Meet Harriet “Hattie” Redmond (1862-1952)
By Cathy Meyer
Courtesy Oreg. Hist. Soc. Research Library, bb09628
As I attempted to educate myself about Oregon history, I found inspiring stories of women in our “backyard” fighting for the right to vote. Even though Black women were excluded from white suffrage groups, the impact of their support to the movement was significant. In 1896, African American women organized local women’s clubs and eventually on the National scale with Mary Church Terrell as the first president of the National Association of Colored Women. In 1916, the NACW passed a resolution to support the woman suffrage amendment.
There were many influential African American women that fought for the right to vote in Oregon and the nation. Harriet “Hattie” Redmond was one of them.