Biographical Database of Black Women Suffragists
Biographical Sketch of Rosa Belle (Yancey) Dewitt, 1871-1940
By Linda D. Wilson, Independent Historian
African American suffragist Rosa Belle (Yancey) Dewitt was born on December 2, 1871, in Orion, Richmond, Virginia. She was one of at least four children born to Abner Mitchell Yancey and Charlotte (Bradley) Yancey. Her father worked as a butler. She married Alphonso Dewitt, who worked as a shipping clerk, on October 25, 1913, in Richmond. Alphonso was also a member of the "famous" Polk Miller Quartet. According to the 1940 U.S. federal census, Rosa DeWitt had completed two years of college. She worked as a schoolteacher at the East End School for African American children in Richmond.
In September 1920 Rosa Dewitt, Katie D. Pratt, Puralee Sampson, Blanch Wines, and Mary E. Sparrow were among the first African American women living in Richmond to pay their poll tax of $1.50 to vote after the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Churches and various organizations in African American communities urged women to vote. Unlike most white women in the South, Adèle Clark and a few other white suffragists went into black communities to ensure that white male registrars did not intimidate African American women from registering to vote.
Apparently, Rosa and Alphonso Dewitt had no surviving children. Rosa Dewitt died on November 24, 1940, at her home in Richmond. Alphonso Dewitt, the son of Edward and Eliza S. Dewitt, died on June 27, 1947, in Richmond. Rosa and Alphonso Dewitt were buried in Woodland Cemetery.
Sources:
Certificate of Death, Virginia, for Rosa Yancey Dewitt, accessed through Ancestry.com on June 17, 2022.
Richmond (VA) Times-Dispatch, November 26, and December 7, 1940; June 28, 1947.
Brent Tarter, Marianne E. Julienne and Barbara C. Batson, The Campaign for Woman Suffrage in Virginia. (Charleston, SC: History Press, 2020), 48-49 and 147.
Times Dispatch (Richmond, VA), June 23, 1905; June 12, 1906; May 28, 1909.
U.S., City Directories, 1822-1998, for Richmond, Virginia, in 1879, 1882, 1899, 1937, and 1938, accessed through Ancestry.com on June 17, 2022.
U.S. Federal Census, 1880, Richmond, Henrico County, Virginia.
U.S. Federal Census, 1900, Richmond, Jefferson Ward, Richmond City, Virginia.
U.S. Federal Census, 1910, Richmond, Monroe Ward, Richmond City, Virginia.
U.S. Federal Census, 1920, Richmond, Madison Ward, Richmond City, Virginia.
U.S. Federal Census, 1930, Richmond, Richmond (Independent City), Virginia.
U.S. Federal Census, 1940, Richmond, Richmond City, Virginia.
U.S., Freedman's Bank Records, 1865-1874, accessed through Ancestry.com on June 17, 2022.
U.S., Social Security Applications and Claims Index, 1936-2007, for Alphonso Dewitt.
Virginia, U.S., Birth Registers, 1853-1911, for Rosa Belle Yancy, accessed through Ancestry.com on June 17, 2022.
Virginia, U.S., Select Marriages, 1785-1940, for Rose [sic] B. Yancey and Alphonso Dewitt, accessed through Ancestry.com on June 17, 2022.
World War II Registration Card, for Alphonso Dewitt, born March 27, 1880, in Richmond, Virginia.
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