Fannie Barrier Williams

Frances Barrier Williams (February 12, 1855 – March 4, 1944) was an American educator, civil rights and women's rights activist, and the first black woman to gain membership to the Chicago Woman's Club. She became well known for her efforts to have black people officially represented on the Board of Control of the World's Columbian Exposition in 1893. She was also a musician and portraitist, and studied foreign languages.

Early life Frances (Fannie) Barrier was born on February 12, 1855, the youngest of three children born to Anthony and Harriet Barrier. Her father, born in Pennsylvania, came to Brockport, New York, as a child. He claimed to be partially of French descent. He worked as a barber and later became a coal dealer. Her mother was born in Sherburne, a small community in Chenango County, New York, The couple married in Brockport, where they were one of just a few black families in town. Her family was part of a privileged class since her father had built a solid real estate portfolio, and owned a profitable business. Barrier had intimate contact with the white elite, without suffering any kind of direct discrimination that was prominent elsewhere in the country.

Barrier and her siblings, Ella and George, attended the "primary department" or campus school of the old Brockport Collegiate Institute. After that, Fannie Barrier continued on in the school's new incarnation as the Brockport State Normal School (now SUNY Brockport), and was the first African American to graduate in 1870. After graduation, Barrier went south to teach at a school for blacks in Hannibal, Missouri, where she encountered a level of racism she never experienced in Brockport. For the first time, she witnessed segregation, intimidation, physical assault, and other degradations suffered by many blacks. She reported that she was "shattered" by the discrimination she encountered and this new awareness of racism targeted toward women of color ultimately led her to pursue a lifetime of activism.

Social activism and charity work Barrier Williams and her husband Samuel Laing Williams were part of the Black midwestern aristocracy, and became active among local community activists and reformers. Chicago's black elite included two distinct groups, the old guard, many of whom migrated to Chicago to escape the oppressive climate of the South, and the new generation. Combined, they were known as the "Black 400." and she led the women's group alongside Mary Jones, who was a mentor and friend to her. They were known as the "Cultured Negro Ladies." but she was finally inducted as a member in 1896.

Barrier Williams and her husband worked for the Hyde Park Colored Voters Republican Club and the Colored Taft League. She was also instrumental in the creation of the Phyllis Wheatley Home for Girls. She seemingly recovered but due to her declining health, she wrote her will and last testament five years later. She named people she generally cared for and the organizations where people had embraced her activism as the beneficiaries of her estate and possessions.

Death and legacy On March 4, 1944, she died after a long illness. She was buried at the Brockport Cemetery on March 14, 1944, at 2pm. She was survived by her sister, Ella D. Barrier, who died a year later.

In 2014, SUNY-College at Brockport named the Fannie Barrier Williams Women of Courage Scholarship after her. It is awarded to students with a 3.0 or higher GPA, and the requirements include an essay of their commitment to social justice. In 2022, the school renamed their Liberal Arts Building in honor of her, it now being named the Fannie Barrier Williams Liberal Arts Building. The village of Brockport has also designated October 6, 2022, as Fannie Barrier Williams Day.

Publications

"Club Movement Among Negro Women" (1902) Fannie Barrier Williams, "A Northern Negro's Autobiography", The Independent, vol. LVII, No. 2002, July 14, 1904. Fannie Barrier Williams, "After Many Days: A Christmas Story." In A Treasury of African-American Christmas Stories, ed. Bettye Collier-Thomas. New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1997. Originally published in The Colored American Magazine 6, no. 2 (December 1902): 140–153. Fannie Barrier Williams, The New Woman of Color: The Collected Writings of Fannie Barrier Williams 1893–1918. DeKalb, IL: Northern Illinois University Press, 2002.