Site of South End Suffrage Meeting

Bromley map of Boston and Roxbury, 1895.

Norman B. Leventhal Map Center, Boston Public Library

Quick Facts

Location:

161 West Springfield Street

Significance:

Site of a suffrage meeting

OPEN TO PUBLIC:

No

MANAGED BY:

Private Building

On September 7, 1891, Black women gathered for a meeting on women’s suffrage at Chapel Hall in the South End neighborhood of Boston. Local leaders, including Eliza Gardner, gave speeches, and many women expressed their commitment to encourage others to register to vote in the local school committee elections.¹

Newspaper clipping of South End Suffrage Meeting (Credit: "Colored Women After Votes," Boston Herald.)

This meeting demonstrates the interest of Boston’s African American community in the issue of women’s suffrage. Meetings similar to this one likely occurred throughout the Black community. However, sources that provide a glimpse into the forgotten story of Black women’s activism at this time are rare. Only a few brief newspaper clippings in predominantly White newspapers note their occurrence.²

Footnotes:

1. "Colored Women After Votes," Boston Herald, September 8, 1891. It is unclear whether a specific church occupied Chapel Hall or it merely served as a community space. In 1891, the South End Branch of the Equal Rights Association also held meetings in Chapel Hall encouraging community members to advocate for political and social equality. See “Equal Rights Association,” Boston Globe, June 11, 1891 and “Colored People’s Choice,” Boston Globe, August 6, 1891.
2. As additional primary sources, such as Black newspapers, become more accessible, the occurrence of similar meetings may be uncovered.