Sarah Smith Garnet began teaching when she was 14 years old, and in 1863 she became the first Black woman to be principal of a New York City school.
She remained the principal for nearly 40 years, innovating pedagogy the whole time. Her year-end literary assemblies drew large crowds. Her obituary in Crisis @thecrisismag notes that: "It was her untiring efforts toward doing away with separate schools for colored children
"...and her zeal in the accomplishment of her purpose that has given her the highest rank among the teachers of New York…"
W.E.B.DuBois spoke at Sarah Smith Garnet's funeral. Her obituary was written by Addie Waites Hunton, another NACW leader and anti-lynching activist.
It gives us a flavor of Sarah as an activist and as an educator: "Among her beautiful gifts recalled was that of drawing her pupils close to her...."Her boys always knew she would give them another chance.'"
After she retired from the public schools, Sarah Garnet spent more than a decade on her other career: votes for women.
She and her sister Dr. Susan McKinney-Steward had created the Equal Suffrage League in Brooklyn in the late 1880s. It was the first NYC Black women's club devoted to suffrage. (See Dr. Susan, yesterday!)
At first they met in the back of the seamstress shop that Sarah ran on the side when she was a principal. They eventually outgrew that space and moved to the (all Black) YMCA in Fort Greene that opened in 1902.
Around that time the Equal Suffrage League became affiliated with the National Association of Colored Women, and Sarah Garnet became superintendent of NACW's suffrage department.
Sarah Garnet was intellectually voracious - always seeking new ideas.
In her early 70s she supported the founding of the Niagara Movement, which demanded unconditional equal rights for African-Americans.
In her late 70s she went to England to meet radical suffragettes, and helped import their ideas to the US.
Hallie Quinn Brown's Homespun Heroines describes Sarah Garnet's last days:
"Mrs. Garnett literally died in harness. While in London she gathered suffrage literature and 24 hours before her promotion to her Heavenly Home, was distributing the same among her club in Brooklyn."
PS9 in Brooklyn was recently named for her, thanks to Brooklyn historian/activist @rauldougou and the @PS9BklynPTO. #BlackSuffragists #CenturyofStruggle #Suffrage100
]]>So many talented African-American women became teachers when outlets for intellectual and managerial skill were few.
Sarah Smith Garnet began teaching when she was 14 years old, and in 1863 she became the first Black woman to be principal of a New York City school.
She remained the principal for nearly 40 years, innovating pedagogy the whole time. Her year-end literary assemblies drew large crowds. Her obituary in Crisis @thecrisismag notes that: "It was her untiring efforts toward doing away with separate schools for colored children
"...and her zeal in the accomplishment of her purpose that has given her the highest rank among the teachers of New York…"
W.E.B.DuBois spoke at Sarah Smith Garnet's funeral. Her obituary was written by Addie Waites Hunton, another NACW leader and anti-lynching activist.
It gives us a flavor of Sarah as an activist and as an educator: "Among her beautiful gifts recalled was that of drawing her pupils close to her...."Her boys always knew she would give them another chance.'"
After she retired from the public schools, Sarah Garnet spent more than a decade on her other career: votes for women.
She and her sister Dr. Susan McKinney-Steward had created the Equal Suffrage League in Brooklyn in the late 1880s. It was the first NYC Black women's club devoted to suffrage. (See Dr. Susan, yesterday!)
At first they met in the back of the seamstress shop that Sarah ran on the side when she was a principal. They eventually outgrew that space and moved to the (all Black) YMCA in Fort Greene that opened in 1902.
Around that time the Equal Suffrage League became affiliated with the National Association of Colored Women, and Sarah Garnet became superintendent of NACW's suffrage department.
Sarah Garnet was intellectually voracious - always seeking new ideas.
In her early 70s she supported the founding of the Niagara Movement, which demanded unconditional equal rights for African-Americans.
In her late 70s she went to England to meet radical suffragettes, and helped import their ideas to the US.
Hallie Quinn Brown's Homespun Heroines describes Sarah Garnet's last days:
"Mrs. Garnett literally died in harness. While in London she gathered suffrage literature and 24 hours before her promotion to her Heavenly Home, was distributing the same among her club in Brooklyn."
PS9 in Brooklyn was recently named for her, thanks to Brooklyn historian/activist @rauldougou and the @PS9BklynPTO. #BlackSuffragists #CenturyofStruggle #Suffrage100
Two years later she invited dozens of other Black women's clubs that had sprung up around the country to gather for a 3-day meeting.
The result was a watershed: in July 1895, the National Conference of Colored Women united 36 clubs in 12 states. Mary Church Terrell simultaneously organized the National League of Colored Women in DC. By 1896 they had merged to create the National Association of Colored Women.
30+ years after emancipation, NACW was an idea whose time had come. It quickly grew to represent 50,000 women in more than 1,000 clubs.
(For the record, IdaBWells thought it should have been "Afro-American" instead of "Colored.")
NACW was unique, Paula Giddings explains, for being independent: not a women's auxiliary of a Black men's group nor a minority chapter of a white women's group.
@MarthaSJones_ describes the clubs as "spaces that encouraged black women's leadership, independent thought and activism."
They were also crucibles for voter engagement. In Chicago, for example, women won the right to vote for school board in 1891. The Great Migration had begun & the Black population of Chicago was skyrocketing. "As black men in the South were being turned away from polling places, black women in the North were gearing up to vote." @marthasjones_
In women's clubs and church groups, black women were "rallying, marching, vetting candidates, electioneering, voting, and even running for local office."
Where Black women could vote in the 1890s, they voted Republican. (The slightly-less-racist party at the time.)
As Prof. Jones said recently @bwln_nyu, "One group of women in America has voted as a block from the beginning - Black women." #BlackSuffragists #Suffrage100
]]>In 1893, inspired by Ida B Wells' call to do something to fight lynching, Josephine St Pierre Ruffin founded the Woman's Era Club in Boston.
Two years later she invited dozens of other Black women's clubs that had sprung up around the country to gather for a 3-day meeting.
The result was a watershed: in July 1895, the National Conference of Colored Women united 36 clubs in 12 states. Mary Church Terrell simultaneously organized the National League of Colored Women in DC. By 1896 they had merged to create the National Association of Colored Women.
30+ years after emancipation, NACW was an idea whose time had come. It quickly grew to represent 50,000 women in more than 1,000 clubs.
(For the record, IdaBWells thought it should have been "Afro-American" instead of "Colored.")
NACW was unique, Paula Giddings explains, for being independent: not a women's auxiliary of a Black men's group nor a minority chapter of a white women's group.
@MarthaSJones_ describes the clubs as "spaces that encouraged black women's leadership, independent thought and activism."
They were also crucibles for voter engagement. In Chicago, for example, women won the right to vote for school board in 1891. The Great Migration had begun & the Black population of Chicago was skyrocketing. "As black men in the South were being turned away from polling places, black women in the North were gearing up to vote." @marthasjones_
In women's clubs and church groups, black women were "rallying, marching, vetting candidates, electioneering, voting, and even running for local office."
Where Black women could vote in the 1890s, they voted Republican. (The slightly-less-racist party at the time.)
As Prof. Jones said recently @bwln_nyu, "One group of women in America has voted as a block from the beginning - Black women." #BlackSuffragists #Suffrage100