Biographical Database of Black Women Suffragists
Biography of Josephine Bromell Crawford, 1875-1918
By Maureen Flanagan, Emeritus Professor of History, Illinois Institute of Technology
Josephine Bromell (Mrs. Robert) Crawford was born in Indiana in 1875. Her parents were George Bromell and Kate Edwards, both born in Kentucky. The first evidence available for her life is from the 1900 census. At that time, she and Robert were living in Chicago and recorded that they were newly married and living at 3000 S. Dearborn Street. Josephine Crawford participated in the efforts of the city's suffrage movement among African American women's clubs. In 1913 she was president of the Aloha Suffrage Club, also known as the Aloha Ladies Political Club #2, described as a non-partisan auxiliary to the 2nd and 3rd ward Political Club. Among her suffrage activities she served as an aide to Anna Wilmarth (Mrs. Harold) Ickes in the May 1914 Chicago Suffrage Parade. Josephine Crawford was active in several church organizations. She was the assistant clerk of the Ebenezer Baptist Church.
She died in July 1918. Her obituary noted that she had been a member of several fraternal organizations within the city's African American community, including the Trinity Household of Ruth, Oddfellows. Crawford is buried in Oakwoods Cemetery.
Sources:
U.S. Census, Chicago 1900
The Chicago Defender, May 2 and 9, 1914
The Broad Ax, February 9 and 23, 1918,
Obituary, July 20, 1918 Cook County, Illinois, Death Index
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