were two votes short of the necessary two-thirds for passage. Finding those two senators was proving impossible. Maud Wood Park, the chief suffrage lobbyist, wrote to her husband that she felt ‘as if I were trying to swim in a whirlpool’ and that it was taking ‘every ounce of thought and energy in me.’ Something else needed to be done to break through.” “But in September [1918] the flu came roaring back…[In response, The] U.S. Public Health Service issued a nationwide advisory to local health departments to prohibit large meetings and gatherings. Suffragists’ election campaigns were immediately compromised. Organizers had to postpone a train tour of previously arrested suffrage protestors, which had been expected to draw great crowds along its route from Washington, D.C., to Oregon. On the second floor of Suffrage House in the nation’s capital, Carrie Chapman Catt was “chained to her bed” by the flu. Nonetheless, she was determined to consult on strategy with a close ally of the president, Montana Senator John Walsh, but he too was stricken with the flu. Catt couldn’t come downstairs, and Walsh couldn’t go up, so an intermediary shuttled between them to conduct their confidential discussion.” “Faced by bans on public gatherings, suffragists switched to the personal touch, reaching out directly to neighbors and friends. They emphasized their patriotism and quoted the president saying that votes for women was a proper reward for their wartime sacrifice. National headquarters provided more than a million pamphlets for distribution door to door and 300 weekly bulletins for placement in local newspapers. Women signed petitions urging male voters to pass the four states’ referendums.” “More than anything, though, it was the extensive grassroots organizing suffragists had perfected that carried them through. They’d been laying the basis for their campaigns long before the influenza barreled in. Cities and towns in each state had their own organizations, linked to national strategy. Local women had developed sophisticated political skills. They knew how to identify opportunities and overcome obstacles—South Dakota and Michigan had already held several referendums. All that preparation was crucial. The epidemic suppressed voter turnout, with three million fewer ballots cast than in the 1914 mid-term election. Nonetheless, the suffrage referendums in Michigan, South Dakota, and Oklahoma passed, each with a comfortable margin. Gratitude for the role women played during the war and now in the pandemic influenced the results. With so many physicians serving in the armed forces, nurses became the front line of care for the sick. Only the Louisiana referendum failed. This was the first in the South, a region where women’s suffrage had been doomed by the overwhelming fear of African-American women voting. The state campaign, led by women who opposed national coordination and strategy, didn’t produce the energy, determination, and enthusiasm that brought victory elsewhere in the face of the flu crisis.” For Black women, the 19th Amendment didn’t end their… When it comes to the story of women’s suffrage and the 19th Amendment, two competing myths dominate. The first is that when the amendment became law in 1920, all American women won the vote. The second is that no Black American women gained the… Read more www.nationalgeographic.com Red Summer Often referred to as “race riots”, amidst the epidemic of a flu, in the battle for the right for women to vote, White Supremacists terrorized Black communities in massacre after massacre, the worst of which was in 1917, and these episodes of violent backlash of Black people daring to want to vote ended with the Tulsa Massacre in 1921. Ad I did cover Red Summer and Tulsa briefly in our new 2022 article remembering the Black massacres from the 1860’s-1921, below is more recommended reading on the subjects of Red Summer.