Nellie Griswold Francis

Nellie Griswold Francis
Photo of Nellie Griswold Francis
Francis c. 1921
Born
Nellie Griswold

(1874-11-07)November 7, 1874
Nashville, Tennessee
DiedDecember 13, 1969(1969-12-13) (aged 95)
Nashville, Tennessee
NationalityAmerican
Occupation(s)Suffragist, anti-lynching activist
Known forMinnesota Anti-Lynching Bill, 1921

Nellie F. Griswold Francis (November 7, 1874 – December 13, 1969) was an African-American suffragist, civic leader, and civil rights activist. Francis founded and led the Everywoman Suffrage Club, an African-American suffragist group that helped win women the right to vote in Minnesota.[1] She initiated, drafted, and lobbied for the adoption of a state anti-lynching bill that was signed into law in 1921.[2][3] When she and her lawyer husband, William T. Francis, bought a home in a white neighborhood, they were the targets of a Ku Klux Klan terror campaign.[4] In 1927, she moved to Monrovia, Liberia, with her husband when he was appointed U.S. envoy to Liberia.[5] He died there from yellow fever in 1929. Francis is one of 25 women honored for their roles in achieving the women's right to vote in the Minnesota Woman Suffrage Memorial on the grounds of the State Capitol.[6]

  1. ^ "Minnesota Woman Suffrage Memorial, Cedar Avenue at Martin Luther King Boulevard, Saint Paul, Minnesota – Placeography". www.placeography.org. Retrieved April 14, 2017.
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference St Paul Honors was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference Bessler 2003 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference Heidenreich was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ "William Treyanne Francis (1870–1929)". History.State.gov. Department of State, Office of the Historian. Retrieved April 11, 2017.
  6. ^ Cite error: The named reference MN Memorial was invoked but never defined (see the help page).