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Frances Albrier was a civil and labor rights activist who worked with organizations such as the NAACP and the Congress for Racial Equality, as well as local groups in the California Bay Area.
Who Was Frances Albrier?
Frances Mary Albrier (September 21, 1898 to August 21, 1987) was an advocate for civil and labor rights in her work as a maid, nurse and welder. She also fought for racial equality and opportunity via organizations like the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and the Congress for Racial Equality, as well in local groups around her home in Berkeley, California. Later in life, Albrier spoke out for peace, disarmament and rights for the disabled and elderly; in 1971, she was a delegate to a White House conference on aging. The National Museum of African American History and Culture now holds a collection of Albrier's scrapbooks, photographs and letters.
Who Was Frances Albrier?
Frances Mary Albrier (September 21, 1898 to August 21, 1987) was an advocate for civil and labor rights in her work as a maid, nurse and welder. She also fought for racial equality and opportunity via organizations like the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and the Congress for Racial Equality, as well in local groups around her home in Berkeley, California. Later in life, Albrier spoke out for peace, disarmament and rights for the disabled and elderly; in 1971, she was a delegate to a White House conference on aging. The National Museum of African American History and Culture now holds a collection of Albrier's scrapbooks, photographs and letters.
Frances Albrier
Posted from biography.com
Birthday
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American History
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Thank you my friend Maj Marty Hogan for making us aware that September 21 is the anniversary of the birth of a civil and labor rights activist Frances Albrier who worked with organizations such as the NAACP and the Congress for Racial Equality, as well as local groups in the California Bay Area.
Images:
1. Frances Albrier wearing a Red Cross uniform, 1942
2. San Francisco Mayor John Shelley and Frances Albrier holding a proclamation recognizing 'Negro History Week', February 1966.
3. Frances Albrier leading picket at corner of Sacramento and Ashby (1939), courtesy Albrier family
Rest in peace Frances Albrier!
Background from nmaahc.si.edu/explore/stories/collection/frances-albrier
"The life of west coast activist Frances M. Albrier (1898-1987) brings into sharp focus the unsung role of Californians in the early fight for American civil, labor, and human rights. The granddaughter of formerly enslaved people, Albrier moved to Berkeley, California from Alabama in 1920 beginning nearly six decades of community activism while working as a nurse, maid, and union organizer.
As early as 1939, Albrier campaigned as the first African American candidate for Berkeley’s City Council. By 1940, she had formed the Citizens Employment Council to fight for jobs and fair employment practices for the city’s black community. After being denied work at the Kaiser Shipyards during World War II, Albrier fought for and won a job as the first black woman welder in the company’s Richmond shipyards. Her victory paved the way for thousands of African American and women workers to secure better paying jobs in the Bay Area’s then booming shipyard industry.
Albrier would go on to integrate Berkeley’s League of Women Voters and the Red Cross, teaching first aid classes to local youth for many years. During the 1950s, she created the first Negro History Week displays to be shown in an Oakland department store window. A champion of voter rights, Albrier was a prominent member of the National Council of Negro Women and the Citizenship Education Project. In her later life, Albrier became a peace and disarmament activist and a pioneer in fighting for the rights of senior citizens and people with disabilities.
"One of the greatest things is to inspire young people to the higher things of life...that you be able to do something to help them and make it better for them. I think that's the inspiration and that's the goal of all of the leaders in the world."
The Frances Albrier Collection
The Frances Albrier Collection, donated to NMAAHC in 2010 by Albrier’s daughter, Anita Black, contains scrapbooks, photographs, and letters documenting Albrier’s role as an human rights activist. Albrier’s work showcases, and the collection humanizes, the central role women played in these struggles during the 1940s, 1950s, and beyond. Her story also acknowledges California's role as an early stage for crucial work advancing civil, labor, and human rights.
Highlights of the collection include two scrapbooks. The first is from 1956-57 and features Albrier’s term as president of the San Francisco Chapter of the National Council of Negro Women and the Citizenship Education Project. The second scrapbook documents Albrier’s trip to Africa and highlights the celebrations surrounding Nigeria's independence in 1960. Also notable are photographs from 1951 of Albrier teaching first aid along with letters and photographs from a Moral Re-Armament Assembly of Nations conference on Michigan's Mackinac Island during the 1950s.
Citizenship Education Project Scrapbook
Albrier assembled the Citizenship Education Project scrapbook to document her time as the president of the San Francisco Chapter of the National Council of Negro Women (NCNW) and her work on the Citizenship Education Project (CEP) from 1956-57.
In 1956, San Francisco was among four major U.S. cities selected to conduct a non-partisan, pilot project to promote citizenship education among African Americans as part of a grant from the National Urban League and carried out by the NCNW. Under the leadership of Albrier and project coordinator Mrs. Floyd G. Allen, the San Francisco NCNW worked tirelessly to register new voters.
Using the slogan, “A Voteless People is a Hopeless People,” the San Francisco NCNW encouraged registration through motorcades, sidewalk loudspeaker interviews, “picket-lines” of marching women with placards, and door-to-door neighborhood canvases. By the voter registration deadline in the fall of 1956, more than 1700 voters had been registered, including about 200 21-year-olds who celebrated their registration with a “birthday party” hosted by the CEP.
Registering voters was just the first phase of the Citizenship Education Project. Between the registration deadline and Election Day, the CEP hosted a number of meetings and information sessions to educate African Americans in the Bay Area on issues facing voters on the November ballot. Outreach efforts included a program with Assistant Secretary of Labor J. Ernest Wilkins Sr. from the Eisenhower Administration and Congressman Charles Diggs from Michigan. The CEP even set-up a voting machine in their headquarters to demonstrate the actual voting process to first time voters.
By Election Day on November 6, 1956, the Citizenship Education Project estimated it had contacted more than 15,000 people in the San Francisco area by mail or at meetings. San Francisco's The Sun-Reporter awarded the Albrier-led chapter of the National Council of Negro Women its, "Club of the Year, 1956" award for its work on the Citizenship Education Project."
The only source I could find which included video focused on Frances is
Join Sierra Green, archivist at the Senator John Heinz History Center’s Detre Library & Archives, for an online session highlighting multiple perspectives throughout history using materials from archival collections. Archival materials can illuminate viewpoints at times overlooked in historical study, as they persist as remnants of individuals’ voices in history. Sierra Green will dive into materials from three local Pittsburgh stories, with an emphasis on how to seek out multiple historical perspectives in order to cultivate historical empathy. Teachers can use these examples to examine history from the experiences of people who directly participated in those events.
This is an online session created to support Smithsonian Learning Lab workshops for high school teachers in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, funded by the Grable Foundation and in partnership with Allegheny Intermediate Unit and the Senator John Heinz History Center, a Smithsonian Affiliate Museum.
o The Melting Pot at the United Shoe Machinery Corporation https://learninglab.si.edu/collection...
o Red Caps and Pullman Porters https://learninglab.si.edu/collection...
o Who is Frances Mary Albrier? https://learninglab.si.edu/collection...
o The Smithsonian in World War I https://learninglab.si.edu/collection...
o Maid of Cotton https://learninglab.si.edu/search?st=...
o Historical Empathy with Archival Documents https://learninglab.si.edu/collection.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vyp400vV4zg&t=40s
FYI COL Mikel J. Burroughs LTC Stephen C. LTC (Join to see) Lt Col John (Jack) Christensen Lt Col Charlie Brown Maj Bill Smith, Ph.D. Maj William W. "Bill" Price SCPO Morris Ramsey SGT Mark Halmrast Sgt Randy Wilber Sgt John H. SGT Gregory Lawritson CPL Dave Hoover SPC Margaret Higgins SSgt Brian Brakke 1stSgt Eugene Harless CPT Scott Sharon PO1 H Gene Lawrence
Images:
1. Frances Albrier wearing a Red Cross uniform, 1942
2. San Francisco Mayor John Shelley and Frances Albrier holding a proclamation recognizing 'Negro History Week', February 1966.
3. Frances Albrier leading picket at corner of Sacramento and Ashby (1939), courtesy Albrier family
Rest in peace Frances Albrier!
Background from nmaahc.si.edu/explore/stories/collection/frances-albrier
"The life of west coast activist Frances M. Albrier (1898-1987) brings into sharp focus the unsung role of Californians in the early fight for American civil, labor, and human rights. The granddaughter of formerly enslaved people, Albrier moved to Berkeley, California from Alabama in 1920 beginning nearly six decades of community activism while working as a nurse, maid, and union organizer.
As early as 1939, Albrier campaigned as the first African American candidate for Berkeley’s City Council. By 1940, she had formed the Citizens Employment Council to fight for jobs and fair employment practices for the city’s black community. After being denied work at the Kaiser Shipyards during World War II, Albrier fought for and won a job as the first black woman welder in the company’s Richmond shipyards. Her victory paved the way for thousands of African American and women workers to secure better paying jobs in the Bay Area’s then booming shipyard industry.
Albrier would go on to integrate Berkeley’s League of Women Voters and the Red Cross, teaching first aid classes to local youth for many years. During the 1950s, she created the first Negro History Week displays to be shown in an Oakland department store window. A champion of voter rights, Albrier was a prominent member of the National Council of Negro Women and the Citizenship Education Project. In her later life, Albrier became a peace and disarmament activist and a pioneer in fighting for the rights of senior citizens and people with disabilities.
"One of the greatest things is to inspire young people to the higher things of life...that you be able to do something to help them and make it better for them. I think that's the inspiration and that's the goal of all of the leaders in the world."
The Frances Albrier Collection
The Frances Albrier Collection, donated to NMAAHC in 2010 by Albrier’s daughter, Anita Black, contains scrapbooks, photographs, and letters documenting Albrier’s role as an human rights activist. Albrier’s work showcases, and the collection humanizes, the central role women played in these struggles during the 1940s, 1950s, and beyond. Her story also acknowledges California's role as an early stage for crucial work advancing civil, labor, and human rights.
Highlights of the collection include two scrapbooks. The first is from 1956-57 and features Albrier’s term as president of the San Francisco Chapter of the National Council of Negro Women and the Citizenship Education Project. The second scrapbook documents Albrier’s trip to Africa and highlights the celebrations surrounding Nigeria's independence in 1960. Also notable are photographs from 1951 of Albrier teaching first aid along with letters and photographs from a Moral Re-Armament Assembly of Nations conference on Michigan's Mackinac Island during the 1950s.
Citizenship Education Project Scrapbook
Albrier assembled the Citizenship Education Project scrapbook to document her time as the president of the San Francisco Chapter of the National Council of Negro Women (NCNW) and her work on the Citizenship Education Project (CEP) from 1956-57.
In 1956, San Francisco was among four major U.S. cities selected to conduct a non-partisan, pilot project to promote citizenship education among African Americans as part of a grant from the National Urban League and carried out by the NCNW. Under the leadership of Albrier and project coordinator Mrs. Floyd G. Allen, the San Francisco NCNW worked tirelessly to register new voters.
Using the slogan, “A Voteless People is a Hopeless People,” the San Francisco NCNW encouraged registration through motorcades, sidewalk loudspeaker interviews, “picket-lines” of marching women with placards, and door-to-door neighborhood canvases. By the voter registration deadline in the fall of 1956, more than 1700 voters had been registered, including about 200 21-year-olds who celebrated their registration with a “birthday party” hosted by the CEP.
Registering voters was just the first phase of the Citizenship Education Project. Between the registration deadline and Election Day, the CEP hosted a number of meetings and information sessions to educate African Americans in the Bay Area on issues facing voters on the November ballot. Outreach efforts included a program with Assistant Secretary of Labor J. Ernest Wilkins Sr. from the Eisenhower Administration and Congressman Charles Diggs from Michigan. The CEP even set-up a voting machine in their headquarters to demonstrate the actual voting process to first time voters.
By Election Day on November 6, 1956, the Citizenship Education Project estimated it had contacted more than 15,000 people in the San Francisco area by mail or at meetings. San Francisco's The Sun-Reporter awarded the Albrier-led chapter of the National Council of Negro Women its, "Club of the Year, 1956" award for its work on the Citizenship Education Project."
The only source I could find which included video focused on Frances is
Join Sierra Green, archivist at the Senator John Heinz History Center’s Detre Library & Archives, for an online session highlighting multiple perspectives throughout history using materials from archival collections. Archival materials can illuminate viewpoints at times overlooked in historical study, as they persist as remnants of individuals’ voices in history. Sierra Green will dive into materials from three local Pittsburgh stories, with an emphasis on how to seek out multiple historical perspectives in order to cultivate historical empathy. Teachers can use these examples to examine history from the experiences of people who directly participated in those events.
This is an online session created to support Smithsonian Learning Lab workshops for high school teachers in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, funded by the Grable Foundation and in partnership with Allegheny Intermediate Unit and the Senator John Heinz History Center, a Smithsonian Affiliate Museum.
o The Melting Pot at the United Shoe Machinery Corporation https://learninglab.si.edu/collection...
o Red Caps and Pullman Porters https://learninglab.si.edu/collection...
o Who is Frances Mary Albrier? https://learninglab.si.edu/collection...
o The Smithsonian in World War I https://learninglab.si.edu/collection...
o Maid of Cotton https://learninglab.si.edu/search?st=...
o Historical Empathy with Archival Documents https://learninglab.si.edu/collection.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vyp400vV4zg&t=40s
FYI COL Mikel J. Burroughs LTC Stephen C. LTC (Join to see) Lt Col John (Jack) Christensen Lt Col Charlie Brown Maj Bill Smith, Ph.D. Maj William W. "Bill" Price SCPO Morris Ramsey SGT Mark Halmrast Sgt Randy Wilber Sgt John H. SGT Gregory Lawritson CPL Dave Hoover SPC Margaret Higgins SSgt Brian Brakke 1stSgt Eugene Harless CPT Scott Sharon PO1 H Gene Lawrence
Smithsonian Learning Lab is your destination for millions of carefully curated, easily accessible, customizable, and shareable open educational resources.
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