Biographical Database of Black Women Suffragists
Biography of Lucy Monroe Flint, 1872-1916
By Jean Bowling, Independent Historian
Lucy Monroe Flint was born in Louisville, Kentucky in 1872. Growing up in Louisville she attended public elementary and high schools and subsequently Eckstein Norton Institute (sometimes School or University), a Black Baptist-affiliated university that operated in Cane Springs, KY between 1890 and 1912. Mary Cook Parrish, another Kentucky-born Black suffragist, was a faculty member at Eckstein Norton and probably the founder of the black women's club there, the Eckstein Daisy Club. That club was one of the first Kentucky affiliates of the National Association of Colored Women, founded in 1896.
After Eckstein Norton, Flint taught at the Oakland school in Louisville for twelve years. In 1900, Lucy headed her own household in Louisville, living with two unmarried sisters, Pollie and Lula. Lula and Lucy were both recorded as teachers.
In August 1897 she led a discussion on history at the meeting of the Colored Teachers' Institute in Louisville. In January 1904, at the founding meeting of the Kentucky Federation of Colored Women's Clubs, Lucy Flint was acknowledged as a representative of the Board of Managers. She was also appointed to the Executive Board of the state federation, the Finance Committee, and on a committee to help draft their constitution.
Flint was a devout Baptist and was affiliated while in Kentucky with the Foreign Mission Board of the National Baptist Convention.
She relocated to Indianapolis, Indiana, in 1911 and became stenographer and secretary for Madam C.J. Walker, the noted Black entrepreneur. In addition to working for Mrs. Walker, Lucy Flint participated in the formation of Branch No. 7 of the Equal Suffrage Association of Indiana and in June of 1912, during a meeting held at Mrs. C.J. Walker's home in Indianapolis, she was elected to serve as its Secretary. Lucy Flint traveled extensively with Madame Walker between 1912 and 1915.
In her years in Indianapolis Lucy Flint was active in advancing the welfare of the colored race and supported the colored Y.M.C.A. by serving on its Board and financing its programs with a pledge of $25 a year.
After a short illness, Lucy Flint died at her home in Indianapolis on August 16, 1916, from peritonitis. She was 44 years old. She provided for her pledge of $25 a year to the colored Y.M.C.A. to continue after her death.
Sources:
Dr. Anita Morgan, Senior Lecturer, Indiana University of Liberal Arts at IUPUI, emails
A'Lelia Bundles, Chair/President of the Foundation of the National Archives (Washington, D.C.), journalist, and author – e-mails
"Colored Teachers," The Courier Journal, Louisville, Kentucky, August 12, 1897, p.8
"Federation of Women's Clubs," American Baptist, Louisville, Kentucky, Jan. 8,1904, p.1
"Baptist Women's Educational Convention," American Baptist, Louisville, Kentucky, November 4,1904, p.1
"Colored Equal Suffragists," Indianapolis News, June 25, 1912, p.12
Death Notice, The Indianapolis Star, August 18, 1916, p. 9
"Miss Lucy Flint Dead," The Indianapolis News, August 18, 1916, p.3
"Miss Lucy Flint Dies," The Indianapolis Recorder, August 19, 1916, p. 4
"Death Returns," The Indianapolis News, August 22, 1916, p. 7
The Indianapolis News, September 2, 1916, p.3
"Self Made: Community, the Color Line, and Women Working for Madam Walker," Paul Mullins, Word Press, March 20, 2020. Accessible online at https://paulmullins.files.wordpress.com/2020/03/walker-netflix.jpg
Beverly Lowry, Her Dream of Dreams: The Rise and Triumph of Madam C.J. Walker(New York: Vintage, 2003).
Karen Cotton McDaniel, "Local Women: The Public Lives of Black Middle Class Women in Kentucky before the ‘Modern Civil Rights Movement,'" doctoral dissertation, accessible online at https://uknowledge.uky.edu/history_etds/22
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