Sarah Massey Overton

Sarah Massey Overton
Born
Sarah Massey

c. 1850
Lennox, Massachusetts, U.S.
Died24 August 1914
San Jose, California, U.S.
NationalityAmerican
Alma materPhoenixonian Institute
Occupation(s)Suffragist, women's rights activist, African-American rights activist
Known forUplifting black women through activism
SpouseJacob Overton (married 1869–?)
Children2

Sarah Massey Overton (c. 1850 – August 24, 1914) was an American suffragist, women's rights activist, and African-American rights activist.[1][2] In the 1880s, she became a leader in the fight to allow African-American children in California to attend public school. In 1906, she cofounded San Jose's Garden City Women's Club, and lobbied in favor of interracial women's club coalitions for women's suffrage.

Biography

She was born in about 1850 in Lennox, Massachusetts. Her family moved to Gilroy, California, in the 1880s and eventually they settled in San Jose, California.[3][2] She attended the Phoenixonian Institute in San Jose, California, led by Rev. Peter William Cassey.[3][2]

In 1869, she married Jacob Overton, native of Kentucky.[3] She ran a catering business with her husband.[2]

In the 1880s, she became a leader in the fight to allow African-American children in California to attend public school.[2] In 1906, she cofounded San Jose's Garden City Women's Club, and as a member of it she lobbied in favor of interracial women's club coalitions for women's suffrage.[2][4]

She lobbied for women's suffrage in the 1911 statewide election in California, and was vice-president of San Jose's interracial Suffrage Amendment League.[2] She also did voter registration of men in California who supported women's suffrage, doing this through the Political Equality Club of San Jose.[4] She was president of the all-black Victoria Earle Matthews (Mothers) Club, which helped girls and women who had been sexually abused or threatened with such.[2]

Overton had two children, a daughter named Harriet and a son named Charles.[5] Overton died on August 24, 1914, in San Jose, California.[2]

References

  1. ^ "The African-American Suffragists History Forgot". MAKERS. October 22, 2015. Retrieved October 24, 2015.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Herbert G. Ruffin II (June 5, 2011). "Overton, Sarah Massey (1850–1914)". The Black Past. Retrieved October 24, 2015.
  3. ^ a b c Namdar, L. (2016). "Biographical sketch of Sarah Massey Overton". Alexander Street. Alexandria, VA.
  4. ^ a b Herbert G. Ruffin (March 28, 2014). Uninvited Neighbors: African Americans in Silicon Valley, 1769–1990. University of Oklahoma Press. pp. 45–. ISBN 978-0-8061-4583-9.
  5. ^ Delilah Leontium Beasley (1919). The Negro Trail Blazers of California: A Compilation of Records from the California Archives in the Bancroft Library at the University of California, in Berkeley; and from the Diaries, Old Papers, and Conversations of Old Pioneers in the State of California ... Times Mirror printing and binding house. pp. 232–.