Born: 1842 (circa), United States
Died: 2 January 1934
Country most active: United States
Also known as: Whitehurst, Hester Jeffreys or Jeffries, Mrs. R. Jerome Jeffrey
American activist Hester C. Jeffrey was a suffragist and community organizer known for her work with the Political Equality Club, the Women’s Christian Temperance Union, and the National Association of Colored Women’s Clubs.
Born to free African-American parents in Virginia, the family moved to Massachusetts when she was still very young. She and her sister worked as dressmakers, and she married when she was around 20 years old. She went on to have at least four children, who all died young. The couple moved to Rochester, New York in 1891, where she became involved with the Political Equality Club and WTCU. Positions she held over the years included:
– National Organizer of Colored Women’s Clubs for the National Association of Colored Women’s Clubs,
– New York State President of the Federation of Colored Women’s Clubs,
– County Superintendent of the WCTU,
– Secretary of the Third Ward WCTU and
– Section President of the Needlework Guild of America.
Jeffrey also helped establish clubs for African-American women, like the Susan B. Anthony Club to promote suffrage, which also had a Mothers’ Council to help women with young children. She was also a friend of Anthony’s, giving a eulogy at the other woman’s funeral in 1906. Her Hester C. Jeffrey Club helped raise money to enable young African-American women to take classes at the school that would later become the Rochester Institute of Technology. Jeffrey also served on the Douglass Monument Committee, which raised money and commissioned a statue of Frederick Douglass in Rochester (his hometown) that was the first known monument to an African-American.