"OUR RICH BLACK HERITAGE" : MARY H DICKERSON

In the past, Black women have made great contributions to our Black Communities and The Civil Rights Movement. Between 1870 - 1914, Black women established many civic clubs, groups, and organizations in America. One of the women who helped found several of them in Newport, Rhode Island was Mary H Dickerson. She was known one of the most influential African-American women and civil rights leaders in America. Mary was born on October 22, 1830 in Haddam Connecticut. As she grew older, Mary learned how to sew and make dresses. At some point she moved to New Haven Connecticut where she got married to Silas Dickerson. Around 1865, at the end of the American Civil War, Mary and Silas Dickerson moved to Newport, Rhode Island( Rhode Island had used its industrial capacity to supply the Union Army with the materials needed to win the war ). In the early 1870s she opened a dressmaking shop [ she was the first Black woman to open a store on Bellevue Avenue ]. Many of her customers were prominent citizens in the city of Newport. Through her business, Mary was able to come into contact with several Black women looking to get involved in different Black civic organizations. Several of the groups that She founded were The Women’s Newport League, in 1895, the Northeastern Federation of Women’s Club{ she started it with Josephine St Pierre Ruffin },in 1896, and The Rhode Island Union of Colored Women’s Club, in 1903. In 1900, she submitted photos of Colored Clubs, organizations, and Black people from Newport to be included in the “NEGRO EXHIBIT” for the Worlds Fair Paris Exposition. On July 1, 1914, Mary H Dickerson died in Newport, Rhode Island(she was buried in New Haven, Connecticut). Today her work serves as inspiration to civil rights organizations such as the NAACP , The Congressional Black Caucus, and The Urban League. In Closing, I would like to add that around 1916, it was a group of local Black women from the “Monroe Civic League,” in Monroe that spearheaded the campaign to establish a library for the Black citizens here in Monroe, Louisiana[ they named the new library,”The Carver Branch Library”].