Sarah Massey Overton

Sarah Massey Overton (1850-1914) was a suffragist, women's rights activist, and African-American rights activist.[1][2] She was born in Massachusetts but moved to California in the 1880s.[2] There she attended St. Phillip’s Mission School.[2] In 1869 she married, and then she ran a catering business with her husband.[2] In the 1880s she became a leader in the fight to allow African-American children in California to attend public school.[2] In 1906 she cofounded San Jose’s Garden City Women’s Club, and as a member of it she lobbied in favor of interracial women’s club coalitions for women's suffrage.[2][3] She lobbied for women's suffrage in the 1911 statewide election in California, and was vice-president of San Jose’s interracial Suffrage Amendment League.[2] She also did voter registration of men in California who supported women's suffrage, doing this through the Political Equality Club of San Jose.[3] She was also president of the all-black Victoria Earle Matthews (Mothers) Club, which helped girls and women who had been sexually abused or threatened with such.[2] She had a daughter named Harriet and a son named Charles.[4]

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