We Were There Too: African American Women who Advocated for Universal Suffrage

We Were There Too:
African American Women who Advocated for Universal Suffrage

A lecture by Rosalyn Elder

Tuesday February 25, 2020 at 7:30pm

The face of the Suffragette Movement in the United States is, all to often, that of a middle-class white woman in a white dress but that’s only part of the story. I will share with you the stories of some of the African American women who participated in the movement for universal suffrage. That participation came with a heavy dose of societal protests to, “stay in their lane,” some of which came from their white, female counterparts.

Rosalyn D. Elder is a registered architect, entrepreneur, and author. She received her B.A. in Art History from the University of Memphis, her M. Arch. from the University of Washington, and her M. Arch. in Urban Design degree from Harvard University. Ms. Elder founded and operated Treasured Legacy, an African American cultural boutique at Copley Place from 1992 to 1998. From 1998 until 2012, she co- founded and operated Jamaicaway Books, a multi-cultural bookstore. Ms. Elder recently authored Exploring the Legacy, a book on the contributions of African Americans to both our state’s history and our country’s history.