Biographical Database of Black Woman Suffragists
Biography of Caroline "Caddie" Eliot Parke, 1856-1947
By Chelsea Lundquist-Wentz, independent historian
Caroline Parke, also known as Caddie, was an accomplished teacher, clubwoman and connected member of the Washington, D.C. African American elite. She never married but had an active social life and was highly regarded by her community and family throughout her long life.
In 1856, Caroline Eliot Parke was born in Washington, D.C. to William P. and Virginia Parke. She had an older brother Horace, and her parents went on to have five more children. William Parke was a barber for his entire working life, making enough money to own $1800 in real estate and a personal estate of $1500 by the time his daughter Caddie was a toddler. His wife Virginia was a homemaker, responsible for the care of their large family. Education was important in the Parke family and all the children attended school; education would become a life calling for Caddie Parke.
For her elementary education, Caddie Parke attended Emma V. Brown's school, which was the District's first government-funded school for African American children. In 1870, 14-year-old Caddie was one of the first four students enrolled in the new Preparatory High School program housed in the basement of the 15th Street Presbyterian Church. She was noted as one of the finest readers in the school by the local paper. Though she and her peers were set to graduate in 1875, the demand for quality African American teachers was so high that Caddie Parke was assigned to a teaching post in 1873, never officially completing the coursework for high school.
In her young adulthood, Caddie was routinely praised for her singing and piano playing as part of school events. In 1882, she even accompanied the famous black soprano Madame Marie Selika in concert at Lincoln Hall. Caddie Parke had many friends and social engagements; she was of ten written about in society newspaper columns for attending weddings and dinner parties of the city's black elite, including fellow educators Mary Church Terrell and Robert and Jennie Moten DC and other prominent citizens like the Syphax and Grimke families. She traveled internationally with friends as well, spending the summer of 1912 vacationing in Europe with her friend Mineola Kirkland. Caddie also maintained a close and loving relationship with her family throughout life. She always lived with family; after her parents' deaths in the 1890s, she stayed with siblings Horace and Effie, along with her nieces.
As a new teacher in 1873, Caddie Parke was assigned to the city's sole high school for black students, which bounced between buildings before Congress appropriated $112,000 for a permanent location where the institution became known as the M Street School. Caddie was a District of Columbia public school teacher for her entire career. The entire D.C. government had Congressional oversight, which meant that Caddie's salary as a federal employee remained mostly equal with other teachers across race and gender lines. She received regularly scheduled salary increases, including a $2,000 raise in 1916. The competitive salary attracted many highly qualified black teachers to the M Street School, which in turn became renowned as a successful, academically rigorous school. Students equaled or excelled national test norms and regularly out-performed the local white schools academically. There are several histories of the school which detail the accomplished and well-known graduates, but they all recognize the teaching staff as the reason for the excellence of the program, with most identifying Caddie Parke by name as an elite teacher. Due to limited employment opportunities for African Americans, many teachers with college and graduate degrees came from out of state to teach at M Street School. Caddie Parke was unusual in the teaching staff as a native without a college degree. Later in her career, she enrolled in special summer sessions at Cornell University designed for the continuing education of high school teachers.
Caddie Parke spent the summers of 1901 and 1902 in Ithaca, New York with fellow District of Columbia teacher and friend Mineola Kirkland. In 1916, the M Street School transitioned to a new building and became known as the Paul Laurence Dunbar High School, which is still a functioning high school today.
The M Street High School played a special role in supporting efforts for social justice in the black community in D.C. Among black women suffragists in this database there were at least three students, seven teachers, and one principal of M Street High School. Another suffragist was married to an M Street High School teacher who subsequently served as principal. At least ten DC black suffragists had connections as students or teachers to the school.
Caddie Parke was involved in social justice throughout her life, participating in many organizations and efforts aimed at the betterment of society. She was a member of the Teachers' Benefit and Annuity Association, the Phyllis Wheatley YWCA and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. She was also lifelong friends with other social activists, including Mary Church Terrell.
In 1913, Caddie Park marched in the National American Woman Suffrage Association-organized procession the day before Woodrow Wilson's presidential inauguration. African American participation in this suffrage march was contested by white organizers, who eventually agreed to the presence of black women if they marched in a segregated group at the back of the procession. As reported by the NAACP journal, The Crisis, African American women, including Ida B. Wells, Mary Church Terrell and at least 40 other women, refused to be segregated, instead marching with their state delegations or in groups according to profession. Caddie Parke marched in the procession, representing herself as a teacher. The Crisis reported on their participation after the demonstration, noting that Caddie Parke and fellow African American marchers "are to be congratulated that so many of them had the courage of their convictions and that they made such an admirable showing in the first great national parade."
Caddie Parke retired from teaching in 1922 after a 50-year career and was honored in a ceremony at the high school; she received many written and oral accolades from students, faculty and administrators. She was praised as an excellent algebra teacher and a kind woman who left an indelible mark on generations of black D.C. students. After her retirement, Caddie lived with family for the rest of her life. In August of 1947, Caroline Eliot Parke passed away at the age of 91 in her family home, accompanied by her two sisters and a niece.
Credit for the following image: Henry S. Robinson, "The M Street High School, 1891-1916." p. 139.
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