Emma J. Ray

Emma J. Ray (January 7, 1859 – November 25, 1930) was an African-American activist, evangelist, and suffragist. She was also known as Emma J. Smith, Emma Smith, Emma J. Smith Ray, Emma Ray, and Mrs. L.P. Ray.

Early life Emma J. Ray was born Emma J. Smith in Springfield, Missouri, on January 7, 1859. She was born into enslavement, as both of her parents (mother Jennie Boyd and father John Smith) were enslaved. She had eight siblings.

Emma was a small child during the American Civil War. At the age of four, she and her mother traveled with their enslavers, fleeing south away from Union soldiers to prevent their freedom, to a wilderness camp in Bethpage, Missouri where Jennie gave birth to Emma's younger sisters, Priscilla Bethpage. Union soldiers made their way to Arkansas, where Emma and her mother were staying with their enslavers, where they remained with Union supporters until the civil war ended in 1865. . It was in that same year that Emma Ray and her husband attended and converted in the Jones Street African Methodist Episcopal church (AME), in which her husband began abstaining from alcohol. After their conversion, they both experienced sanctification, leading them to evangelical work.

Ray had joined the AME in 1889, shortly after she and her husband moved to Seattle. It was through the AME that she participated in evangelical work, which also tied into her social and racial justice work. During the Progressive Era, in 1891, Ray co-founded the Frances Ellen Harper (also known as Frances Harper) chapter and African-American chapter of the Women's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) along with 15 other African-American women, and was elected and served as president. The chapter was named after Frances Harper, who was an African-American writer, abolitionist, and activist who organized African-American chapters of the WCTU on a national level.

After joining the previously all-white chapter of the WCTU, she collaborated with Olive "Ollie" Spore Ryther, referred to as Mother Ryther, who ran a local orphanage. Together they would travel to waterfronts and brothels, offering religious services to those in the sex work industry and for people with addictions. They would house orphans and help to slowly wean people off of their addictions by reducing their intake over time. Her evangelical work served predominantly white populations, as, at the time, a majority of the population in this area was white.

In 1899, Emma and other peers re-established the Frances Harper chapter of the WCTU, after receiving encouragement from Lucy Thurman and other prominent African-American women leaders at a national WCTU convention, and after receiving support from the church's new pastor. They resided in the Hick's Hollow neighborhood to better serve their community, and at the rescue mission they ran programs for African-American children living in poverty. They offered programs in housing, food, clothing, local trips to the park, and education which took place in Sunday schools. Emma's work in the African-American community during this time paralleled Mary Church Terrell's speech and promotion of racial uplift, yet differed in that Emma lived and worked alongside and served those in need. While there was no organization for black women of the WCTU in Kansas City at that time, Emma Ray was able to gather support in her mission from the WCTU's white chapter.

The Rays moved back to Seattle in 1902, where Lloyd built their home off of Sunnyside Avenue, the home in which they would reside for the rest of their lives. They took up missionary work at the Olive Branch Mission in Pioneer Square and joined The Pine Street Free Methodists. They shifted from the AME to the Free Methodist church because the Free Methodist church had accepted their experiences with sanctification, while the AME did not. Emma also felt supported when she developed temporary neuralgia in her face. Members of the Free Methodist Church offered her prayers and medicine to help her heal. After becoming licensed Conference Evangelists, Emma and her husband would hold revivals and preach across the state of Washington.

Late life From 1905 to 1920, Emma continued her mission work. While she stopped missionary work in her 60s, she continued her spiritual work with The Free Methodists until her death in 1930.

Autobiography Emma J. Ray wrote her autobiography, Twice Sold, Twice Ransomed, which The Free Methodist Publishing House published in 1926.