Mabel Ping-Hua Lee (1896-1966)

One of the key-players in the US women’s suffrage movement, wasn’t even allowed to vote when woman won the right to do so! 

 

This is Mabel Ping Hue Lee. Born in 1896, she moved from China to the U.S. as a child. At that time, The Chinese Exclusion Act meant she couldn’t become an official citizen, nor she could vote. Still, that didn’t stop her to fight for more equality and freedom.

 

At just 16, she already led the Chinese-American community in a major pro-suffrage parade. She wanted to show America that women deserved to vote, as much as men. She once claimed that no country could achieve true civilization or progress, if it left half it’s population – women – without intellectual or social rights. 

 

Her deep believe in education can be seen in the fact that she majored in History and philosophy. Afterwards she even became the first Chinese Women to earn an American PhD in Economics.

 

Lee fought her whole life for a vision of justice, she wasn’t even able to fully experience herself. While it’s unclear if she ever cast a vote, her legacy endures as a key figure in the fight for women's rights in America. 

Mabel Lee in the middle, with her mother en father (source). 

Video Sources:

Pictures used: 

    1) AI generated (contains some aspects that are not accurate, just used as illustration). 

    2) Mabel P. Lee. New York City, Bernard College. https://barnard.edu/magazine/fall-2020/mabel-ping-hua-lee-1916-pioneer-suffrage-movement 

    3) Dr. Mabel P. Lee. Photo from the George Grantham Bain Collection, [no date recorded on caption card]. http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/ggbain.35680

    4) The Magic Washer (advertisement). https://imgur.com/z60XYmB 

    5) Horsewomen leading the suffrage parade, Brooklyn, 1912, Daily Eagle. https://www.newspapers.com/article/brooklyn-eagle-1912-new-york-womens-suf/86500874/

    6) PhotoQuest, Suffragette March, 1912, New York. https://www.gettyimages.be/fotos/new-york-suffragette-parade

    7) Dr. Mabel Lee’s ministry with children at the New York Chinese Baptist Church (ca 1940s). https://timtseng.net/2013/12/12/asian-american-legacy-dr-mabel-lee/

    8) Photo by Unknown; retaken by Bayer Lee in 2004, Lee with her parents, 1920's. https://morningbellnyc.com/2022/hidden-voices-mabel-ping-hua-lee-suffragist-and-community-leader/ 

Text Sources:

    - Alexander, Kerri Lee. “Mabel Ping-Hua Lee.” National Women’s History Museum. 2020. www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/mabel-ping-hua-lee.

    -  Davies, Jennifer. "Dr. Mabel Ping-Hua Lee's Push for Suffrage." Library of Congress Blogs. 2023. https://blogs.loc.gov/law/2023/05/dr-mabel-ping-hua-lees-push-for-suffrage/

    - Lee, Michael. "The 16‑Year‑Old Chinese Immigrant Who Helped Lead a 1912 US Suffrage March." History. 2024. https://www.history.com/news/chinese-american-womens-suffrage-mabel-ping-hua-lee 

    - Garner Masarik, Elizabeth. “Centering Women of Color in Suffrage History - Cathleen D Cahill. Recasting the Vote: How Women of Color Transformed the Suffrage Movement. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina, 2020. 376 Pp. $32.50 (Hardcover), ISBN 978-1469659329.” The Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era 22, no. 2 (2023): 226–28. https://doi-org.kuleuven.e-bronnen.be/10.1017/S153778142200072X.

More Literature: 

    - "Overlooked No More: Mabel Ping-Hua Lee, Suffragist With a Distinction", The New York Times, September 19th 2020. 

    -  Li, Grace. 2020. “‘Chinese Girl Wants Vote’: The Asian-American Suffragette Mabel Ping-Hua Lee”. Constellations 11 (2). 

    - Tim Tseng,  "Asian American Legacy: Dr. Mabel Lee", Tim Tseng Blog, 2013, https://timtseng.net/2013/12/12/asian-american-legacy-dr-mabel-lee/