An ongoing illustrative history study
This piece originally posted 6/23/2021
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Born 1872 in Staunton, Virginia, Sadie Adams (neé Lewis) was an early voice for both women's suffrage and for civil rights. She earned a teaching certificate from Hartshorn Memorial College in Richmond (a rarity for a Black woman at that time), and taught in the Staunton Public School system. In 1910 she and her husband James Lewis moved to Chicago, where she became active in volunteer activities and women's clubs, including the Alpha Suffrage Club, the first African-American suffrage organization in Chicago (see Lesson #33 in this series re: Ida B. Wells). She also worked at the newly-opened Provident Hospital (see Lesson #27 in this series re: Dr. Daniel Hale Williams). During World War I while her son James served (and was even wounded) with the 365th Infantry, Sadie volunteered with the State Council of Defense, signing up local women for war support work.
Illinois granted women the right to vote in local elections in 1914 (significantly ahead of the ratification of the 19th Amendment), after which Adams was one of the first women to serve on the election board. She attended two conferences of the Illinois Equal Suffrage League on behalf of the Alpha Suffrage Club, eventually herself became vice-president of the Alpha Suffrage Club, in and in 1916 she was the sole representative from Illinois at the National Equal Rights League Conference in Washington, D.C. In Chicago 1920, she attended the first-ever conference of what would become the national League of Women Voters.
From 1921-1934, Adams served as president of the Chicago and Northern District Association of Colored Women's Clubs. In 1922 she served as a delegate to the Pan-American Conference of Women --the only Black woman present. In 1923, Adams represented the Illinois Federation of Colored Women's Clubs at a conference at the request of the Illinois League of Women Voters. Perhaps most significantly, in 1924, she chaired the committee that would ultimately organize into the National Association of Colored Women (NACW), presenting the "keys to the city" to its president, Hallie Quinn Brown (see Lesson #70 in this series).
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