Tag Archives: Suffragist Teachers

Teacher and activist Julia Flisch fought for equity for women

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History teacher and social activist Julia Flisch fought for equal education for girls in the late 19th century. Photo Credit: Georgia College

In my opinion, teachers are among the most dedicated proponents of social change in American society. Julia Flisch a Georgia teacher who fought for equal education for girls in the late 19th century, is a fine example of this.

Julia was born on Jan. 31, 1861, in Augusta, Georgia, the daughter of immigrants from Switzerland and Germany. She was raised in Athens, Georgia, where her father operated a candy store and ice cream parlor, and her mother was a homemaker. As a young girl, Julia had always dreamed of attending the all-male University of Georgia, but when she applied in 1869 she was denied admission because of her gender. Instead, she enrolled at Cooper Union New York City, where she studied secretarial skills. But it was the rejection from the University of Georgia that inspired her life-long campaign for women’s rights and higher education, as an educator and scholar, and also as a journalist and author.

While still a student, Julia spend her summers working as a school teacher. Eventually she was able to take courses at both Harvard University and the University of Chicago. In 1905, she opened a school at the University of Wisconsin, where by 1908 she had earned both a Bachelor’s and a Masters degree in History. After earning her degrees, Julia accepted a position at Tubman High School in August, where she taught for 17 years. Until the 1950s, Tubman was the area’s only public high school for girls. Later Julia served as the first female instructor at the Junior College of Augusta.

Throughout her years in the classroom, Julia was a hardworking teacher dedicated to the success of her students. During this period, she advocated for collective bargaining rights for teachers, which had been unheard of before her time. She also actively lobbied for women’s suffrage and state grants to pay for women’s higher education. Her rallying cry was “Give the girls a chance!”

To advance her campaign for women’s education, Julia published an anonymous letter to the editor in 1882 in the Augusta Chronicle which called for opportunities for women to pursue financial and social independence. She also spread her message through fiction, and her first novel, Ashes of Hopes, which depicted the story of three young women searching for independence, was published in 1886. The effort earned wide acclaim.

Julia Flisch passed away on March 17, 1941. After her passing, this Chalkboard Champion was described as having accomplished “more than than any other person to advance the cause of women’s education in the state of Georgia.” In 1994, she was inducted into the Georgia Women of Achievement.

To read more about Julia Flisch, see this article about her published in the New Georgia Encyclopedia.

NY English teacher Alice Duer Miller was also a suffragist and prolific author

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New York English teacher Alice Duer Miller was also an accomplished mathematician and prolific writer. Photo Credit: Kappa Kappa Gamma

Often teachers can be counted upon to  throw themselves into causes that benefit humanity as a whole. This is true of Alice Duer Miller, an English teacher who became a tireless suffragist.

Alice Duer was born on Staten Island, New York, on July 28, 1874. As a young girl, she enjoyed a privileged upbringing, but the fortunes of her family took a down-turn at about the time she entered college. Even though she was on a limited budget, she was able to study at Barnard College, the women’s institution of higher learning associated with Columbia University. Barnard, founded in 1889, is known as one of the Seven Sister Colleges. Alice earned her degree in 1899, and later she completed graduate courses in mathematics at Columbia. She also studied astronomy and navigation, even becoming the navigator on a friend’s yacht during one summer vacation.

In 1899, Alice married Henry Wise Miller, and the couple emigrated to Costa Rica, where they attempted to establish a rubber farm. Alas, the venture was unsuccessful, and so they returned to the United States. Alice accepted a position as an English Composition teacher at a girls school, while Henry worked at the Stock Exchange. She taught there for several years, tutoring prospective college students in mathematics on the side.

Alice’s hard work was not confined to the classroom. Alice became an ardent suffragist. She penned columns in support of the cause. She also served on the Barnard Board of Trustees from 1922 to 1942. She even co-authored a history of the school entitled Barnard College: The First Fifty Years, which was published in 1939.

Throughout her career as an educator, Alice became a prolific writer and editor. She wrote short stories, poetry, screenplays, and novels.  She published a novel called Come Out of the Kitchen in 1916, and her fiction was frequently adapted to stage and film. She also continued to publish columns, including Are Women People? and Women are People! Her verse novel, The White Cliffs, was adapted into a film. She even dabbled in acting when she appeared in a film production of Soak the Rich. Some of her pieces were published in The Saturday Evening Post, The Ladies Home Journal, and Harper’s Bazaar, and she was listed as an Advisory Editor in the very first issue of The New Yorker Magazine.

As a suffragist, Alice contributed to the cause by writing a column published in the New York Tribune where she released pro-suffrage satirical poems. Later the poems were complied into a book entitled Are Women People? A Book of Rhymes for Suffrage Times (1915). She also became an active member of the Congressional Union for Women Suffrage (CUWS).

During her lifetime, Alice earned many honors. She was made a Curtiss Scholar in Pure Science in her senior year of college, and was inducted into Kappa Kappa Gamma while a student at Barnard, and she became a member of Phi Beta Kappa in 1926. Columbia University gave her a University Medal in 1933, and conferred an honorary doctorate in 1942.

Sadly, Alice Duer Miller passed away on August 22, 1942, following a lengthy illness. She is buried at Evergreen Cemetery in Morristown, New Jersey.

NYC’s Mary Eato: Teacher and Women’s Suffragist

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Teachers are typically among those citizens who work the hardest for the benefit of society as a whole. This is certainly true of 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. She was the daughter of Sarah Jane Eato, a dressmaker, and Timothy Eato, a Methodist preacher. By all accounts, Mary’s 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 women’s 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 as the 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.

Teacher Harriet Hobart championed Women’s Suffrage

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Former schoolteacher Harriet Hobart with her husband, Chauncey Hobart, and several of his colleagues and others in Minnehaha Falls, Minnesota. Photo credit: MNopedia.

Many fine classroom teachers have worked tirelessly on social causes. One of these was Harriet Hobart, a teacher who championed the causes of women’s suffrage and temperance.

Harriet was born on Jan. 1, 1825, in Northern Ireland. She was just 18 years old when she immigrated to the United States in 1843. As a young woman, Harriet launched a highly successful career as a professional educator in New York City. In a career that spanned 25 years, Harriet spent 10 years as a classroom teacher and another 15 years as a teaching principal.

In April, 1868, Harriet relocated to Red Wing, Minnesota, where she married a recently widowed Methodist Episcopal minister, Chauncey Hobart. Chauncey had already built an impressive career serving Methodist parishioners in Illinois and Wisconsin frontier towns before landing in Minnesota.

In addition to her work as an educator, Harriet dedicated her considerable energies to social causes. Viewed by her colleagues as an effective leader and speaker, the former teacher became president of the Minnesota Woman’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU), a post she held for 17 years. During this time, Harriet urged the WCTU to work on women’s rights, specifically women’s suffrage, a cause for which she worked tirelessly for the rest of her life.

Sadly, Harriet passed away on Feb., 17, 1898. She was 74 years old. Alas, she did not live to see her work completed, but Prohibition and Women’s Suffrage made great gains during the 20 years following her passing. The Eighteenth Amendment to the Constitution, adopted in 1919, banned the making and sale of alcohol, although the amendment was repealed in 1933. The Nineteenth Amendment, which secured the right to vote for women, was ratified in 1920.

To read more about Harriet Hobart, see this article about her published by Alchetron.

Susan B. Anthony: Teacher, suffragist, abolitionist, and union worker

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Suffragist, abolitionist, and union worker Susan B. Anthony also worked tirelessly for many years as a teacher in the classroom. Photo Credit: US National Park Service

Many people are familiar with Susan B. Anthony, a tireless champion for women’s suffrage who lived during the nineteenth century. Her political accomplishments as a suffragist are legendary. But did you know that this American civil rights champion was also a schoolteacher?

Beginning in 1939, Susan taught school, first at Eunice Kenyon’s Friends’ Seminary in New Rochelle, New York, and later at Canajoharie Academy in Canajoharie, New York. In fact, it was while she was teaching in Canahoharie that Susan became involved in the union’s movement to demand equal pay for equal work, when she discovered that male teachers were paid a monthly salary of $10.00, while the female teachers earned only $2.50 a month. That was in 1848.

This amazing educator was involved in other civil rights movements as well. She and other members of her family actively campaigned for the abolition of slavery. On her family’s farm in Rochester, New York, Susan met regularly with Antislavery Quakers, who were sometimes joined by abolitionists Frederick Douglass and William Lloyd Garrison. Two of Susan’s brothers, Daniel and Merritt, were later anti-slavery activists in the Kansas territory.

Susan left the teaching profession in 1849 to devote her energy full-time to the women’s suffrage movement. Although she did not live to see the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment which guaranteed the right to vote to women, this historical achievement would not have been possible without Susan B. Anthony’s many years of devotion to the cause. You just know that someone who worked that hard for women’s rights worked equally diligently in the classroom.

As a tribute to Susan B. Anthony, the Nineteenth Amendment, ratified in 1920, was named the Susan B. Anthony Amendment. The former teacher is also the first non-fictional woman to be depicted on US currency. From 1979 to 1981 and again in 1999, her portrait was on the United States dollar coin.

Susan B. Anthony: A true Chalkboard Champion.