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Martha Gruening (1889–1937) was an American-Jewish journalist, poet, suffragette, and civil rights activist, born in Philadelphia. Gruening was an early advocate for the intersectionality of gender, race, and class. Her writings and research for the NAACP led to the advancement of the civil rights movement and worked to include women of color in the fight for women's suffrage.Dessel, Susan C. Martha Gruening. 24 Oct. 2016, dangerouswomenproject.org/2016/10/24/martha-gruening/.
Gruening’s educational career was reignited by her participation in the Philadelphia Shirtwaist Strike (1909-1910). In response to heightened neglect and a desire for increase in wages, women laborers held a prolonged strike with much opposition. Gruening, who advocated for women’s rights, picketed for weeks until she was arrested. At night court, Gruening informed the magistrate for the reason of her daily visits to the factory, “to determine whether the police were arresting workers justly”, to which the magistrate responded, “it is women of your class...who have stirred up all this strife”. This provided another example for Gruening of the disparity in treatment towards women. In response to her participation and arrest, Gruening was sent to Moyamensing Prison, which she later wrote about in her publications. Her detailing of the “horrors in the prison cell” renewed the drive of reformers and led to more contributions. After being arrested, Gruening was moved by what she learned about police conduct, the legal system, economic inequality, and the power of journalism. After working as a freelance journalist and traveling across the United States as an organizer for the women’s suffrage movement, she enrolled in the New York University of Law in 1914. Her level of education was exceptional for a woman in this time period.
Many iconic figures spoke out about their opinions on the movement and its achievements for African American culture during the Harlem Renaissance. In her essay Negro Renaissance (1932), Martha Gruening discusses her thoughts on the state of the movement and some of the more constructive writings that came about.Gates, Henry Louis & Jarrett, Gene Andrew, 1975- (2007). The new Negro : readings on race, representation, and African American culture, 1892-1938. Princeton University Press, Princeton, N.J.; Woodstock Though Gruening believed that the movement had made achievements, she admits that it had been “...ballyhooed and exploited commercially and socially…”. Gruening also mentions Alain Locke’s idea of a “common consciousness.” She wrote that there seemed more individual works or works of a “definite consciousness” in the Harlem Renaissance. Additionally, Gruening adds that Langston Hughes Not Without Laughter and Willa Cather My Antonia are both constructive expressions of African American writers. She writes that they are both stories where “...Color is an added element” that they are not just stories about families of Color. Gruening saw the benefit of works that showcased mundane but genuine stories written by African Americans, as opposed to other works where authors seemed to “conform to white standards.”
Gruening is also well known for her career with the NAACP and The Crisis magazine. Her friendship with chief editor W. E. B. Du Bois stemmed from their shared interest of social equality. Both Gruening and Du Bois criticized the women’s suffrage movement for excluding Black women from participating in the organization. W.E.B Du Bois cited her in his article titled "Suffering Suffragettes," in which he condemns racism within the suffrage movement and praises Gruening for fighting for the inclusion of women of color.Bois, W. E. B. Du. “Suffering Suffragettes.” The Crisis, vol. 4, June 1912, pp. 76–77. In her own article “Two Suffrage Movements,” Martha Gruening states that the suffrage movement began in response to the abolition movement.Gruening, Martha. “Two Suffrage Movements.” The Crisis, Sept. 1912, pp. 245–247. She argues that women could not advocate for the freedom of slaves without also fighting for freedom for themselves or realizing the parallels in their circumstances. Gruening states that both slaves and white women had been disenfranchised, deprived of an education, and not seen as humans in the government’s eyes. However, fighting against gender inequality was not favored by everyone. “It was finally carried by a small majority, but throughout the discussion, only two of those present, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Frederick Douglass, warmly favored it. They alone at this stage seem to have grasped the fact that all rights and privileges go back to this most fundamental right. Throughout the storm of ridicule and abuse which broke out after the convention, Douglass maintained his position and brilliantly defended the convention in his paper, The North Star.” Martha Gruening directly cites Sojourner Truth at the Akron convention, quoted from the “Reminiscence of Mrs. Frances D. Gage.” She says that incidents like Truth’s are far too frequent, and reformers from both sides frequently ignore the parallels between slaves and women. Gruening concludes that everyone, regardless of color or gender, must understand that “the disenfranchised of the earth have a common cause.”
Gruening's essay "With Malice Afterthought" was published in The Forum (American magazine) in January 1916. Here, she vehemently advocated against the death penalty by writing the story of a Frank Johnson. The essay recounts Johnson's attempts to kill himself, only to be stopped by the doctors at the prison. The doctors then nurse him back to health until he begins to want to live again. Then, they execute him. Although short, it is an emotional and seminal article that conveys the horrific side of the death penalty.
Gruening served as the assistant secretary to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and wrote reports on national events for the association.Early, Frances H. A World Without War: How U.S. Feminists and Pacifists Resisted World War I. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 1997. Print. 28-29. Gruening's research on lynchings within the United States was fundamental to the NAACP. Aided by the NAACP Field Investigator Helen Boardman, Gruening helped organize verifiable data into the NAACP's first book, Thirty Years of Lynching in the United States 1889-1918. The two women gathered all of the data manually, documenting 2,224 lynchings: 702 whites (11 female), 2,522 “ colored” (50 female). The information was accompanied by 100 individual accounts of lynchings, including the stories of 11 women (four pregnant) that confronted general perceptions of lynching. The book and Gruening's research was essential in raising awareness of the horror of lynchings in the United States.
Gruening, aside from writing of her work on the field, wrote many book reviews for the different publications she worked for. In her review of Theodore Stanton’s, The Life and Letters of Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1922), Gruening celebrates Stanton’s strength and unwillingness to conform to societal standards for women. In her review, Gruening also tells of Stanton’s presence at the World Anti-Slavery Convention and how in addition to its significance to the abolition movement, it also signified to Stanton a push towards “the emancipation of women” due to its “exclusion of the women delegates”. Aside from writing of her approval and honoring of Stanton’s achievements, Gruening also implies her view that African-American women should have a place within the women's movement, addressing Stanton’s estrangement with Abolitionists who disregarded African-American women in the case of the Fourteenth Amendment. Gruening remarks upon Stanton’s question in response to their disregard, “Is the African race composed entirely of males?” to which Gruening adds, “a question not without interest today when a considerable number of feminists apparently believe that only the caucausian race has any females”.
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