Florence LeSueur

Florence LeSueur
Born Florence Ruth Barrett
(1898-03-17)March 17, 1898
McKean Township, Erie County, Pennsylvania
Died June 27, 1991(1991-06-27) (aged 93)
Brockton, Massachusetts
Nationality American
Known for civic activist and leader

Florence Ruth LeSueur[1] (March 17, 1898 – June 27, 1991)[2] was an African-American civic leader, activist and the first woman president of an NAACP chapter. She was a champion of black rights in employment and education.

Biography

She was born as Florence Ruth Barrett on March 17, 1898 to Frank C. and Maude (née Lawson) Barrett in Pennsylvania.[1] She attended Wilberforce University and later moved to Boston in 1935.[2] LeSueur had been a long-time resident of the South End, a neighborhood in Boston, Massachusetts.[2]

From 1948 until 1951 she served as the president of the Boston branch of the NAACP, and was the first woman president nationwide. [3][4] During her time with the NAACP, six black men were hired as Boston Elevated Railway drivers (the predecessor of the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority), due to her unrelenting determination.[2] In order to persuade transit system officials that blacks deserved better job roles, LeSuerer organized demonstrations near the Dudley Square (MBTA station) and she led delegations for the cause, this eventually resulted in getting them hired at a higher job level as drivers.[2] For more than 20 years she was a director of the NAACP branch.[2] Additionally, in 1959 she served as president of the Harriet Tubman House (now part of United South End Settlements).[2]

She died on June 27, 1991 at age 93 in a nursing home in Brockton, Massachusetts.[2]

References

  1. 1 2 Burckel, C.E. (1950). Who's who in Colored America. University of Michigan. p. 610.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 "Florence Lesueur, ex-president, director of NAACP branch; at 93". The Boston Globe. Highbeam Research. June 29, 1991. Retrieved 2018-02-18. (Subscription required (help)).
  3. ↑ Hayden, Robert C. (1991). African-Americans in Boston : more than 350 years. Boston Public Library. Boston : Trustees of the Public Library of the City of Boston.
  4. ↑ The Crisis. New York, New York: The Crisis Publishing Company, Inc. April 1951. p. 273. ISSN 0011-1422.
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