Mary Church Terrell was an American civil rights activist, journalist, teacher and one of the first African-American women to earn a college degree. She taught in the Latin Department at the M Street School —the first African American public high school in the nation—in Washington, DC. In 1895, she was the first African-American woman in the United States to be appointed to the school board of a major city, serving in the District of Columbia until 1906. Terrell was a charter member of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (1909) and the Colored Women's League of Washington (1892). She helped found the National Association of Colored Women (1896) and served as its first national president, and she was a founding member of the National Association of College Women (1923).
Daisy Elizabeth Adams Lampkin was an American suffragist, civil rights activist, organization executive, and community practitioner whose career spanned over half a century. Lampkin’s effective skills as an orator, fundraiser, organizer, and political activist guided the work being conducted by the National Association of Colored Women (NACW); National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP); National Council of Negro Women and other leading civil rights organizations of the Progressive Era.
Women's suffrage was established in the United States on a full or partial basis by various towns, counties, states and territories during the latter decades of the 19th century and early part of the 20th century. As women received the right to vote in some places, they began running for public office and gaining positions as school board members, county clerks, state legislators, judges, and, in the case of Jeannette Rankin, as a member of Congress.
Juno Frankie Seay Pierce, also known as Frankie Pierce or J. Frankie Pierce, was an American educator and suffragist. Pierce opened the Tennessee Vocational School for Colored Girls in 1923, and she served as its superintendent until 1939. The school continued to operate until 1979. The daughter of a slave, Pierce addressed white women at the inaugural convention of the Tennessee League of Women Voters, held in the Tennessee Capitol in May 1920.
Ida Alexander Gibbs Hunt was an advocate of racial and gender equality and co-founded one of the first YWCAs in Washington, D.C., for African-Americans in 1905. She was the daughter of Judge Mifflin Wistar Gibbs, the wife of William Henry Hunt, and a longtime friend of W. E. B. Du Bois. Along with Du Bois, she was a leader of the early Pan-African movement.
Anna H. Jones was a Canadian-born American clubwoman, suffragist, and educator based in later life in Kansas City, Missouri.
Nellie Louise Young was the first African American woman licensed to practice medicine in Maryland.
Lena King Lee was an American educator, attorney, and politician who entered politics at the age of 60 and became one of the first African-American women elected to the Maryland General Assembly. Lee advocated for teachers' rights, women's rights, and affordable housing, and founded the Legislative Black Caucus of Maryland in 1970. She was inducted into the Maryland Women's Hall of Fame in 1989.
Ora Brown Stokes Perry (1882–1957) was an American educator, probation officer, temperance worker, suffragist, and clubwoman based in Richmond, Virginia.
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.
Helen Appo Cook was a wealthy, prominent African-American community activist in Washington, D.C., and a leader in the women's club movement. Cook was a founder and president of the Colored Women's League, which consolidated with another organization in 1896 to become the National Association of Colored Women (NACW), an organization still active in the 21st century. Cook supported voting rights and was a member of the Niagara Movement, which opposed racial segregation and African American disenfranchisement. In 1898, Cook publicly rebuked Susan B. Anthony, president of the National Woman's Suffrage Association, and requested she support universal suffrage following Anthony's speech at a U.S. Congress House Committee on Judiciary hearing.
Fannie Hopkins Hamilton(1882 – 1964) was a dress maker and suffragist who joined the Equal Suffrage Study Club and uplifted the black community in Wilmington, Delaware. She was a leader, contributor, activist, and supportive teacher throughout her life as a suffragist.
Musette Brooks Gregory was an African-American suffragist and civil rights activist.
Bertha Grant Higgins was an American suffragist, civil rights activist and clubwoman. She was involved in supporting women's suffrage in Rhode Island. She strongly supported the Dyer Anti-Lynching bill and worked towards equal rights for African Americans.
Ethel Elizabeth McGhee Davis was an American educator, social worker, and college administrator. She served as the student adviser (1928–1931) and as the Dean of Women (1931–1932) for Spelman College in Atlanta.
Augusta Theodosia Lewis Chissell was an African-American suffragist and civic leader in Baltimore, Maryland. Chissell was a leader in multiple community organizations, including as a founding member of the Baltimore branch of the NAACP. In 2019 she was inducted into the Maryland Women's Hall of Fame for her work in promoting women's rights and racial equity.
Sue M. Wilson Brown was an African-American activist for women's suffrage. She was inducted into the Iowa Women's Hall of Fame in 1995.
Susie Estella Palmer Hamilton (1862-1942) was a suffragist and activist in Wilmington, Delaware, and a founding member of the Equal Suffrage Study Club.
Rosetta Lawson was an American temperance activist, educator, and suffragette. She was, with her husband, educator and activist Jesse Lawson, a co-founder of Frelinghuysen University, where she taught anatomy and physiology. She served for 30 years as a national organizer for the Woman's Christian Temperance Union. Lawson organized the first Congress of Colored Women in the United States, and was elected to the executive committee of the National Association of Colored Women's Clubs.
Margaret Briggs Gregory Hawkins, worked as a schoolteacher and later became known for her activism on behalf of African Americans and women. She was inducted into the Maryland Women's Hall of Fame in 2021.