Basic Information
Carrie Williams Clifford was born on September of 1862 in Chillicothe, Ohio. A truly extraordinary woman who dedicated her time and effort to the black community. Clifford was mostly known for being a poet, writer, clubwomen, and a women’s and civil rights activist. Clifford’s strong drive to make a change during the nineteenth and early twentieth century was heavily portrayed through her physical actions as well as her writings.
Background Information
Clifford was a very educated women, who graduated from high school with an honors status. When her high school years came to an end, she began to gain a passion for creative writing and theater. Clifford was born and raised in Ohio, thus as she began to devote her time and efforts in writing and theater, she also began to have a desire to teach. Unfortunately, Clifford could not live out that dream due to limitations that were placed upon African American women during the nineteenth and early twentieth century(Murphy, 2016). In 1833 she had the opportunity to move to Parkersburg, West Virginia to become a teacher and later after, in 1886 Clifford married William H. Clifford. When Clifford married, she moved to Cleveland, Ohio and soon after had two children. William H Clifford was known to be a lawyer and a republican legislator. In 1908 Clifford, her husband, and children moved to Washington DC. Although, during her time in Cleveland, Ohio, Clifford began to be very active in many clubs while also being a full-time mother (Murphy, 2016). The clubs she became active in were literacy clubs, and one that Clifford had founded in 1901, The Ohio Federation of Colored Women’s Club (OFCWS). Clifford had a strong passion for uplifting the voices of black women. She believed that they were strong leaders that deserved to be heard. Not only did the work of Carrie Clifford advocate for African American Women, she also advocated for black children and the black community as a whole. A powerful source that Clifford used to communicate with her community was through her poetry. “Clifford wrote in a political voice as she addressed Jim Crow streetcars, the controversial film, Birth of a Nation, and the Atlanta Rave Riot in 1906” (Murphy, 2016, p.1). Clifford used her platform to speak the many truths of what African Americans had endured, while also taking acting to provide a better future for the black community.
Contributions to the First Wave
Carrie Clifford contributed to the first wave of feminism and the suffrage movement through her poetry as well as her active duties in clubs and organizations. Through her writing and her physical actions, there was no doubt that Clifford cared for her black community. The Minerva was a club that Clifford founded in 1890 and ended in 1920. The Minerva Club was also known as a reading club. The mission for the Minerva club was to seek a better world for black women. This Club allowed women to express themselves in performing poems and music. Not only did these women get to perform their pieces, it also provided skills for black women. It helped expand these women’s leadership skills, while also educating them on the racial issues that were occurring during the nineteenth and the early twentieth century. As mentioned above, Clifford always had a passion for uplifting and educating black women (Smith,1992). Not only did she do that through the Minerva Club but also through the Ohio Federation of Colored Women’s Club (OFCWC). Clifford was accountable for the founding of OFCWC in 1901. The determined mission for the OFCWC was the fight for a better life for children while also battling racism that heavily affected African American men, women, and children. While Clifford was the president of the OFCWC, she had specific tasks to accomplish, which were, the black families, black community, women’s rights, and racial issues. In order to address the issues with family, community, women’s rights, and racial issues, Clifford approached these efforts in multiple ways such as, pronounced readings, lectures, or by writing. Clifford also contributed her efforts to the National American Woman’s Suffrage Association (NAWSA). Specifically, Clifford took part in the suffrage demonstrations. “In 1911 Clifford, along with Mary Church Terrell, represented the NAACP when presenting antilynching resolutions to the president of the United States, William Howard Taft” (Smith,1992, p.107). Although Clifford had various ways of participating in the NAACP, she also had a passion for children. Through the NAACP, Clifford worked in the juvenile department. She allowed children to have access to the necessities that would benefit them in their future. She supplied the children with educational opportunities so that they could be conscious of their own culture and heritage.
The poetry that Clifford wrote was very political, but she also used her poetry as a tool to connect with the African American community. She not only writes about African American women in her poetry, but also the blood that is on the white man’s hands, for the unimaginable crimes performed on black lives. Throughout her poems, the reader can strongly see that Carrie Clifford took her role as a leader very seriously. In Clifford’s book titled Race Rhymes, she shares poems in the book called “Duty’s call” and “Marching Conquest” (Singh, 2018). In these two poems, Clifford calls upon black women to provide their own service and duty to the black community. In the beginning of Clifford’s book, Race Rhymes, she states that, “the collection is the uplift of humanity, Clifford “calls out” white men for their injustices to blacks in such poems as “Atlanta’s Shame,” “Character or Color—Which?,” and “My Baby”, making plain the relationship she sees between decrying injustice and achieving progress, in contrast to notable black male leaders at the turn of the century” (Clifford, C., Figgs, Carrie Law Morgan, & Splawn, P. Jane. (1997), p. 25). Clifford does a great job of unpacking all of the issues that black woman, men and children had to endure during the nineteenth and early twentieth century. Clifford created a strong and stable structure for black women’s voices to be heard and recognized.
In Race Rhymes, Clifford also provides two poems about the Jim Crow laws that were common throughout the American South. She titled these poems, “Jim Crow Car” and “Shall We Fight the Jim Crow Car”. In the poem “Jim Crow Car”, Clifford writes, “[n]ot worth but color designates the place where one/ must ride” (Clifford, Figgs, Morgan, & Splawn, 1997, p.25). Pointing out that no matter the status of an African American, if they were highly educated or even a criminal, as a black person they would still endure the humiliation of riding in the Jim Crow cage. In her poem “Shall We Fight the Jim Crow Car”, Clifford writes, “Mounts the hot blood to the forehead, / Angry passions leap to life / At remembered wrongs committed / ‘Gainst a mother, sister, wife” (Clifford, Figgs, Morgan & Splawn, 1997, p.25). In these few lines, one can see Clifford’s determination to dismantle the wrong doings that had occurred to the black community, such as lynching. Not only did Clifford express the horrors that the African American community went through, she also took black spirituality and placed them in her poems stating that, “There’ll be no caste distinctions” (Clifford, Figgs, Morgan, & Splawn, 1997, p.25) when referring to heaven. When both black and white bodies reach that place, there will not be a system that will separate others based on the color of their skin. Thus, she makes the point that while this system is taking place on earth, when spiritually it would be considered a sin.
Clifford did a great job in providing a path of hope and upliftment for the black community. Through her poetry as well as her contributions to the many organizations she participated in. Throughout all her work you can see how much the black community mattered to her, she was willing to go above and beyond, in the best way she knew how. She brought awareness to the struggles that blacks endured, helping to amplify the voices of African American women, presenting solutions to better the whole community, and much more. Her willingness and strength to fight against the injustices that African Americans endured is truly admirable.
“Tis a mighty struggle, but we’ve
pledged to dare and do;
Pledged to conquer evil, and we’ll see
the conflict thro”-Carrie Williams Clifford (Smith, 1992, p.106)
Analysis and Conclusion
Carrie Clifford’s contributions helped both men and women, although, it seems that she had a strong passion to help women and children. Clifford saw the lack of advocacy for black women from the black community; thus, she took matters into her own hands. She provided many clubs and organizations to up-lift black women and to let them know that their voices deserved to be heard and respected. The help and opportunities that Clifford provided to women and children seemed to have stemmed from her own education. Clifford’s education on the injustices that occurred to the black community, allowed her to navigate her own way of how she could educate as well as advocate for the black community. Clifford did a phenomenal job in her contributions to the many clubs mentioned above. Not only was she putting in much work for the African American community, she was also balancing motherhood. For Clifford, being a mother also could have been a strong drive for her personally, in providing a better future for her own children.
Clifford’s poetry is where I believe she was able to communicate most with her black community. She was gifted to be able to shed light on the injustices that African Americans went through during the nineteenth and early twentieth century. By telling the horrific stories that happened to blacks, she was also educating them. Although many black people were living through these times and experiencing these horrors firsthand, many black individuals probably had no hope for the future. Thus, for Clifford to speak on these injustices that were occurring brought awareness to this issue on a wider scale. Clifford did speak on the unimaginable crimes that happened to African Americans in her poetry, but she also portrayed that feeling of upliftment and hope in her work. In the quote above, is a little piece from her poem titled, “Marching to Conquest”. In this poem she is saying that the march to conquest will not be easy, but it will be accomplished. Clifford writes, “All the noble things of life we’ll teach our girls and boys, warn them of its pitfalls, and reveal its purest joys” (Smith, 1992, p.106). She does not just simply provide the youth with hope, but also warns them that there will be some struggle on the journey to conquest. Even with much struggle, they can still attain joy. I believe that the representation of Carrie Clifford was a great example for the black youth, as well as the women and men who looked up to her.
References
Carrie W. Clifford.jpg. (2020, September 22). Wikimedia Commons, the free media repository. Retrieved 22:57, December 13, 2020 from https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Carrie_W._Clifford.jpg&oldid=467861972.
Clifford, C., Figgs, Carrie Law Morgan, & Splawn, P. Jane. (1997). Writings of Carrie Williams Clifford and Carrie Law Morgan Figgs (African-American women writers, 1910-1940). New York: London: G.K. Hall; Prentice Hall International.
Murphy, M. E. (2016). Biographical Sketch of Carrie Williams Clifford. Retrieved November 02, 2020, from https://search.alexanderstreet.com/view/work/bibliographic_entity|bibliographic_details|3292120
Singh. (2018, November 7). Women of the Early Harlem Renaissance: Carrie Williams Clifford. Women of the Early Harlem Renaissance: African American Women Writers 1900-1922. https://scalar.lehigh.edu/harlemwomen/carrie-williams-clifford
Smith, J. (1992). Notable Black American Women, Book 2. Retrieved November 02, 2020, from https://books.google.com/books?id=ssMBzqrUpjwC