the history of women’s equity in louisville

THE HISTORY OF WOMEN’S EQUITY IN LOUISVILLE BY DAWN ANDERSON • FAIR USE PHOTOS

For all of Louisville’s storied suffragist history, including women of wealth and social prominence, there were many unsung heroes for women’s equity. These educators, advocates, physicians, and politicians of diverse backgrounds dedicated their careers to leveling the playing fi eld. With March as Women’s History Month, we spotlight some lesser-known local champions.

LILIALYCE AKERS, PHD

Upon her nomination for the Gillian Rudd Vanguard Award, the National Association of Women Business Owners (NAWBO) honored her this way: "Dr. Lilialyce Akers is a visionary who sees the world as it should be and advocates changes for equality, justice, and human dignity that produce a safer, healthier, happier world. She views challenges as creative opportunities and works unfl inchingly attaining goals, regardless of diffi culty. She brings global views of the world, recognizing interconnections. She works for change at home, designing programs that can be implemented at global level, providing all persons the opportunity to share the benefi ts. She recognizes the importance of improving lives of individuals. She makes policy while she mentors and fundraises. She is a visionary who produces results."

A professor emeritus in sociology and women’s studies at the University of Louisville, Dr. Lilialyce Akers walked her talk. During her 40-year career, she was a researcher, legislative activist, consultant, and expert witness on women’s issues. Dr. Akers was a representative to the UN Commission on Women and presented at UN conferences worldwide. Her legacy continues with the Lilialyce Akers Graduate Assistantship in Community Engagement for U of L’s Department of Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies.

NANNIE HELEN BURROUGHS

After being denied a teaching position in Washington DC for being “too Black,” Nannie Helen Burroughs later wrote, “An idea was struck out of the suffering of that disappointment - that I would someday have a school here in Washington that school politics had nothing to do with, and that would give all sorts of girls a fair chance. It came to me like a fl ash of light, and I knew I was to do that thing when the time came.”

Although she spent less than a dozen years in Louisville, Nannie Helen Burroughs left a lasting impact as a founder of the Women’s Auxiliary of the National Baptist Convention. She served the organization for nearly a half-century and as President for thirteen years. In 1907, Burroughs received an honorary MA from HBC Eckstein Norton University in Cane Spring, Bullitt County, Kentucky, merged with Simpson University in 1912.

Refusing money from wealthy white donors, Burroughs relied solely on small donations from Black women to launch the National Trade and Professional School for Women and Girls in Washington DC in 1908, renamed Nannie Helen Burroughs School in 1964. Burroughs died in 1961, having dedicated her entire life to the school. The school’s Trades Hall is now a National Historic Landmark. “An idea was struck out of the suffering of that disappointment - that I would someday have a school here in Washington that school politics had nothing to do with, and that would give all sorts of girls a fair chance. It came to me like a flash of light, and I knew I was to do that thing when the time came.”

GRACE MARILYNN JAMES, MD

Pediatrician Grace Marilynn James was the fi rst African-American woman on faculty at University of Louisville School of Medicine. She spent her career caring for Louisville’s African-American community, which often struggled with health disparities and access to regular health care. Originally from Charleston, West Virginia, Dr. James studied in Chicago and Nashville. and completed her internship and residency at Harlem Hospital in New York City. In 1953, she opened a private practice and a walk-in clinic in Louisville’s West End.

Dr. James advocated publicly for African-American students to embrace a career in medicine and was honest about the barriers she confronted, including the “triple jeopardy” of racism, capitalism, and sexism particularly faced by African-American women. She was also a healthcare activist who espoused her strong belief in preventive, comprehensive, and universal care. Dr. James accepted all patients in her practice and clinic, many of whom were unwed mothers and children, regardless of their ability to pay. She often distributed diapers, clothing, blankets, books, and toys to patients at her own expense. James was also on staff at Louisville Children’s Hospital downtown, which was still segregated by law. She opened the West Louisville Medical Center at 23rd and Broadway in 1976. Dr. James died of

heart failure in January 1989, having practiced medicine until

the day she died.

Dr. Grace M. James, c. 1950s, courtesy David M. James.

ARTISHIA GARCIA GILBERT WILKERSON, MD

Dr. Artishia Gilbert was the fi rst Black woman licensed to practice medicine in Kentucky. She graduated from Louisville National Medical College in 1893 and Howard University College of Medicine in 1897. Dr. Gilbert returned to Louisville to teach obstetrics and served as Red Cross Sanitarium Superintendent. She was an active member of the Woman’s Industrial and Woman’s Improvement Clubs and the Colored Orphans’ Home board of directors.

Before studying medicine and opening her practice at 938 Dumesnil Street, Dr. Gilbert was editor of Our Women and Children magazine and taught English and Greek grammar at her alma mater State College, later known as Simmons College. A representative at National Baptist Conventions, she was a popular speaker throughout the South on Women’s Baptist Educational Convention tours.

Gilbert married Bernard Orange “B.O.” Wilkerson in New York City in 1896, and the couple had three children. Dr. Gilbert died two weeks after the birth of their third child in 1904. Her namesake middle child and only daughter earned degrees at Howard University, University of Chicago, and the University of California. Artishia Wilkerson Jordan then became a bishop’s wife and leader in the AME Church and LA chapter president of the National Council of Negro Women.

PATTY BLACKBURN SEMPLE

Returning to Louisville after college and a brief, unhappy marriage, Patty Blackburn Semple ditched her married name and named her daughter Bonner Semple. Now a divorcée and single mother, Semple began teaching in 1885. From 1893 to 1900, she founded and operated the progressive college preparatory school for girls Semple Collegiate School where she encouraged her young women to further their education. The school continued operation until 1915.

Semple remained a fi erce promoter of her alma mater Vassar College, from which her daughter and granddaughter would also graduate. She was actively involved in numerous civic organizations and social clubs. Semple was the fi rst woman trustee of the Louisville Free Public Library and fi rst President of the Woman’s Club of Louisville. As a suffragist, she was especially passionate about the enfranchisement of Black women.

When William Shallcross Speed and Virginia Perrin Speed founded Louisville Collegiate School for preschool to 12th-grade girls in 1915, many of the incoming students came from Semple Collegiate School. Louisville Collegiate School was completely coed by 1983.

SENATOR GEORGIA DAVIS POWERS

Born on October 19, 1923, in Jimtown, a Black settlement outside Springfi eld, Kentucky, Georgia Montgomery was born the only girl in a family with nine children. The family moved to Louisville after a tornado leveled their two-room shack. Montgomery graduated from Central High School in 1940 and studied at Louisville Municipal College, now known as the HBC Simmons College of Kentucky.

After marrying her fi rst husband Norman “Nicky” Davis and adopting son Billy, Georgia Davis got involved in Democratic Party politics with the encouragement of a fellow church member. She traveled the country as a campaign organizer and civil rights activist. In 1967, Georgia Davis Powers became the fi rst African-American and fi rst woman elected to the Kentucky State Senate. When she arrived in Frankfort, she was unable to get a hotel room as a Black woman.

Senator Powers claimed to be present at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee, the morning Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated. In her twenty-plus years of service as a State Senator, she sponsored bills prohibiting employment, sex, and age discrimination and supported legislation for fair housing and accessibility. Senator Powers retired in 1988 and received honorary doctorates from the University of Kentucky and the University of Louisville.

Founded by Rebecca Rosenthal Judah in 1895, the Louisville Section of the National Council of Jewish Women (NCJW™) is the oldest and largest women’s organization in Jefferson County. Judah was elected Treasurer on the national level in 1902. According to the NCJW website, NSJW is “continually guided by Jewish values that call on us to improve the lives of the most vulnerable women, children, and families. NCJW-Louisville pioneered many social services in the city, and its many hundreds of volunteers continue to serve, educate, and advocate for women and children.

In January 1906, NCJW-Louisville joined the Kentucky Federation of Woman’s Clubs, supporting school suffrage. That same year, Judah helped form and was elected Treasurer of the Kentucky Child Labor Association. She also served as Vice President and Treasurer of the Kentucky Equal Rights Association (KERA). KERA became the Kentucky League of Women Voters after the 19th amendment was ratifi ed in 1920.

NCJW-Louisville celebrated its 125th anniversary on June 15, 2021. The event included a virtual celebration, a “Celebrating Our Past” luncheon, and a “Celebrating Our Future gathering followed by a walk over the Big Four Bridge, lit in NCJW’s signature blue and green colors. The event also served as a major fundraising campaign for the Louisville Section.

REBECCA ROSENTHAL JUDAH

JENNIE MAAS FLEXNER

In 1908, after fi ve years as a Louisville Free Public Library secretary, Jennie Maas Flexner studied at the School of Library Science at Western Reserve University in Cleveland. She returned to chair the Louisville Woman Suffrage Association’s Legislative Committee. Flexner helped organize the 1911 National American Woman Suffrage Association convention hosted in Louisville that year. She also served as Press Superintendent of the Kentucky Equal Rights Association and worked to get out the vote after Kentucky women gained “school suffrage” in 1912.

As the Louisville Free Public Library’s circulation department head from 1912 to 1928, Flexner became a leading authority on reader-centered libraries. She promoted service to the Black community and professional education for librarians. In 1926, Flexner served on the American Library Association’s curriculum staff and wrote the book Circulation Work in Public Libraries 1927, a standard text for library schools based on that experience.

Through the depression and World War II, Flexner founded the Readers’ Advisory division at New York Public Library and innovated adult education and training programs benefi ting immigrants, refugees, and minorities. She published Making Books Work: A Guide to the Use of Libraries for the common reader in 1943. Jennie Maas Flexner died on November 16, 1944, in NYC and was buried in Louisville’s Adath Israel Cemetery. 