Mary Elizabeth Cary Burrell (August 1865 – ) was an American educator and businessperson. She is known for being a school teacher and for working for causes like

women's suffrage Women's suffrage is the women's rights, right of women to Suffrage, vote in elections. Several instances occurred in recent centuries where women were selectively given, then stripped of, the right to vote. In Sweden, conditional women's suffra ...

Early life

Burrell was born in August 1865 in

Richmond Richmond most often refers to: * Richmond, British Columbia, a city in Canada * Richmond, California, a city in the United States * Richmond, London, a town in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, England * Richmond, North Yorkshire, a town ...

, Virginia, the daughter of Beverly and Lucy Cary (or Carey). Her father worked in a tobacco factory. Burrell graduated from the Richmond Colored Normal School in June 1883. Richmond's public schools were segregated at the time, and the plan was for black students to receive their diplomas in a church, while white students graduated in a theater. The graduating black seniors protested the segregated graduation ceremony, and were able to force the school to combine graduations at the school auditorium, although seating was still segregated. Fellow graduating senior

Wendell Dabney Wendell Phillips Dabney (4 November 1865, in Richmond, Virginia – 3 June 1952, in Cincinnati) was an influential civil rights organizer, author, and musician as well as a newspaper editor and publisher in Cincinnati, Ohio. He wrote various books ...

claimed that this was "the first school strike of Negroes in America." Maggie Lena Walker was another of the ten graduating seniors from Richmond Colored Normal School that year.

Career and family

Burrell taught in the Richmond Public Schools from her graduation in 1883 until 1885 when she married William Patrick Burrell, who likewise had graduated from the Richmond Colored Normal School, the year after she did. Mary Burrell and her husband were early members of the Grand Fountain of the United Order of True Reformers, a

fraternal organization A fraternity (; whence, " brotherhood") or fraternal organization is an organization, society, club or fraternal order traditionally of men but also women associated together for various religious or secular aims. Fraternity in the Western conce ...

which grew to offer

insurance Insurance is a means of protection from financial loss in which, in exchange for a fee, a party agrees to compensate another party in the event of a certain loss, damage, or injury. It is a form of risk management, primarily used to protect ...

banking services Retail banking, also known as consumer banking or personal banking, is the provision of services by a bank to the general public, rather than to companies, corporations or other banks, which are often described as wholesale banking (corporate ba ...

, real estate services, a

retirement home A retirement home – sometimes called an old people's home, old folks' home, or old age home, although ''old people's home'' can also refer to a nursing home – or rest home, is a multi-residence housing facility intended for the elderly. Ty ...

, and educational opportunities to members. As a member of the Grand Fountain, Mary Burrell founded new lodges as well as expanded the number of youth education programs (called 'Rosebud') which were organized by the lodges to teach financial skills. She served as first clerk for the bank, training other clerks, and was president of the Rosebud Board. She served in the leadership of multiple social organizations, including the Women's Auxiliary of Richmond Hospital, the Virginia State Federation of Colored Women, and the Women's Baptist Educational and Missionary Convention of the State of Virginia. She organized

social gathering A party is a gathering of people who have been invited by a Hospitality, host for the purposes of socializing, conversation, recreation, or as part of a festival or other commemoration or celebration of a special occasion. A party will oft ...

s in her home in

, with prominent guests who included

Booker T. Washington Booker Taliaferro Washington (April 5, 1856November 14, 1915) was an American educator, author, and orator. Between 1890 and 1915, Washington was the primary leader in the African-American community and of the contemporary Black elite#United S ...

. She raised two sons, William Preston (1893) and John Mercer (1894). In 1910, financial scandal and fraud struck and the Grand Fountain was forced to shutter most of its businesses. Mary Burrell and her husband relocated to

New Jersey New Jersey is a U.S. state, state located in both the Mid-Atlantic States, Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern United States, Northeastern regions of the United States. Located at the geographic hub of the urban area, heavily urbanized Northeas ...

, where they resumed their work building

social organization In sociology, a social organization is a pattern of relationships between and among individuals and groups. Characteristics of social organization can include qualities such as sexual composition, spatiotemporal cohesion, leadership, struc ...

s. Mary Burrell was involved in

, and later worked on get-out-the vote programs and various political organizations.

References

Links

A photo of Mrs. Mary E. Cary Burrell.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Burrell, Mary E. Cary 1865 births Year of death missing Educators from Richmond, Virginia Businesspeople from Richmond, Virginia 19th-century American educators African-American schoolteachers Schoolteachers from Virginia African-American women in business 19th-century African-American women 19th-century American businesspeople 19th-century American businesswomen 19th-century American women educators African-American suffragists 19th-century African-American educators 19th-century African-American businesspeople