Susie Isabel Lankford Shorter (January 4, 1859 – February 23, 1912) was an American educator, philanthropist, and writer.
Early life
Susan Isabel (or Isabella) Lankford was born in
Terre Haute, Indiana
Terre Haute ( ) is a city in Vigo County, Indiana, United States, and its county seat. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the city had a population of 58,389 and Terre Haute metropolitan area, its metropolitan area had a populati ...
, the daughter of Whitten Strange Lankford and Clarissa Carter Lankford. Her father was a minister in the
African Methodist Episcopal Church
The African Methodist Episcopal Church, usually called the AME Church or AME, is a Methodist denomination based in the United States. It adheres to Wesleyan theology, Wesleyan–Arminian theology and has a connexionalism, connexional polity. It ...
. She was educated at
Wilberforce University
Wilberforce University (WU) is a private university in Wilberforce, Ohio. It is one of three historically black universities established before the American Civil War. Founded in 1856 by the Methodist Episcopal Church (MEC), it is named after ...
in Ohio.
Career
Susie Lankford taught for a few years before she married. As a faculty wife at Wilberforce, she ran a student store, offered a free kindergarten for local children, and provided care for sick students in her home. She was president of the Wilberforce Ladies' College Aid Society.
[Jessie Carney Smith, ed.]
''Notable Black American Women, Book 2''
(VNR AG 1996): 595–597.
Shorter wrote articles for church publications. Her booklet "Heroines of African Methodism" (1891) was written to celebrate the eightieth birthday of Bishop
Daniel Payne.
"We are proud of our women," she wrote. "Little has been written concerning them. They are walking in all life's avenues successfully, daring and doing what the women of other varieties of the human race dare and do." She also wrote a column, "Plain Talk to Our Girls", for ''Ringwood's Afro-American Journal of Fashion'', published by
Julia Ringwood Coston.
She wrote the song, "Lifting as We Climb", for the Ohio chapter of the
National Association of Colored Women's Clubs
The National Association of Colored Women's Clubs (NACWC) is an American organization that was formed in July 1896 at the First Annual Convention of the National Federation of Afro-American Women in Washington, D.C., United States, by a merger of ...
.
[Charles Harris Wesley]
''The History of the National Association of Colored Women’s Clubs: A Legacy of Service''
(NACWC 1984): 54.
Personal life
Susie Isabel Lankford married Joseph Proctor Shorter, a professor at Wilberforce University, in 1878. They had eight children together; at least three of their children died before reaching their teens. Susie Lankford Shorter was widowed in 1910 and died in 1912, aged 53 years.
References
External links
Susan Isabella Lankford Shorter's Ohio gravesite at Find a Grave.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Shorter, Susie Lankford
1859 births
1912 deaths
African-American women writers
African-American educators
African-American women educators
People from Terre Haute, Indiana
Wilberforce University alumni
Educators from Indiana
American women educators
20th-century African-American people
20th-century African-American women