Lucretia A. Freeman

 

Biographical Database of Black Woman Suffragists

Biography of Lucretia A. Freeman, 1866-1946

 

By Reneé Vanish-McLaurin, undergraduate student, Rosemont College, Rosemont, Penn.

Lucretia A. Freeman was a well-known and well-respected contributor to organizations for black women. She was born around 1866 in South Carolina. She married Simpson Jacob Freeman around 1885. The couple had two sons and two daughters: Windsor Alfred Freeman I, Dorothy Freeman (Clark), William Freeman, and Mary Freeman. The family moved North early in the twentieth century. Simpson Freeman began working as a porter in 1905 with the Pullman Company, and he steadily climbed the ladder to prominence as an organizer of railroad porters. For the many years, the family resided in New York City.

Lucretia Freeman was involved in community and civic affairs. In 1913, she attended the annual meeting of the Empire State Federation of Women's Clubs (ESFWC) as a delegate. In 1921, she served as a director for the Red Cross Unit of the Women's Auxiliary at Harlem Hospital; she had connected with the Red Cross when her older son served in World War I. In January 1926, she was elected a deaconess for the Nazarene Congregational Church. In February 1930, her daughter Dollie Clark was on the sick list and documented as staying in Harlem Hospital—the same hospital her mother had worked with almost a decade prior. In June 1931, Lucretia Freeman was the vice president of the Northeastern Federation of Women's Clubs, and, according to the New York Age, she was busy preparing for the Federation's August meeting in Brooklyn. Simpson James Freeman died August 25, 1937, in New York, leaving Lucretia Freeman a widow. In 1941, she represented the Brooklyn Mother's Club at a meeting of the New York Federation of Colored Women's Clubs, where she was elected as a delegate to the convention of the Empire State Federation. She also helped organize the thirty-sixth annual ESFWC meeting in 1944.

Lucretia Freeman made the social pages of the New York Age in March 1946; however, upon her son's death in December, she was not listed as a surviving relative. Her absence from the record suggests she likely died in 1946 in New York.

SOURCES:

“By Way of Mention: Elected Delegates to Empire State Federation,” New York Age (New York, NY), July 12, 1941, Newspapers.com.

“Dollie F. Clarke, Invalid For 16 Years Dies; Used Hospital Bed For Her Office,” New York Age (New York, NY), February 21, 1948, Newspapers.com.

“Female Smokers Are Criticised,” New York Age (New York, NY), July 10, 1913, Newspapers.com.

“Intimate Companionship between Parents and Children Is Needed,” New York Age (New York, NY), February 22, 1936, Newspapers.com.

“Mr. And Mrs. Sandy Browne, Sr., Celebrate 50 Anniversary At Masonic Temple,” New York Age (New York, NY), March 23, 1946, Newspapers.com.

“Mrs. Dollie Clark On Sick List,” New York Age (New York, NY), Nov. 8, 1930, Newspapers.com.

“Nazarene Cong. Church,” New York Age (New York, NY), January 23, 1926, Newspapers.com.

“Picked Up Here and There,” New York Age (New York, NY), June 6, 1931, Newspapers.com.

“Railroad Veteran Passes,” New York Age (New York, NY), September 4, 1937, Newspapers.com.

New York, NY, Extracted Death Index, 1862-1948. Simpson J. Freeman, Kings, NY, August 25, 1937. Ancestry Library Ed.

“Windsor A. Freeman, Jr. Succumbs Aboard Ship,” New York Age (New York, NY), December 21, 1946, Newspapers.com.

“Women of 15th Reg. Respond To Red Cross,” New York Age (New York, NY), April 9, 1921, Newspapers.com.

United States Census 1910, “Lucretia Freeman, Bronx, New York, NY.” HeritageQuest.

United States Census 1920, “Lucretia Freeman, Manhattan, New York, NY.” HeritageQuest.

United States Census 1930, “Lucretia Freeman, Brooklyn, Kings, New York, NY.” HeritageQuest.

 

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