Mabel Lee: Chinese American Pioneer for Suffrage
May 2020, Asian Pacific Heritage Month
LPF Forgotten Heroines Series
Since the 19th century in the U.S., persons of Asian heritage have often been hated or resented as “perpetual foreigners” and unwanted competition. In the 20th century, there were pressures on Asian Americans to “prove” how American they were. Today it’s a stressor to have to “prove” that all of us are not virus carriers just due to our race/ethnicity, before more attacks on Asian Americans occur.
Meanwhile, in a community of Christ, it’s a joy not to have to prove self worth. And so this herstory is shared with you in the spirit of celebration — about the life of a Chinese American Christian suffragist and activist.
In New York City, 1912: Imagine a 16-year-old Chinese immigrant girl on horseback, at the forefront of a parade with 10,000 other suffragettes! That was Mabel Ping-Hua Lee, the first Chinese American woman to fight for women’s voting rights in the U.S.
Her dedication was amazing, as suffrage would not benefit her. The U.S. Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 prohibited all Chinese immigrants from citizenship. When the 19th Amendment was ratified on August 18, 1920, American women won the right to vote. But it wasn’t until 1943 that Chinese persons were permitted to become naturalized citizens, with voting rights.
Yet Lee had her calling as a Baptist woman of faith. For the Chinese and Greater New York communities, she organized classes in carpentry, radio and typewriting, while promoting girls’ education and women’s civic involvement.
She had majored in history and philosophy at Barnard College before getting her master’s degree in educational administration there. Then she earned a Ph.D. from Columbia University, becoming the first Chinese American woman to do so.
On July 25, 2018, a post office was named after her, through an act of Congress proposed by Congresswoman Nydia Velazquez. Now, whenever I go to the “Mabel Lee Memorial Post Office” in Manhattan’s Chinatown, New York City, and see the plaque about her, I will be inspired anew.
More here, with photos!
2. https://nextshark.com/mabel-lee-womens-suffrage-pioneer/
Lily R. Wu
May 20, 2020
New York City