Mott became the first president of the American Equal Rights Association, formed to campaign for universal suffrage regardless of race or sex.
On May 31, 1866, Lucretia Mott was elected the first president of the newly formed American Equal Rights Association (AERA), an organization created in the aftermath of the Civil War to campaign for universal suffrage—advocating voting rights for all citizens regardless of race or sex. The organization brought together prominent abolitionists and women's rights advocates, including Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, and Frederick Douglass.
At 73 years old, Mott brought decades of moral authority and organizational experience to the role, having been a founding figure in both the abolitionist and women's rights movements. Her election as president reflected the widespread respect she commanded across reform circles as a unifying figure capable of bridging the sometimes-competing priorities of Black suffrage and women's suffrage advocates.
However, the AERA would ultimately fracture in 1869 over strategic disagreements—particularly whether to support the Fifteenth Amendment, which granted voting rights to Black men but not to women of any race. This schism led to the formation of rival suffrage organizations. Nevertheless, Mott's leadership of the AERA represents a genuine historical first: never before had a national organization dedicated to universal suffrage regardless of race or sex been formed in the United States, and her presidency situates her at the very center of this pivotal, if short-lived, coalition.