Harriet May Mills facts for kids
Harriet May Mills (born August 9, 1857 – died May 15, 1935) was an important American leader who worked for civil rights. She played a big part in the women's rights movement in the late 1800s.
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Life of Harriet May Mills
Harriet May Mills was born on August 9, 1857, in Syracuse, New York. Her parents were Charles DeBerad Mills and Harriet Anne Smith. Her father, Charles, was an abolitionist, which means he worked to end slavery. Their home was even a safe place for people escaping slavery, as part of the Underground Railroad.
Education and Early Work
Harriet graduated from Cornell University in 1879. She joined the school only two years after women were first allowed to study there. After college, she first worked as a schoolteacher. She also became an expert on the poet Robert Browning and gave many talks about his work.
Fighting for Women's Right to Vote
In 1892, Harriet became a strong supporter of women's suffrage, which was the movement to give women the right to vote. She was very active, speaking and organizing meetings during the 1894 New York Constitutional Convention. She spoke alongside famous leaders like Susan B. Anthony and Anna Howard Shaw.
Harriet held many important positions in groups that supported women's right to vote. She was a secretary, vice-president, and president of the New York State Suffrage Association. She was also a member of the National American Woman Suffrage Association and other important organizations.
Political Career and Later Life
Harriet May Mills never married. After women gained the right to vote in 1920 with the 19th Amendment, she focused on helping women get involved in politics. She was a delegate to the 1920 Democratic National Convention. In the 1920 New York state election, she ran for Secretary of State of New York as a candidate for the Democratic Party. This made her the first woman to run for a state office in New York.
She became a well-known member of the Democratic Party. She worked for the presidential campaigns of Al Smith and Franklin D. Roosevelt. She was a presidential elector for Franklin D. Roosevelt in the 1932 presidential election. She was friends with Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt and was a special guest at Roosevelt's inauguration in 1933. In 1923, she was named the first woman commissioner for the New York State Hospital Commission.
Harriet May Mills passed away on May 15, 1935, from a heart illness. She was buried in the North Pitcher Cemetery in Pitcher. The Harriet May Mills House in Syracuse is a historic place listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
