Frederick Douglass was a lifelong friend

Susan B. Anthony and Frederick Douglass were longtime friends, even though they disagreed on the importance of Black male suffrage in the 1860s, which led to a rift in the feminist movement that lasted until 1890. They had been acquainted since their early years in Rochester, where he had been a member of the same anti-slavery group as Susan and her family during the 1840s and 1850s. He had been sitting next to Anthony on the platform of a Washington, D.C., conference for women's rights on the day that Douglass passed away.

Douglass made an effort to persuade Anthony to vote in favor of ratification during the debate over the 15th Amendment's provision allowing Black men the right to vote. Anthony, who was angry that the proposed 14th Amendment would offer Black males citizenship while completely ignoring the rights of women, vowed that he would "chop off this right arm of mine before I ever work for or demand the ballot for the Negro and not for the woman." She hoped that women would be able to vote, and then the 15th amendment was passed, granting voting rights to Black men. Again, no women. Despite being sympathetic to Anthony's cause, Douglass had a different viewpoint on the conflict.

Douglass once said, "Women will only stand up for themselves when they are hunted down through the streets of New York and New Orleans simply because they are women; when they are dragged from their homes and hung on lampposts; when their children are torn from their arms and their brains dashed out on the pavement; when they are objects of insult and outrage at every turn; when they are in danger of having their homes burned down over their heads; when their children are not permitted to attend schools."