Elizabeth Piper Ensley

Elizabeth Piper Ensley (January 19, 1847 – February 23, 1919), was an educator and an African-American suffragist. Born in Massachusetts, Ensley was a teacher on the eastern coast of the country. She moved to Colorado where she achieved prominence as a leader in the Colorado suffrage movement. She was also a journalist, activist, and a leader and founder of local women's clubs.

Early life and education Although some sources claim that Ensley was born in 1848 in the Caribbean, census and marriage records, as well as her grave, place her birth at New Bedford, Massachusetts, on January 19, 1847. Her father, Phillip F. Piper, was born in Virginia and her mother, Jane Gibson, was born in Georgia. Her father worked on the ship Rebecca Simms. In 1868, she graduated from the West Newton English and Classical School, also known as the Allen School.

Marriage and children

She married her husband Newell Houston Ensley on September 4, 1882, in Boston. Newell, born in Nashville, Tennessee He graduated third in his class from Roger Williams University in Nashville in June 1878, and then attended Newton Theological Seminary in Massachusetts, where he was the only black man in his graduating class (ca. 1881). He first taught Latin and theology at a school in Raleigh, North Carolina. He was a professor of rhetoric, Hebrew, and science at Howard University and Alcorn State University. and Jean (March 1888 – June 1888).

They lived in Washington in 1880s, Ensley lived at 855 S. Emerson, in a craftsman house. and became a public school teacher, She taught at Alcorn State University in Mississippi before moving to Denver. It was the first monthly newspaper published by and for African-American woman. The suffrage amendment was approved in November 1893, making Colorado the second state to grant voting rights to women. she organized the Colorado Colored Women's Republican Club to teach African-American women to be educated voters.

She established the Women's League in 1894 to inform black women how to vote, communicate the importance of voting, and communicate the nature of the issues. which created a stronger alliance by joining eight organizations throughout Colorado. The CACW led community and educational programs, including the George Washington Carver Day Nursery. Ensley was the only African-American member of the predominantly white board of the Colorado Federation of Women's Clubs. She is buried in the Ensley family plot at Riverside Cemetery in Denver, Colorado.