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Sylvanie Williams, an advocate for the rights of Black women [1]

['Tammy C. Barney', 'More Tammy C. Barney', 'Verite News']

Date: 2024-03-15  

Black women were left out of the suffrage movement to win women the right to vote until Sylvanie F. Williams jumped into the fray. She founded the Phillis Wheatley Club and started advocating for Black women to have the right as well.

In 1903, Williams tried to attend the annual meeting of the National American Women’s Suffrage Association (NAWSA) in New Orleans, but was barred because she was Black, according to Wikipedia. Instead, white suffrage leader Susan B. Anthony visited the Phillis Wheatley Club, where Williams spoke to her about including Black women in the movement.

According to the Biographical Database of Black Woman Suffragists, Williams also led the club to open the Phyllis Wheatley Sanitarium and Training School for Negro Nurses in 1896. The school was a precursor to Flint-Goodridge Hospital, which served Black people in New Orleans for close to a century.

The Times-Picayune, which described Williams as “a most intelligent and able teacher and worker,” reported that she “was confident that the school would have hearty support, and immediately be put on a self-sustaining basis, as there is always a demand for the services of a good colored nurse.”

Williams was born in New Iberia, La. By age 22, she was living in New Orleans married to a school teacher and had a 10-month old son. According to the Historic New Orleans Collection, she graduated from the Peabody Normal School, which prepared Black people to teach in public schools. Williams later served as the principal and only teacher.

In 1896, Williams became the first principal of the Thomy Lafon School. The school was destroyed by fire during a race riot in 1900 and rebuilt six years later. In 1915, she led a campaign that funded the first public playground for Black children. She retired from Lafon in 1921, shortly before her death.

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