Ida Bell Wells-Barnett was an American investigative journalist, educator, and early leader in the civil rights movement. She was one of the founders of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). Wells dedicated her career to combating prejudice and violence, and advocating for African-American equality—especially that of women.
The National Association of Colored Women's Clubs (NACWC) is an American organization that was formed in July 1896 at the First Annual Convention of the National Federation of Afro-American Women in Washington, D.C., United States, by a merger of the National Federation of Afro-American Women, the Woman's Era Club of Boston, and the Colored Women's League of Washington, DC, at the call of Josephine St. Pierre Ruffin. From 1896 to 1904 it was known as the National Association of Colored Women (NACW). It adopted the motto "Lifting as we climb", to demonstrate to "an ignorant and suspicious world that our aims and interests are identical with those of all good aspiring women." When incorporated in 1904, NACW became known as the National Association of Colored Women's Clubs (NACWC).
Carrie Williams Clifford was an author, clubwoman, and activist in the women's rights and civil rights movements in the United States.
Pauline Elizabeth Hopkins was an American novelist, journalist, playwright, historian, and editor. She is considered a pioneer in her use of the romantic novel to explore social and racial themes, as demonstrated in her first major novel Contending Forces: A Romance Illustrative of Negro Life North and South. In addition, Hopkins is known for her significant contributions as Editor for the Colored American Magazine, which was recognized as being among the first periodicals specifically celebrating African-American culture through various short stories, essays and serial novels. She is also known to have prominent connections to other influential African-American figures of the time, such as Booker T. Washington and William Wells Brown.
Frances "Fannie" Barrier Williams was an African American educator, civil rights, and women's rights activist, and the first black woman to gain membership to the Chicago Woman's Club. She became well known for her efforts to have black people officially represented on the Board of Control of the World's Columbian Exposition in 1893. She was also a musician, a portraitist and studied foreign languages.
Sarah Elisabeth Goode was an American entrepreneur and inventor. She was one of the first known African American women to receive a United States patent, which she received in 1885 for her cabinet bed.
Dr. Fannie Hagen Emanuel was an American medical doctor and civic leader active in Chicago over the early decades of the twentieth century. In 1908 she founded the Emanuel Settlement House in Chicago.
Agnes Jones Adams was a member of National Association of Colored Women, Social Purity Movement, and Woman's Era Club. Adams was one of the early pioneers for the advancement of black women's clubs.
Elizabeth Piper Ensley, was an educator and an African-American suffragist. Born in Massachusetts, Ensley was a teacher on the eastern coast of the country. She moved to Colorado where she achieved prominence as a leader in the Colorado suffrage movement. She was also a journalist, activist, and a leader and founder of local women's clubs.
Joanna Snowden Porter was an American clubwoman based in Chicago; she was founder and president of the Northwestern Federation of Colored Women's Clubs.
Anna H. Jones was a Canadian-born American clubwoman, suffragist, and educator based in later life in Kansas City, Missouri.
The Chicago and Northern District Association of Colored Women's Clubs (CNDA) was a woman's club formed in 1906 under the name the City Federation of Colored Women's Clubs (CFCWC). Its member clubs belonged to the Illinois Federation of Colored Women's Clubs (IFCWC). Mrs. Cordelia West contacted women's club presidents in Chicago to join together to work more effectively to solve the problems facing the African-American community. Its motto was "From Possibilities to Realities" and Cordelia West served as the first president.
Susan E. Cannon Allen was an African-American suffragist and temperance activist from Illinois. She served in numerous executive positions in several different women's clubs and was involved in club work at both the local and state level.
Sadie L. Adams was an African-American teacher, suffragist, and clubwoman. She was one of the first women to serve on an election board in Chicago and one of the founders of the Douglas League of Women Voters. In 1916, she served as a delegate from Chicago's first black suffrage organization, the Alpha Suffrage Club, to the National Equal Rights League conference. She was elected president of the Chicago and Northern District Association of Colored Women's Clubs in 1921, serving into 1934. She was also involved in various charity clubs and organizations that helped to engage women in war work during World War I, provide resources for underserved youth, and increase suffrage for Black women.
Women's suffrage in Illinois began in the mid 1850s. The first women's suffrage group was formed in Earlville, Illinois by the cousin of Susan B. Anthony, Susan Hoxie Richardson. After the Civil War, former abolitionist, Mary Livermore, organized the Illinois Woman Suffrage Association (IWSA) which would later be renamed the Illinois Equal Suffrage Association (IESA). Frances Willard and other suffragists in the IESA worked to lobby various government entities for women's suffrage. In the 1870s, women were allowed to serve on school boards and were elected to that office. The first women to vote in Illinois were 15 women in Lombard, Illinois led by Ellen A. Martin who found a loophole in the law in 1891. Women were eventually allowed to vote for school offices in the 1890s. Women in Chicago and throughout Illinois fought for the right to vote based on the idea of no taxation without representation. They also continued to expand their efforts throughout the state. In 1913, women in Illinois were successful in gaining partial suffrage. They became the first women east of the Mississippi River to have the right to vote in Presidential elections. Suffragists then worked to register women to vote. Both African-American and white suffragists registered women in huge numbers. In Chicago alone 200,000 women were registered to vote. After gaining partial suffrage, women in Illinois kept working towards full suffrage. The state became the first to ratify the Nineteenth Amendment, passing the ratification on June 10, 1919. The League of Women Voters (LWV) was announced in Chicago on February 14, 1920.
Mary Jane Richardson Jones was an American abolitionist, philanthropist, and suffragist.
Anna Elizabeth Hudlun was an African-American humanitarian and civic worker, who earned the names "Fire Angel" and "Chicago's Grand Old Lady" for her work with victims of the city's great fires in 1871 and 1874.
Grace Morris Allen Jones was an African American educator, school founder, fundraiser, postmaster, clubwoman, reformer, and writer. As well as founding her own vocational training school in Burlington, Iowa, she was instrumental in the success of Piney Woods Country Life School, which she ran with her husband, Laurence C. Jones, in Mississippi.
