Tag Archives: Suffragist Teachers

VA teacher Clara Byrd Baker was also a civic leader and suffragist

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Clara Byrd Baker

Elementary school teacher Clara Byrd Baker of Virginia worked tirelessly to improve social conditions in her community as a civic leader and suffragist. Photo credit: Hampton University

There are many examples of talented classroom teachers who have worked tirelessly to improve social conditions in their community. One of these is Clara Byrd Baker, an elementary school teacher from Virginia who has earned a reputation as an outstanding civic leader and suffragette.

Clara was born on June 22, 1886, in Williamsburg, Virginia. Her parents were Charles and Malvina Carey Byrd. As a young woman, Clara enrolled in Hampton Institute. She also attended Virginia State College for Negroes, now known as Virginia State College, where she earned her Bachelor’s degree in Education. She was only 16 years old at the time.

After earning her degree, Clara launched her career as an educator in 1902 when she accepted a position as a teacher in a one-room schoolhouse in James City County, Virginia. In 1920, she became a teacher at a public training school for African American students. Later, she joined the faculty at Bruton Heights School in Williamsburg. After a career in the classroom that spanned an amazing 50 years, Clara retired in 1952.

Throughout her life, even during the years she taught school, Clara served as a leader in Williamsburg’s African American community. She worked to expand educational opportunities for students, to improve inter-racial relations, and to secure the vote for women. In fact, after the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution was ratified, Clara became the first woman in Williamsburg to vote.

For her efforts, Clara earned numerous accolades. In 2007, she was honored by the Virginia State Library and Archives as an African American Trailblazer. The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation recognized her achievements in 2011. The Virginia State University Alumni Association gave her a Meritorious Service Award and named her their Alumni of the Year. In 1989, a newly-built elementary school in Williamsburg was named in her honor.

Clara Baker Byrd passed away on October 20, 1979, at the age of 93. She is interred in Cedar Grove Cemetery in Williamsburg.

Teacher, abolitionist, activist, and suffragist Anna Julia Cooper

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Teacher, abolitionist, activist, and suffragist Anna Julia Cooper, born into slavery, was one of the first African American women to earn a Ph.D. Photo credit: www.blackpast.com.

There are many talented educators who have dedicated themselves to social causes. One of these was Anna Julia Cooper, an African American teacher who was also an abolitionist, activist, and suffragist.

Anna was born into slavery in Raleigh, North Carolina, circa 1858. As a young child, she developed an intense love of learning, even though teaching literacy skills to African Americans were forbidden until after the Civil War. Because of her love of learning, Anna decided to become a teacher. In 1868, when she was only nine years old, Anna garnered a scholarship to St. Augustine’s Normal School and Collegiate Institute. The school, now known as St. Augustine’s College, was founded by the local Episcopal Diocese to train teachers to educate former slaves and their families. During her years at St. Augustine’s, Anna earned a reputation as a bright and ambitious student.

In 1879, Anna enrolled at Oberlin College in Ohio. There she earned her degree in Mathematics in 1884. She was one of the first African American women to earn a degree at the school. After her graduation, Anna returned to Raleigh where she taught math, Greek, and Latin at St. Augustine’s. In 1887, she moved  to Washington, DC, to teach math and science at the Preparatory High School for Colored Youth. Later the school was known as the M Street School, and today the institution is called Dunbar High School. The school is the largest and most prestigious public high school for African Americans in the country. During the years she taught at the M Street School, Anna delivered many speeches calling for civil rights and women’s rights and she published A Voice from the South, a well-known book on the subject.

A lifelong learner, Anna studied French literature and history for several years before enrolling at Columbia University in 1914. There she pursued her Ph.D. At the time, she was also teaching full time. In 1924, Anna continued her studies at the University of Paris at the Sorbonne in France. In 1925 she successfully defended her doctoral dissertation, which explored the attitudes of the French people toward slavery during the late 18th century in France and Haiti. With this accomplishment, she was only the fourth African American woman in the US to earn a doctorate and the first Black woman from any country to do so at the Sorbonne.

To learn more about this amazing educator, click on this link for Rutgers.

Lucia Camp Blanchard: Teacher, community activist, suffragist

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Many outstanding educators devote their energy to social causes. One of these was Lucia Ellen Camp, a teacher who worked tirelessly for the passage of women’s suffrage during the 19th century.

Lucia was born on Oct. 7, 1851, in Stowe, Vermont. Her father, Asa Camp, was a merchant. He also served his community as a senator for Lamoille County, a director of the Waterbury Bank, the State Inspector of Finance, and a member of the Stowe City Council. Tragically, when Lucia was only eight years old, her mother died of smallpox. Later her father remarried to Harriet Camp. Lucia already had one brother, and her father’s second marriage produced four younger siblings for Lucia, all of whom relocated to Minnesota with Asa and Harriet when the couple moved there in 1872. But Lucia Camp chose to remain in Vermont.

As a child, Lucia was an excellent student who earned high grades and numerous academic awards. In 1869, at the age of 18, she inaugurated her career as a schoolteacher. In addition, she was an active member of the community in Stowe, organizing and participating in fundraisers and other events, all the while continuing to teach. By 1874, Lucia accepted a position at the Green Mountain Seminary in Waterbury Center. Before long she was appointed the school’s Assistant Principal. At the age of 24, she became the Superintendent of Schools in Stowe.

Lucia became a bride on Oct. 17, 1876, when she married Fred Blanchard, the owner of a hardware store. The couple moved to Montpelier and started their family. They had three daughters. Lucia became active in her new community, and by 1900 she was serving on the School Board Committee for Buildings and Repairs.

In 1915, Lucia Blanchard was selected the President of the Vermont Equal Suffrage Association (VESA). She stepped down the following year to become their treasurer, holding that position until the Nineteenth Amendment was passed in 1920. During these years, Lucia worked tirelessly for the Women’s Suffrage Movement, writing to legislators and encouraging others to do the same. She also organized the annual VESA State Convention in Burlington in 1919.

Lucia Camp Blanchard lived in Montpelier until she passed away on Feb. 21, 1933. She was 81 years old. She is interred at Green Mountain Cemetery in Montpelier, Vermont. To learn more about this Chalkboard Champion, click on this link to NAWSA.

NY educator and suffragist Katherine Devereux Blake

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New York teacher Katherine Devereux Blake was also an influential suffragist. Photo credit: Public Domain

Teachers are often among the first to throw their boundless energy into campaigns that benefit society as a whole. One of these was Katherine Devereux Blake, a teacher who became an influential suffragist.

Katherine was born in Manhattan, New York, on July 10, 1858. Her mother was well-known pioneer suffragist, newspaper correspondent, and novelist Lillie Devereux Blake.

Katherine earned her college degree in 1876 from what later became Hunter College. Following her graduation, she inaugurated her career as a public school teacher in New York City. By 1894 she accepted a position as the principal of the Girls Department of Public School 6. This school was renamed the Lillie Devereux School in 1916. Katherine served PS 6 as its principal for 34 years, until her retirement in 1927.

Throughout her career as an educator, Katherine Blake used her influence to champion causes that benefited both teachers and students. She promoted improvements in classroom lighting and sanitation, the reform of school textbooks, and night school for women. In addition, she actively worked for the National Education Association (NEA). She served on a number of committees that promoted teacher benefits, good relationships between public schools and the NEA, and the election of women to the New York Board of Education. Katherine was one of nineteen teachers selected to accompany Dr. John Dewey on his official visit to Russia in 1928.

Not only was Katherine Blake an outstanding educator, but she was also an influential journalist, suffragist, and peace activist. During her summer vacations from 1911-1919, she campaigned for women’s suffrage in California, New York, Montana, North Dakota, Minnesota, West Virginia, New Jersey, and Connecticut. In New York, she was the leader of nearly 15,000 teachers who worked for women’s suffrage. In the 1915 parade sponsored by the Woman Suffrage Association, Katherine marched at the front of a group of nearly 500 teachers.

Katherine Blake was also an active and outspoken peace activist. She was a member of the Ford Peace Expedition in 1915-1916, and she also served as the New York Chair of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom. She was the chief spokesperson for the Disarmament Caravan, which toured 9,000 miles in 1931 to carry a disarmament petition to President Herbert Hoover and to the International Disarmament Conference in Geneva. The petition was comprised of nearly seven million signatures. Katherine traveled to Geneva repeatedly to attend the League of Nations Assembly as a newspaper correspondent. In 1938 she traveled abroad to study refugee problems.

This remarkable woman and Chalkboard Champion passed away on February 2, 1950, in St. Louis, Missouri. She was 91 years old. She is interred in Union Cemetery in Stratford, Fairfield County, Connecticut.

To read more about Katherine Devereux Blake, see this biographical sketch about NAWSA Suffragists.

Nancy Cook: Vocational Ed teacher, suffragist, and friend of Eleanor Roosevelt

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Vocational education teacher, suffragist, and Chalkboard Champion Nancy Cook, at right, with Former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, at left. Photo credit: George Washington University

Many remarkable teachers blend their interests in teaching with an interest in politics. Such is certainly the case with Nancy Cook, a high school vocational education teacher who was also a tireless worker for women’s suffrage and other political causes dear to her heart.

Nancy was born in Massena, New York, on August 26, 1884. After her graduation from high school, she attended Syracuse University, where she earned her Bachelor’s degree in 1912. There she became an avid supporter of woman’s suffrage and campaigned for legislation to protect women, to abolish child labor, and to secure world peace.

After her graduation from college, Nancy accepted her first teaching position in Fulton, New York, where she taught art and handicrafts to high school students from 1913 to 1918. It was here that she ran into fellow Syracuse classmate Marion Dickerman, who was also a teacher of arts and handicrafts at the school. These two women become lifelong partners, spending almost their entire adult lives together.

During World War I, Nancy and Marion became active doing volunteer work for the Liberty Loan Drive and the Red Cross. As Marion remarked after the war, they both “really believed this was a war to end wars and make the world safe for democracy.” In 1918, Nancy and Marion traveled to London, England, to work in the Endell Street Military Hospital., a facility staffed entirely by women. There they scrubbed floors and performed whatever other chores were needed. Nancy would, with less than two weeks of training, begin to make artificial limbs for veterans that had lost an arm or a leg in the conflict.

Women earned the right to vote while Nancy and Marion were abroad. Upon their return to the United States, Nancy accepted a job as the executive secretary of the Women’s Division of the State Democratic Committee, a position she held for nineteen years. She was key to the gubernatorial and presidential campaigns of Al Smith and Franklin D. Roosevelt.

In 1927, Nancy, Marion, and Eleanor Roosevelt purchased a small, private school for girls in New York City they called the Todhunter School. The school provided primary and secondary education, emphasizing art, music, and drama, as well as a college preparatory curriculum. Todhunter combined traditional testing and grading standards with progressive teaching methods.

Nancy and Marion were very good friends with Eleanor Roosevelt. Together, the three women built Stone Cottage at Val-Kill, on the banks of FallKill Creek in Dutchess County, New York. Nancy and Marion lived there full-time, and Eleanor often visited. Nancy, who was an expert woodworker, made all the furniture for the home. The trio established Val-Kill Industries with the goal of producing fine hand-made heirloom furniture/. More importantly, by doing so, they were acting on a larger social goal of providing a second income to local farming people in rural Hyde Park in order to keep them from migrating away to city jobs.

When Eleanor Roosevelt committed herself to redeveloping Arthurdale, West Virginia, she asked Nancy to work with the subsistence homestead program. Nancy and the First Lady oversaw the interior needs of each Arthurdale house, while Nancy temporarily administered the furniture and woodworking projects of Arthurdale’s Mountaineer Craftsmen’s Cooperative Association.

Nancy Cook, Chalkboard Champion and suffragist, passed away on August 16, 1962.