8/23/2020
Life Of Brooklyn Suffragette Shows Influence Black Women Had On The Historic Movement
Breaking Newstags: African American history, New York, suffrage
Near the southern tip of Brooklyn’s historic Green-Wood Cemetery sits the small grey headstone of suffragette Sarah Jane Smith Garnet, the city’s first Black public school principal who in life — and in death — lingered in the shadow of her more famous sister.
A tall tombstone inscribed with the word “doctor” and crowned with an etched fleur-de-lis, towers over Garnet’s modest early 20th century marker to denote the grave of her younger sibling: Dr. Susan Maria (Smith) McKinney-Steward, the first Black female physician in New York State, and the third in the country.
“This is her — and her sister is right here. She is quite literally in her shadow,” said Green-Wood’s Vice President of Development & Programming Lisa Alpert as afternoon sun beamed down on Steward’s headstone, leaving Garnet’s in the cool shade.
Little is known about Garnet, a long-time educator who was raised in Brooklyn’s Weeksville neighborhood during the mid-19th century and later founded the Equal Justice League, a club for Black women who fought for the right to vote.
But through her sister, historians are beginning to learn more about Garnet — a Suffragette whose role in the movement has been almost entirely overlooked.
“We’ve always known about her sister Susan,” said Green-Wood’s Director of Education Rachel Walman who has recently introduced Garnet into the cemetery’s school programming. “But we’re just in the beginning phases of researching Sarah."
“Their role in achieving a woman’s right to vote is under told… and Sarah is very much a part of that story.”
comments powered by Disqus
News
- The Debt Ceiling Law is now a Tool of Partisan Political Power; Abolish It
- Amitai Etzioni, Theorist of Communitarianism, Dies at 94
- Kagan, Sotomayor Join SCOTUS Cons in Sticking it to Unions
- New Evidence: Rehnquist Pretty Much OK with Plessy v. Ferguson
- Ohio Unions Link Academic Freedom and the Freedom to Strike
- First Round of Obama Administration Oral Histories Focus on Political Fault Lines and Policy Tradeoffs
- The Tulsa Race Massacre was an Attack on Black People; Rebuilding Policies were an Attack on Black Wealth
- British Universities are Researching Ties to Slavery. Conservative Alumni Say "Enough"
- Martha Hodes Reconstructs Her Memory of a 1970 Hijacking
- Jeremi Suri: Texas Higher Ed Conflict "Doesn't Have to Be This Way"
Trending Now
- New transcript of Ayn Rand at West Point in 1974 shows she claimed “savage" Indians had no right to live here just because they were born here
- The Mexican War Suggests Ukraine May End Up Conceding Crimea. World War I Suggests the Price May Be Tragic if it Doesn't
- The Vietnam War Crimes You Never Heard Of