Basic Information

Nellie Griswold Francis was an African American suffragist born November 7, 1874 in Nashville Tennessee. She was the daughter of Maggie Seay and Thomas Garris Griswold. Francis already had a history of slavery and activism in her family when she was born. Francis’ grandmother, Nellie Seay, was a slave to a congressman named Colonel Robert Allen and her aunt, from her mother’s side, was a prominent suffragist and civil rights activist Juno Frankie Pierce (Nellie F. Griswold Francis, 2019).

Background Information

Francis met her husband, William T. Francis, when they both worked for a railway company, and they married in 1893 (Kim, 2017). Francis went to Knowles Street school which was the first school that had African American teachers. Later, she graduated as the only African American from Saint Paul high school in Minnesota in 1891. At her commencement she spoke about “The Race Problem” (Mather, 1976, p.107). She also won oratory here (“Nellie F. Griswold Francis”, 1891, p.3). Later, she continued her education as a stenographer and got a job at the Great Northern Railway in 1891, she then move and started working at the Western Publishing Company (Kim, 2017). Francis was into the arts and was passionate about women’s rights so she decided to combine them and participate in a mock trial. In 1892, for example, The Appeal reported that “Next Friday evening at Pilgrim Baptist church all ve given a New England dinner, and in connection with this several young ladies will conduct a mock trial, Misses Fannie Dodd and Nellie Griswold will act as lawyers. Every one must come and see this, one of the most novel affairs of the season. This is pushing women’s rights” (“St. Paul”, 1892, p.3).This trial was one of the first steps Francis took as a suffragist. In this trial she was able to show a theoretical situation of women getting rights from this case and what it would be like for women to be lawyers and participate and things like these. It showed that guest were encouraged to come with a bribe of dinner to promise a turnout.

Contributions to the First Wave

In 1914, Francis decided to put all effort into her community especially women’s suffrage, racial discrimination and violence. Following this, Francis became involved in civil rights networks. Francis was president of the Baptist Missionary Circle and secretary of the Tri-State Women’s Baptist Convention. She was also the president of the Minnesota State Federation of Colored Women’s Clubs, and the board of the local NAACP chapter. She held classes in her home when African-Americans were unable to enter business schools to help them become educated”(Nellie F. Griswold Francis, 2019, p. 6).  She was interested in more than women’s suffrage but also for the rights of people of color.

The two key things Francis was known for was founding an African-American suffragist group and anti-lynching activism. She did this when it was a difficult time to do so because of how popular lynching was at this time and how important African American suffrage was as well. During this many African Americans were migrating to the North and she wanted to make sure of their safety by leading a resolution of anti-lynching which made it all the way to the president of the United States! In the text it said she was involved in public service, an active member in multiple suffrage groups  and black women’s organizations in the early 1890s and the 1920s.She also led a group of black women to found the Everywoman Suffrage Club (later the Everywoman Progressive Council) and became its first president. Following the ratification of the 19th Amendment, she became the Director of the Republican Colored Women for Minnesota campaign. (Kim, 2017). She was an active member of women suffrage and actually found a suffrage group.

After Francis helped win women’s rights in Minnesota, she turned her attention to the problem of race in Minnesota. When a group of three young African-Americans were accused of gang-raping a white women without any direct evidence, a large group of white people lynched the young black men. Francis decided to help pass an anti-lynching bill with the help of her husband, who was an influential lawyer as well a Republican party member. This led Minnesota to join the fourteen other states as an anti lynching legislation (Kim, 2017).

Your children will reap the harvest of our solidarity,—of our determination to stand together, to fight together, and, if needs be, to die together; for they are dying, every day, the men and women of our race, martyrs to lynch-law, the fiery stake and the awful savagery of peonage; that these, your children, may know full liberty and an equal chance in life.”- Nellie Griswold Francis (“St. Paul Honors Mrs. W. T. Francis, 1921, p. 3)

Analysis and Conclusion

Francis was a key factor when it came to women’s suffrage. She made many advances as an African-American woman of her time. She was a part of the local NAACP chapter and she held classes for African Americans at her house to educate them. This was a bold step because many whites and other were extremely against this. They were afraid that once African-Americans became educated they could win their equality. She found an Every Woman Suffrage Club and became Director of the Republican Colored Women for Minnesota. This was also a big accomplishment because around this time many men, mostly white, would protest and attack these clubs to reduce the opportunities they had to discuss equal rights for men and women and people of color. Francis was a key member of African-American and white churches making it easier for her to target both parties and help with women getting equal rights. Doing so as a women showed how committed, brave, and passionate Nellie Griswold Francis was when it came to women’s suffrage in the early 1900s.

References

Image of Nellie Griswold Francis ca. 1921, Retrieved June 10, 2019, from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Nellie_Griswold_Francis_(cropped).jpg

Kim, C. (2017). Biographical Sketch of Nellie Griswold Francis. Alexander Street VA. Alexander Street.  Retrieved from https://search-alexanderstreet-com.offcampus.lib.washington.edu/view/work/bibliographic_entity%7Cbibliographic_details%7C3593262?dorpID=3593262#page/1/mode/1/chapter/bibliographic_entity|bibliographic_details|3593262

Mather, F. L. (1915). Who’s who of the colored race: A general biographical dictionary of men and women of African descent (p. 107). Detroit, Michigan: Gale Research. doi:https://books.google.com/books?id=tWTXAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA107#v=onepage&q&f=false

Nellie Griswold Francis. (1991, June 13). The Appeal: A National Afro-American Newspaper, p. 3. Retrieved June 10, 2019, from https://www.newspapers.com/image/49718088/

St. Paul. (1992, January 23). Appeal: A National Afro-American Newspaper, p. 3. Retrieved June 10, 2019, from https://www.newspapers.com/image/78622612

St. Paul Honors Mrs. W. T. Francis. (1921, May 07). The Appeal: A National Afro-American Newspaper, p.3. Retrieved June 10, 2019, from https://www.newspapers.com/image/49700184/