Teachers are typically among those citizens who work the hardest for the benefit of society as a whole. One of these teachers is Mary Eato, an African American educator who also fought valiantly for women’s suffrage.

Mary Eato (who is also known as Mary Eaton) was born in New York City, New York, on Sept. 23, 1844. Mary was the daughter of Sarah Jane Eato, a dressmaker, and Timothy Eato, a Methodist preacher. Marys childhood was rough. As an African American, she battled rampant racism. And when her father died in 1854, her mother was left to raise their seven children alone.

In Jul, 1861, Mary earned her teaching certificate from a New York normal school. She was the only African American graduate in her class. She was only 16 years old when she began teaching elementary students in New York City’s “colored schools.” She taught first at Grammar School No. 3 on 41st Street and later at Grammar School No. 80 on 42nd St.

Intent upon honing her professional skills, Mary went back to school where, in 1891, she earned a Master’s degree in Pedagogy from the University of the City of New York.

While teaching, Mary met Sarah Garnet, the first African American woman to become a school principal in New York City. Garnet founded the Colored Women’s Equal Suffrage League of Brooklyn. Mary joined the organization, and even served as its vice president in 1908. The group worked tirelessly to abolish both gender and race bias in New York City.

In her role as vice president, Mary presided over most of the meetings and events of the Equal Suffrage League which took place during her tenure. She helped the club organize a celebration in honor of Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass. She regularly invited speakers to address the group about topics related to women’s suffrage. She organized the formal readings of papers or poems, and the singing of women’s suffrage songs. She also organized a vote to accept an invitation to work with the Inter-Urban Association, an organization in New York that coordinated the efforts of 23 local clubs to work together for womens suffrage.

In addition to her membership in the Equal Suffrage League, the dedicated educator was a longtime member of St. Mark’s Methodist Episcopal Church. For a time she served as the church’s treasurer. She also held offices in St. Mark’s Mutual Aid Society, the New York African Society for Mutual Relief, and a branch of the African American Council. In addition, Mary helped establish and run the Hope Day Nursery for Colored Children, which was founded in 1902. For many years Mary served vice president of that organization.

In all, Mary devoted 44 years to the classroom. She retired in 1904. This chalkboard champion passed away on Feb. 8, 1915. She was 70 years old.

To learn more about the work of Mary Eato, read this article by Susan Goodier and Karen Pastorello published by The Gotham Center for New York City History.

Educator and indefatigable suffragist Katherine Devereux Blake

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.

Teacher and suffragist Emily Burton Ketcham. Photo credit: Grand Rapids History and Special Collections (GRHSC), Archives, GRPL, GR, Michigan.

Dedicated educators often become involved in movements that benefit society as a whole. One of these is Emily Burton Ketcham, a school teacher who was active in the struggle to secure the right to vote for women.

Emily was born on July 16, 1838, in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Her parents were Josiah and Eliza (Freeman) Burton. As a young girl, Emily attended first Mary B. Allen’s School for Girls and then Henrietta Academy. She earned her degree from St. Mark’s College, a private theological institution located in Grand Rapids. When she was only 15 years old, Emily became a school teacher.

Emily’s work in the suffrage movement began in 1873. She became active in the initial effort to remove gender as a qualification for voting in Michigan. Later, Emily met with suffragist movement leaders Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony, and by the 1890’s had developed long-lasting professional relationships with them.

Emily was heavily involved in many community improvement groups. She was a member of the Grand Rapids Woman’s Suffrage Association, the Political Equality Club, the Susan B. Anthony Club, the Woman’s Civic League, and the Woman’s and Children’s Protective League. She was a charter member of the Michigan Equal Suffrage Association, she would serve as its president from 1892-1893, and again in 1900.

As part of her work as a suffragist, Emily was a featured speaker at the Chicago World’s Fair in 1893. Due to Emily’s indefatigable work and outstanding organizational skills, Stanton and Anthony brought the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) to Grand Rapids for its annual convention in 1899.

This amazing Chalkboard Champion passed away on January 13, 1907, in Detroit, Michigan. She was 68 years old. She is interred at Rosedale Memorial Park in Tallmadge, Ottawa County, Michigan.

To honor her work as a suffragist and educator, Emily Burton Ketcham was inducted into the Michigan Women’s Hall of Fame in 1999. To read more about Emily, see her page on the website for the Michigan Women’s Hall of Fame.

I love to share stories about plucky teachers, and in the short video below I share some information about innovative educator and tireless suffragist Carrie Chapman Catt. Watch the video to learn more about her.