African American History and Women Timeline 1870-1899

African American History and Women Timeline 1870-1899 [Previous] [Next] Women and African American History: 1870-1899 1870 15th Amendment to the US Constitution gave the right to vote without regard to race, color, or previous condition of servitude but the Amendment did not apply to African American women (or any other women) Susan McKinney Stewart, an early African American woman physician, received an M.D. from the New York Medical College and Hospital for Women 1871 (October 6) Fisk University Jubilee Singers began their first-ever national tour, singing gospel music to raise money for the University 1872 (April) Charlotte Ray admitted to the Washington, DC, bar; she graduated that year from Howard University Law School 1873 Sarah Moore Grimke died (abolitionist, womens rights proponent, sister of Angelina Grimke Weld) 1874 1875 (July 10) Mary McLeod Bethune born Civil Rights Act of 1875 outlaws discrimination in public accomodations (invalidated in Plessy v. Ferguson, 1896) 1876 1877 Rutherford B. Hayes ended Reconstruction by withdrawing US Army troops from the South 1878 1879 Mary Eliza Mahoney graduated from the nursing school at the New England Hospital for Women and Children, Boston, becoming the first African American professional nurse Angelina Emily Grimke Weld died (abolitionist, womens rights proponent, sister of Sarah Moore Grimke) 1880 (October 20)  Lydia Maria Child  died (abolitionist, writer) (November 11)  Lucretia Mott  died (Quaker abolitionist and womens rights advocate) 1881 Tennessee passed first Jim Crow laws Sophia B. Packard and Harriet E. Giles founded Spelman College, the first college for African American women 1882   (September 8)  Sarah Mapps Douglass  died 1883 (November 26)  Sojourner Truth  died (abolitionist, womens rights proponent, minister, lecturer)   Mary Ann Shadd Cary  became the second African American woman in the United States to earn a law degree 1884   Mary Church Terrell  (then Mary Church) graduated from Oberlin College (activist, clubwoman) (January 24)  Helen Pitts  married Frederick Douglass, setting off controversy and opposition to their interracial marriage 1885 (June 6)  ALelia Walker, daughter of  Madam C.J. Walker, born (activist, executive, Harlem Renaissance figure) Sarah Goode received the first patent awarded to an African American woman 1886 1887 1888 1889 (January 28) Prudence Crandall died (educator) 1890 Emma Frances Grayson Merritt (1860-1933) established the first U.S. kindergarten for African American students   The House of Bondage, a collection of slave narratives, published, written by former slave Octavia R. Albert   Clarence and Corinne or Gods Way  published by the American Baptist Publication, the first Sunday School book written by an African American Janie Porter Barrett founded the Locust Street Settlement House in Hampton, Virginia 1891 newspaper  Freedom: a Revolutionary Anarchist-Communist Monthly  founded by  Lucy Parsons 1892 Anna Julia Cooper published  Voice of the South, writing of the status of African American women   Hallie Brown  served as lady principal (dean of women), Tuskegee Institute President Benjamin Harrison entertained by Sissieretta Jones (singer) Frances Ellen Watkins Harper published  Iola Leroy: or Shadows Uplifted Patent issued for an ironing board invented by Sarah Boone (January)  Bessie Coleman  born (pilot) - or 1893 (October)  Ida B. Wells  published  Southern Horrors: Lynch Law and in All Its Phases, beginning her public anti-lynching campaign (-1894) many African American womens clubs were founded for race and womens progress New York City (Victoria Earle Matthews)Brooklyn (Susan McKinney)Boston (Josephine St. Pierre Ruffin) 1893 World Columbian Exposition largely excluded African Americans. A few African American women spoke at the fairs Womens Congress on The Intellectual Progress of Colored Women of the US Since Emancipation: Fannie Barrier Williams spoke on the responsibility of white men for sexual exploitation of African American women. Anna Julia Cooper and Fanny Jackson Coppin also spoke.Ida B. Wells, Frederick Douglass, and Ferdinand Barnett wrote The Reason Why the Colored American is Not in the Columbian Exposition. African Methodist Episcopal Church founded the Womens Home and Foreign Missionary Society publication of  The Autobiography of Amanda Berry Smith, AME Evangelist Fanny Kemble died (wrote about slavery)   Lucy Stone  died (editor, abolitionist, womens rights advocate) (April 13)  Nella Larson  born (writer, nurse) (June 5)  Mary Ann Shadd Cary  died (journalist, teacher, abolitionist, activist) (-1903)  Hallie Brown  served as professor of elocution at Wilberforce University 1894 Sarah Parker Remond died (anti-slavery lecturer whose British lectures probably helped keep the British from entering the American Civil War on the side of the Confederacy) National Association of Colored Women began publishing  The Womans Era Gertrude Mossell published  The Work of the Afro-American Woman 1895 National Federation of Afro-American Women founded by about 100 women from ten different states, the first national federation of black womens clubs. Margaret Washington was elected the first president. Founders included Josephine St. Pierre Ruffin,  Mary Church Terrell, Fannie Barrier Williams   Ida B. Wells  published  Red Record, a statistical study of lynching Frederick Douglass died (abolitionist, womens rights activist, lecturer) 1896 National Federation of African American Women and the Colored Womens League merged into the National Association of Colored Women, selecting  Mary Church Terrell  as president (March 18) Supreme Court in  Plessy v. Ferguson  upholds Louisiana law segregating railway cars, invalidating the Civil Rights Act of 1875, and leading to the passage of many more Jim Crow laws (July 1)  Harriet Beecher Stowe  died (writer) (July 21) National Association of Colored Women formed;  Mary Church Terrell, president 1897 Harriet Tubman won pension for her Civil War military service Victoria Earle Matthews founded the White Rose Mission to provide aid to Southern black women moving to New York City Phillis Wheatley Home for Aged Colored Ladies founded by Fannie M. Richards in Detroit the first of many named for the poet  Phillis Wheatley  to provide housing and services for single African American women in large cities Charlamae Rollins born (writer, librarian)   A Slave Girls Story  published, autobiography of Kate Drumgold   Marita Bonner  born (writer, teacher) 1899   Maggie Lena Walker  became head (Right Worthy Grand Secretary) of the Independent Order of St. Luke Society, which she helped transform into an effective philanthropic society in Richmond, Virginia [Previous] [Next] [1492-1699] [1700-1799] [1800-1859] [1860-1869] [1870-1899] [1900-1919] [1910-1919] [1920-1929] [1930-1939] [1940-1949] [1950-1959] [1960-1969] [1970-1979] [1980-1989] [1990-1999] [2000-]