Frederick Douglass Woman's Club

Last updated

The Frederick Douglass Woman's Club was formed in Chicago, Illinois in 1906. [1] It was one of the first women's clubs in Chicago to promote suffrage. [2] It was notable because it was one of the few interracial women's clubs in Chicago. [2]

Contents

History

The club was founded in 1906 by Celia Parker Woolley, a white Unitarian minister and novelist. [3] Most of the members of the club were middle-class, and it was an interracial club. [3] The club met weekly, hosting speakers who discussed political events of the day, including votes for women. Speakers included Elia W. Peattie, G. M. Faulkner of Liberia College, and Elmira Springer. [1] Ida B. Wells served as vice president of the club. [1]

The club was housed at the Frederick Douglass Center, a settlement house in Chicago founded by Woolley and Wells, whose purpose was to foster interracial cooperation between African Americans and whites. The club was only one aspect of the settlement house work focused on connecting middle-class black and white women. [4] The influential black activist Fannie Barrier Williams supported the work of the center and the club, believing that interracial activism could both bring women's suffrage and improve the lives of black women and girls in Chicago. [5]

Because of social pressure from the Frederick Douglass Woman's Club, the Chicago Political League, another local woman's club extended their membership to African-American women. [3]

See also

Related Research Articles

Ida B. Wells African-American civil rights activist (1862–1931)

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). Over the course of a lifetime dedicated to combating prejudice and violence, and the fight for African-American equality, especially that of women, Wells arguably became the most famous Black woman in the United States.

Fannie Barrier Williams American educator and activist

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.

Alpha Suffrage Club

The Alpha Suffrage Club was the first and most important black female suffrage club in Chicago and one of the most important in Illinois. It was founded on January 30, 1913 by Ida B. Wells with the help of her white colleagues Belle Squire and Virginia Brooks. The Club aimed to give a voice to African American women who had been excluded from national suffrage organizations such as the National American Women Suffrage Association (NAWSA). Its stated purpose was to inform black women of their civic responsibility and to organize them to help elect candidates who would best serve the interests of African Americans in Chicago.

Joseph Douglass American musician, grandson of Frederick Douglass

Joseph Henry Douglass was a groundbreaking African-American concert violinist, the son of Charles Remond Douglass and Mary Elizabeth Murphy, and grandson of abolitionist Frederick Douglass.

African-American women began to agitate for political rights in the 1830s, creating the Boston Female Anti-Slavery Society, Philadelphia Female Anti-Slavery Society, and New York Female Anti-Slavery Society. These interracial groups were radical expressions of women's political ideals, and they led directly to voting rights activism before and after the Civil War. Throughout the 19th century, African-American women like Harriet Forten Purvis, Mary Ann Shadd Cary, and Frances Ellen Watkins Harper worked on two fronts simultaneously: reminding African-American men and white women that Black women needed legal rights, especially the right to vote.

Celia Parker Woolley American novelist

Celia Parker Woolley was an American novelist, Unitarian minister and social reformer. She also served as a president of the Chicago Woman's Club and the founder of the Frederick Douglass Woman's Club.

The First National Conference of the Colored Women of America was a three-day conference in Boston organized by Josephine St. Pierre Ruffin, a civil rights leader and suffragist. In August 1895, representatives from 42 African-American women's clubs from 14 states convened at Berkeley Hall for the purpose of creating a national organization. It was the first event of its kind in the United States.

<i>The Womans Era</i>

The Woman's Era was the first national newspaper published by and for black women in the United States. Originally established as a monthly Boston newspaper, it became distributed nationally in 1894 and ran until January 1897, with Josephine St. Pierre Ruffin as editor and publisher. The Woman's Era played an important role in the national African-American women's club movement.

Womans club movement in the United States Womens social movement

The woman's club movement was a social movement that took place throughout the United States that established the idea that women had a moral duty and responsibility to transform public policy. While women's organizations had always been a part of United States history, it was not until the Progressive era that it came to be considered a movement. The first wave of the club movement during the progressive era was started by white, middle-class, Protestant women, and a second phase was led by African-American women.

Ada Sophia Dennison McKinley was an American educator and settlement house worker in Chicago, Illinois. She was the founder of the South Side Settlement House, later renamed in her honor as Ada S. McKinley Community Services, which continues today as a major Chicago social service organization.

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.

Phillis Wheatley Club Womens clubs created by African Americans

The Phillis Wheatley Clubs are women's clubs created by African Americans starting in the late 1800s. The first club was founded in Nashville, Tennessee, in 1895. Some clubs are still active. The purpose of Phillis Wheatley Clubs varied from area to area, although most were involved in community and personal improvement. Some clubs helped in desegregation and voting rights efforts. The clubs were named after the poet Phillis Wheatley.

Phyllis Terrell

Phyllis Terrell Langston was a suffragist and civil rights activist. She worked alongside her mother, Mary Church Terrell, in the National Association of Colored Women's Clubs and the White House pickets during demonstrations made by the National Woman's Party.

Samuel Laing Williams African American lawyer (1857–1921)

Samuel Laing Williams was the first African American to graduate from the Law School of the George Washington University, then called Columbian University, in Washington, D.C. Founded in 1821 as Columbian College, Columbian University briefly admitted African Americans to its law program some time between 1865 and about 1890. Williams may have been the first African American admitted to any GW program when he applied in 1882; he experienced discrimination from his white peers but was said to have eventually won their respect, along with that of the faculty, who awarded him a top law thesis prize. He earned his LL.B. from Columbian University in 1884 while also working at the United States Pension office. He was admitted to the District of Columbia Bar on June 18, 1885, then went on to earn his LL.M. from Columbian University's graduate law program in 1885.

Frances Harriet Williams American activist and civil servant (1898–1992)

Frances Harriet Williams (1898–1992) was an American activist and civil servant. She was born in 1898 in Danville, Kentucky to Frank L. Williams and Fannie (Miller) Williams but grew up in St. Louis, Missouri. She graduated from Mount Holyoke College in 1919 and earned a master's degree in political science from the University of Chicago in 1931.

Womens suffrage in Illinois History of womens right to vote in the state

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.

Viola Hill was an African-American suffragist, activist, and musician. She was a founding member of the Alpha Suffrage Club and a community leader within the African Methodist Episcopal Church.

Mary Jane Richardson Jones American abolitionist, suffragist, and activist (1819–1909)

Mary Jane Richardson Jones was an American abolitionist, philanthropist, and suffragist.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Knupfer, Anne Meis (1996). Toward a tenderer and a nobler womanhood : African American women's clubs in turn-of-the-century Chicago. New York [u.a.]: New York Univ. Press. p. 51. ISBN   0814746918.
  2. 1 2 Knupfer, Anne Meis. "African-American Women's Clubs in Chicago, 1890 - 1920". Illinois Periodicals Online (IPO). Northern Illinois University Libraries. Retrieved 17 February 2018.
  3. 1 2 3 Crocco, Margaret; Hendry, Petra Munro (1999). Pedagogies of Resistance: Women Educator Activists, 1880-1960 . Teachers College Press. pp.  32. ISBN   0807762970.
  4. Smith Croco, Margaret; Munro, Petra; Weiler, Kathleen (1999). Pedagogies of Resistance: Women Educator Activists, 1880-1960 . New York: Columbia Teachers College Press. pp.  35.
  5. Henricks, Wanda (2014). Fannie Barrier Williams: Crossing the Borders of Region and Race. University of Illinois Press. pp. 150–151.