Biographical Database of Black Women Suffragists
Biography of Charlotte Stewart, 1871-?
By Thomas Dublin, Distinguished Professor Emeritus, State University of New York at Binghamton
Charlotte Stewart was born in the District of Columbia between 1867 and 1872 (censuses offer varied ages) to James H. and Jenny Stewart. Her father was a messenger for the War Department between 1880 and 1910. Charlotte was the oldest of five children, 2 girls and 3 boys. In 1880, Charlotte, recorded as 13, attended school. Her mother died before 1900 and, as the oldest child, Charlotte may well have taken on housekeeping for the family. By 1910, now recorded as 39, Charlotte was said to be a teacher in a grammar school.
Charlotte Stewart was a guest at the Eighth Annual Banquet of the Soldiers' and Sailors' Beneficial Union held in Grand Army Hall in the District in February, 1902. Charles Remond Douglass, son of the abolitionist Frederick Douglass, presided over the event, attended by many of the District's black elite. Mary Church Terrell, another black suffragist, offered a toast to "Our Women."
Charlotte Stewart participated in the March 1913 NAWSA suffrage parade in DC, her presence recorded by suffragist Carrie Williams Clifford in the April issue of The Crisis. This article noted that she was one of the "college women" in the parade.
After the suffrage march, we find that Charlotte Stewart and A. Wicks took out a marriage license in DC as reported in the Washington Herald of 3 January 1914. We find no subsequent census listing in 1920 or 1930 for the couple and no death record for Charlotte Wicks.
Sources:
1880, 1900, 1910, 1920, and 1930 Federal Manuscript Censuses for the District of Columbia, Maryland, and Virginia and indexes accessed via HeritageQuest.com.
Newspapers.com search for "Charlotte Stewart" and "Charlotte Wicks," 1900-1920 for Washington, DC newspapers.
"Eighth Annual Banquet," Washington Evening Star, 14 Feb. 1902, p. 13.
"Marriage Licenses," Washington Herald, 3 Jan. 1914, p. 14.
Carrie Williams Clifford, "Suffrage Paraders," The Crisis, 5:6 (April 1913), p. 296.
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