Carrie williams clifford biography of williams
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Carrie Williams Clifford
Biographical Database of Black Woman Suffragists
Biography of Carrie Williams Clifford, 1862-1934
Public domain
By Mary-Elizabeth Murphy
Assistant Professor of History
Eastern Michigan University
Carrie Williams was born in 1862 in Chillicothe, Ohio and graduated from high school with honors where she developed passions for literature and theater. She yearned to be a teacher, but the Ohio public schools banned African American women from employment. In 1883, Carrie Williams moved to Parkersburg, West Virginia to teach school. In 1886, she married William H. Clifford and the couple settled in Cleveland, Ohio. William Clifford served two terms in the Ohio House of Representatives. Carrie and William Clifford had two children: Maurice and Joshua. Clifford balanced motherhood with social engagem
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"Race Rhymes" by Carrie Williams Clifford (1911)
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CLIFFORD, CARRIE WILLIAMS
CLIFFORD, CARRIE WILLIAMS, (Sept. 1862- 10 Nov. 1934) was a noted orator, poet, suffragist, and an activist for women and AFRICAN AMERICANS. She helped funnen the Ohio State förbund of Colored Women in 1900 and served as its first president while she lived in Cleveland.
Clifford was born in Chillicothe, Ohio. Her maternal grandparents, Charles and Martha Allen, had been slaves in Alabama who bought their freedom after the War of 1812, and managed to buy a house near Chillicothe. Clifford’s mother, Mary E. Allen married Joshua T. Williams, and the family moved to Columbus shortly after Carrie was born. Clifford was educated in Columbus, graduating from the integrated public high school. She then went to teach school in Parkersburg, West Virginia, before returning home to work in her mother’s hairdressing business.
In 1886, she married Ohio state legislator WILLIAM H. CLIFFORD and moved to Cleveland. The couple ha