Alice Matilda Thomas Davis

Biographical Database of Black Woman Suffragists

Biography of Alice Matilda Thomas Davis, 1861-1938

By Linda D. Wilson, Independent Historian

African American suffragist Alice M. Davis, the daughter of James F. and Marguerite Thomas, was born circa 1861 in New York City. Her father was born a slave in Maryland. He escaped to New York City and eventually made his way to England, where his freedom was purchased by two Englishmen. When Thomas returned to the United States, he worked as a messenger and servant for Charles Fisk, who owned a bank in New York City. (1) Standard Union (Brooklyn, NY), May 31, 1911. Brooklyn (NY) Daily Eagle, June 1, 1911. U.S. Census, 1880, New York City, New York County, New York. Last Will and Testament of James F. Thomas, dated May 11, 1906, accessed on Ancestry.com, October 23, 2019.

Between 1880 and 1888, Alice Thomas apparently married a man whose surname was Davis. They had four children given the same surname. There is no extant record of their marriage. By 1905 Alice Davis and her children were living with her widowed father in Brooklyn, New York. They continued to live with him until his death in 1911. (2) No marriage record can be found, In the 1880 federal census, Alice is single and living with her parents. By the 1905 New York state census, she is listed as Alice Davis and is living with her widowed father. Her first child was born circa 1888, based on their age in the 1905 state census.

Alice M. Davis was an active member of the Equal Suffrage League in Brooklyn, New York. Sarah Jane (Smith) Tompkins Garnet (1831-1911) organized the club in the late 1880s. Garnet initially held meetings for the small group in her seamstress shop. When the league increased in numbers, members met at the Carlton Avenue Branch of the Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA) in Brooklyn. Davis served as treasurer of the league from 1910 to 1911. Additionally, as a musician, she accompanied members singing suffrage songs at meetings held at the YMCA. Davis was among the attendees at a September 1911 reception given by the Equal Suffrage League for Sarah Garnet, following her return from Europe, where Garnet had attended the Universal Races Congress. Dr. W. E. B. Du Bois, prominent teacher, sociologist, and activist, was present and conveyed his impressions of the Congress at the reception. (3) Brooklyn Daily Eagle, February 17, June 12, and September 20, 1910 and April 29 and September 11, 1911. New York Age (New York, NY), September 14, 1911. The 1880 federal census gives her occupation as organist. Karen Garner, "Equal Suffrage League," in Nina Mjagkij, ed., Organizing Black America: An Encyclopedia of African American Associations (NY: Garland Publishing, Inc., 2001). Susan Goodier and Karen Pastorello, Women Will Vote: Winning Suffrage in New York State (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University, 2017), 79-82, 90. Floris Barnett Cash, African American Women and Social Action: The Clubwomen and Volunteerism from Jim Crow to the New Deal, 1896-1936 (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2001), 61. Roslyn Terborg-Penn, African American Women in the Struggle for the Vote, 1850-1920 (Bloomington, IN: Indian University Press, 1998), 94-95.

Apparently after 1911 Alice M. Davis was no longer active in the Equal Suffrage League of Brooklyn, New York, as there are no extant newspaper accounts mentioning her as a member. Following her father's death in 1911, she lived with her daughter Marguerite Davis, who married Edward Robinson. Alice M. Davis died on June 18, 1938, in Brooklyn, New York. (4)U.S. Census, 1920, Brooklyn, Kings County, New York. New York State Census, 1925, Brooklyn, Kings County New York. New York, New York, Extracted Death Index, 1862-1948, for Alice M. Davis, accessed on Ancetry.com, on September 20, 2019.