"Think nationally and act locally," was a theme among the dozens of Kentucky's African American social and political heroines illuminated by the research of Keren Cotton McDaniel.
Facts and stories about these relatively unknown women overwhelmed LWV members and guests at the Annual Meeting in the Seabury Center April 21.
McDaniel, a visiting scholar at Eastern Kentucky University this year, is both passionate and thorough in her quest to document the contributions these women made in terms of social justice and education in their communities.
One example was Lizzie Cook Fouse, who organized the women's clubs in Lexington to protest the death of a woman who died in jail without receiving medical attention. The protest set up procedures for handling the indigent and helpless.
McDaniel was particularly pleased to highlight the accomplishments of Mary E. Britton,(1855-1925) a Berea College graduate who followed a teaching career with a medical school degree. A supporter of the right of women to vote, she argued, "If woman is the same as man, she has the same rights; if she is distinct from men, then she has the right to make her own laws.
Another heroine was Emma Williams Clement, who was selected as Mother of the Year in 1946 by a national organization in New York City. Instead of talking about home and religion as scripted, she used her platform to promote the need for higher education for Negros, citing the college degrees earned by her six children.
McDaniel is also researching a Kentucky African American Encyclopedia with two other authors. Kentucky is the first state to compile such a publication.
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