If you read no other book on suffrage this centennial of the 19th Amendment, read this one. Let the incomparable historian Martha S. Jones take you to school. - from my Ms. Magazine column 9/2/2020

A thorough history of Black women in the United States and their fight for their rights. Black women have been snubbed by social justice movements throughout centuries and left to fight and care for themselves. It's easy to say "they're so strong" but that, in my opinion, misses the point. They did this work out of necessity; they knew if they didn't fight for themselves no one else would. And history still leaves the majority of them out of the story. Even Rosa Parks, a well-known black female civil rights icon has so much more to her name than just her revolutionary "No," but that's all we're taught. I'm grateful for books like this.
My biggest pet peeve was how long the chapters were. It made it hard for me to focus and stay engaged with what I was reading, even though I was interested in what it had to say and I wanted to learn.

stunning. historians will be citing VANGUARD forever. the title refers to Black women as the backbone of American political history. author/historian/professor Martha S. Jones traces Black women’s history from enslavement in the early-nineteenth century through the tumultuous political history of the early twentieth. the writing is extraordinarily engaging especially considering that this is an academic monograph & historiographically sound. VANGUARD strikes a delicate balance between people & events, the real challenges that Black women faced and their agency & perseverance, academic and popular approaches. would pair well w/ historian Keisha Blain's SET THE WORLD ON FIRE, which offers a transnational approach to many of the same women during many of the same years. though hardly international VANGUARD covers an extraordinary chronological scope parsing out a complex political & social history. I received VANGUARD from Netgalley & ended up buying from Libro.fm to listen on audio, but this is one that I wish I owned in print.

A mix of family history and civic history, Dr. Martha Jones chronicles how black women founded organizations and publications to create public spaces for their vision, message, and mission for public political activism in local churches, abolitionist organizations, and suffrage societies.

This book is thought-provoking, rich in detail, and a well-timed release as the US commemorates the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment

Two chapters down and I’m already so thankful for this book. I knew that there were stories about women’s suffrage that I’d never heard. I knew that experiences of black suffragists were absent from my history courses and personal reading. I just didn’t know quite how to fill that gap well. This book was a perfect introduction: written by a well-respected historian but at my novice level. Using family stories of black suffragists and a conversational writing style, Dr. Jones shares the names, backstories, actions, and often consequences of black women who dared to actively and publicly demand the political power to shape their country. 

The format of this book made it a little difficult to navigate the end/footnotes. The end/footnotes were helpful and important so it was painful to shift between sections in the ebook. But I expect that is likely a NetGalley format issue and that didn't impact my review.

Thank you to NetGally and BasicBooks for the opportunity to review this book. I intend to review this book on Goodreads after I finish it. My 20% review will be posted to Instagram this week.

Vanguard tells the family history of the author while weaving in the suffrage history of Black women. This book appears to have been written to solidify the work of Black women voters into the history of the suffrage movement that focuses on white women whose racist actions are often forgotten. I would recommend this book to folks who are interested in teaching and/or learning the full history of the suffrage movement.

Thank you publisher and netgalley for this book even though i really wanted to read this book but i cant bit i will read it sometime later for sure then will chage my review about it.

Thank you to Perseus Books and NetGalley for the Advanced Reader's Copy!

Now available on Amazon and Barnes & Noble. 

That Black women are an important voting block in the United States is a fact widely touted by many newspapers, that Black women will "save" the election. But such statements ignore the huge struggles that Black women have had to fight through the generations to get the right to vote. It's a struggle that Martha S. Jones, the author of  "Vanguard", knows well. Using her own family as a jumping point, Jones traces the rich legacy of Black women organizers, their deep commitment to antislavery and their persistence despite resistance from fellow white women suffragists at the time. "Vanguard" is an awe-inspiring, well researched and timely read.

Nonfiction, especially history nonfiction, is a special favorite of mine, although I can’t read more than one at once. I like to focus, especially when the content is incredibly important. I’d like to highlight an upcoming release that’s more timely than ever - VANGUARD: HOW BLACK WOMEN BROKE BARRIERS, WON THE VOTE, AND INSISTED ON EQUALITY FOR ALL by Martha S. Jones.

Out Sept 8th, this masterpiece highlights the work of Black women, who are more often than not at the forefront of major movements, their essential grassroots work exploited for political gain or taken for granted by major political parties.

It reveals real truths about the women’s suffrage movement, which was overwhelming white-led. While they profited off the work of their Black sisters, many white women in the movement furthered their own rights over that of Black women, using the white fear of Black communities to push their aims.

But enough of that - the point isn’t to center white women in this historical narrative - this book is not about them and shouldn’t be. This history is the story of women’s rights from the perspective of Black women, who fought tooth and nail for the ballot, and their remarkable resilience in the face of intimidation and murder by a white majority determined to keep them down.

Maria Stewart, Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, Fannie Lou Hamer. Just a few names you get to learn more about, names that are rarely, if ever, found in history textbooks. The battle for women’s equality owes them a huge debt, one that’s yet to be repaid.

My only regret when reading this is that it doesn’t go into the history of Black women-led activism in the last few decades, but this is a 350+ page book so I totally get it. If you’re interested in learning more about Black women’s political badassery, I’ll share a few resources in my Linktree (in bio).

Please, please pick this one up. If your feminism isn’t intersectional, it’s fucked.

Thank you to Netgalley Read Now and Basic Books for the opportunity to read this. As always, if I missed the mark in this review, I appreciate any call outs or learnings.

Martha S. Jones' "Vanguard" is an essential and much-needed history on the black women's movement for equality. We've all read plenty about the suffragettes but nothing, and I mean nothing has ever been taught in the classroom about the role of black women during this period. "Vanguard" attempts to fill this gap, ushering in a new era in which the ENTIRE story of women's rights can be learned through the eyes of black women, rather than the white perspective. It is very well written, and I look forward to purchasing the book when it is released.

I received an advance reader copy of this book to read in exchange for an honest review via netgalley and the publishers.

Vanguard is a non-fiction book detailing the fight that black women have fought for decades for basic rights. 
I loved how detailed this book was and although Martha S Jones talks about famous names who helped shape history such as Fannie Lou Hamer, Harriet Tubman and Sojourner Truth, she also talks about less famous activists who no matter how small a detail, helped shape black womens rights through time.

This is such an important read, especially as the world stands today with recent happenings across the globe.

"Vanguard" by Martha Jones is a nonfiction novel about how Black women through America's history fought for political power. While Jones writes about some of the famous Black female activists like Sojourner Truth, Fannie Lou Hamer, and Harriet Tubman, she also writes about the many Black women who fought for rights who never made the front pages. As a native Philadelphian, it was really interesting to me to read about the activism that occurred here over the past several hundred years. It is also important to read about how the intersection of race and gender made it more difficult for women to earn many of the human and civil rights to which they are entitled. While the ending cuts to current times, I would have liked to read more about Black women's activism over the last few decades. Overall, this was a really interesting read and makes it clear that there is so much more we should be learning in history class.