Meeting of the Colored Woman’s Anti-Suffrage Association

Bromley map of Boston and Roxbury, 1895.

Norman B. Leventhal Map Center, Boston Public Library

Quick Facts

Location:

160 Dartmouth Street

Significance:

Site of the Colored Woman’s Anti-Suffrage Association Meeting

OPEN TO PUBLIC:

No

MANAGED BY:

Private Building

In 1913, a group of about 40 African American women from greater Boston formed an anti-suffrage association at 160 Dartmouth Street. At this meeting, participants elected the leaders of the organization, including Mrs. Sarah Cooper as president and Mrs. Mary E. Hardy as vice president.¹

While little is known about the activities of this group, which might have been called the Back Bay Pilgrim Colored Women’s Anti-Suffrage Association, two newspaper articles documented meetings and an appearance of club leaders during a women’s suffrage hearing at the Massachusetts State Legislature.²

Newspaper clipping that discusses the Black women's anti-suffrage organization. (Credit: "Colored Women Organize Association and Will be Represented at State House Tomorrow," Boston Globe, February 26, 1913.)

Footnotes:

1. "Colored Women Organize Association and Will be Represented at State House Tomorrow," Boston Globe, February 26, 1913.
2. "Colored Women Organize Association and Will be Represented at State House Tomorrow," Boston Globe, February 26, 1913; "Opposes Votes for Women," Boston Globe, February 28, 1913.