Rose Talliaferro Bradic

Biographical Database of Black Woman Suffragists

Biographical Sketch of Rose Talliaferro Bradic, 1880-1944

By Jillian Battye and Katherine Riordan, undergraduates, University of Rhode Island

Rose Belle Ivarles Talliaferro was born in Henrico County, Virginia on June 5, 1879. Her parents were James Ivarles Talliaferrio and Lucy Thomas. It is probable that Rose was mixed race as in some census records she is listed as Black and in others as white or mulatto. Talliaferro appears to be the name of Rose's stepfather. Rose gave birth to Hazel Talliaferro in Providence at age seventeen on December 22nd, 1897. The 1900 Federal Census indicates that Rose Taliaferro and her mother, Lucy Thomas Taliaferro, worked in the kitchen of the Herreshoff estate in Bristol, Rhode Island. Both women are described as Black, with Rose employed as a waiter and Lucy as the cook. The Herreshoffs were related to the John Carter Brown family who founded Brown University and were very involved in the slave trade. In 1901, Lucy Thomas Talliaferro died and Julia A. Herreshoff helped settle Lucy's estate in probate court. Around 1903, Rose married Wallace Bradic, who was born in Rhode Island. Together they lived for many years in a home they owned at 212 Bellevue Avenue in Providence. Their son, Wallace Howard Bradic, was born in Rhode Island in 1906. Rose's husband was listed as a porter and a laborer in an insurance building. While married, Rose worked as a charwoman (part-time cleaner) and later nurse, and her son was a chauffeur. The family was active in the Pond Street Baptist Church and the Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Providence.

While living in Rhode Island, Rose Bradic supported women's suffrage activism. In 1919, Bradic delivered a speech at a Colored Citizens Welcome Home Committee event encouraging women to register to vote. Rose was an executive officer of the Colored Citizens Welcome Home Committee alongside Dr. James A. Gilbert. A New York Age article published on October 2, 1920, wrote that the Providence city caucus elected Rose Bradic and other African American women to attend conventions. Bertha Higgins was selected for the senatorial convention, Amy Baily was selected for the city convention, and Rose Bradic was selected for the state convention.

Rose Bradic was also listed in a 1925 Providence Journal article as a donor for a convention held on Labor Day of that year run by The National Republican Women's Auxiliary, Eastern Division (Colored). The Resolution of the [Rhode Island] Union Colored Women's Clubs Supporting the Federal Woman Suffrage Amendment, signed in 1916 at the Congdon St. Baptist Church, the oldest Black Church in the city of Providence, featured Rose Bradic's signature. Another 24 African American women suffragists also signed this document. In 1920, Rose Bradic also was a speaker for a re-consecration celebration of the Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Providence.

Rose Bradic died at her home in Providence on March 29, 1944. Her funeral was held at the Pond Street Baptist Church. Wallace Bradic died in New York City, where their son lived, in 1959. Rose and Wallace are both buried in North Burial Ground, Bristol, Rhode Island.

Sources:

Ancestry.com. U.S., City Directories, 1822-1995 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011.

"United States Census, 1940," database with images, GenealogyBank (https://genealogybank.com/#), Rose Bradic, Ward 8, Providence, Providence City, Providence, Rhode Island, United States.

Year: 1940; Census Place: Providence, Providence, Rhode Island; Roll: m-t0627-03777; Page: 12B; Enumeration District: 6-145

(1920 October 2). New York Age, p. 4, "Providence, R.I."

Providence Journal, 22 Oct. 1916, p. 39. "Annual Conference."

Providence Journal, Nov. 4, 1919, p. 18, "Charter Granted to Women Voters"

(1920 June 21). Providence Journal, p. 3. "Bethel Church Members Burn Cancelled Mortgage."

(1925 July 20). Providence Journal, p. 12. Available from NewsBank: Access World News – Historical and Current:

(1944 March 31). Providence Journal, "Deaths."

(1959 April 28), Providence Journal, "Wallace B. Bradic obituary."

https://www.docsteach.org/documents/document/suffrage-ri-union

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/126040445/wallace-b-bradic

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/126040432/rosa-belle-bradic


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