Tag Archives: Suffragist Teachers

Carrie Chapman Catt: Suffragist and Iowa schoolteacher

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Carrie chapman Catt

Suffragette and Iowa schoolteacher Carrie Chapman Catt.

Many times throughout history, talented teachers earn national recognition for achievements outside of the classroom. Such is certainly the case for Carrie Chapman Catt, a schoolteacher from Iowa who labored tirelessly to earn the vote for women.

She was born Carrie Clinton Lane in Ripon, Wisconsin, to parents Lucius and Maria Louisa Lane. Carrie was raised in Charles City, Iowa, where her family had moved when she was seven.

After high school, Carrie graduated from Iowa State Agricultural College, having worked her way through school as a teacher in the summer months. Her father, a subsistence farmer, contributed only $25 a year to her education, partly because he didn’t have a lot of financial resources, but mostly because he didn’t believe in advanced education for girls. But the young woman was determined to get a college degree. After her graduation, she continued to teach, earning a stellar reputation as an educator. In time, she was promoted to the position of  superintendent of schools.

Carrie could have remained in that comfortable job until retirement, but she was determined to improve the lives of the women of her day. The right to vote for women became her life’s passion. The intrepid teacher became one of the leading forces for the Suffragist movement, which lobbied state by state, and eventually descended upon Washington, DC, to pressure Congress into passing a constitutional amendment that would grant women the right to vote. Once that goal was accomplished, Carrie spent the rest of her life advocating for peace and human rights.

You can read about the life of this remarkable educator in my recently published book, Chalkboard Heroes: Twelve Courageous Teachers and Their Deeds of Valor, now available on amazon.

Virginia’s Clara Byrd Baker: Talented teacher, civic leader, and suffragette

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Clara Byrd Baker

Clara Byrd Baker: Talented teacher, civic leader, and suffragette.

There are many fine examples of talented classroom teachers who have worked tirelessly to improve social conditions in their community. One such teacher 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.

The amazing story of Texas teacher and suffragist Annie Webb Blanton

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Women in Texas

On a vacation to Texas a while back, I picked up this slender volume of biographical sketches, Women in Texas, by Anne Fears Crawford and Crystal Sasse Ragsdale.

When I bought the book, I was primarily intrigued by the chapter about Annie Webb Blanton, which the authors described as the foremost woman educator in Texas.

After her graduation from high school in LaGrange, Texas, Annie taught at a one-room county school in Pine Springs.  After the death of her father, Annie moved to Austin and taught in public elementary schools, and later at Austin High School.

While teaching, Annie attended classes at the University of Texas, Austin, earning a degree in English literature in 1899 and her Master’s degree in 1923. She earned a PhD from Cornell University in 1927.

By the time she finished her undergraduate degree, Annie had been teaching for several years in rural schools and schools in the Austin area. She went on to become a professor of English in Denton at the North Texas State Normal College, an institution that trained teachers, from 1901 to 1918. For the next 22 years, she taught at her alma mater, the University of Texas at Austin. She was only the third woman to hold full professor status at that university.

This amazing teacher, once president of the Texas State Teachers’ Association, was encouraged and financed by the State Suffrage Association in her 1918 bid to become the first woman elected to the state superintendent’s office. Texans gathered in droves across the Lone Star State to hear this remarkable teacher speak, and to witness the novelty of a woman campaigning in Texas’s male-dominated political arena. Apparently, the campaign was a dirty one, with opponents charging that Blanton was divorced (yikes!) and that she was an atheist (yeesh!).

You can read more about what happened in that 1918 election in the book Women in Texas, available on amazon.com.