Clara Conway

Clara Conway (August 14, 1844 – November 16, 1904) was a Public School Teacher, School Administrator in the Memphis School district and an early woman's political activist. She founded the Clara Conway Institute for Girls in Memphis, Tennessee and an application was granted for chartership 1 June 1885 and was a founding member of the Nineteenth Century Club in 1890.

Early life Clara Conway was born in New Orleans, Louisiana on August 14, 1844. She attended the St. Agnes Academy in Memphis, but received most of her education at home. She moved to Memphis, Tennessee in 1864.

She began her career at the age of twenty-one as a public school teacher. Developing a strong interest in providing women with a quality education, also, she was the first of many Tennessee woman to assist in the organization of teachers' institutes, and the first southern woman to attend the teachers' summer school in the North, when she took classes at the first session of Martha's Vineyard Summer Institute in Cottage City, Mass. in 1878.

She later became the principal of the Alabama Street School and the Market Street School.

In 1889, She and Nellie O'Donnell, a newly elected female school superintendent, traveled to Nashville to personally face sexist male legislators who had introduced bills prohibiting women from becoming superintendents. Scores of female educators and prominent citizens rallied to support the women, and the bill was defeated. Instead, a bill was passed confirming women's eligibility as school superintendents.

In May 1890, She was among a group of strong female women that had the desire in educating girls to attain quality moral principles in the city of Memphis, she founded the Nineteenth Century Club, a women's club that aimed to improve the city's lifestyle and public services. The school became a major college preparatory school for young women. The school closed in 1893 over a disagreement between her ambitions and trustees needs.