Elizabeth Piper Ensley

Although some sources claim that Ensley was born in 1848 in the Caribbean, census and marriage records, as well as her grave, place her birth at New Bedford, Massachusetts, on January 19, 1847.{{Cite book |title=1910 United States Federal Census, Denver Ward 9 |publisher=United States |year=1910 |location=Denver, Colorado |pages=T624_116; 6A; Enumeration District: 0110; FHL microfilm: 1374129}}{{Cite book |title=Massachusetts, Marriage Records, 1840–1915}}{{citation|title=Elizabeth Piper, daughter of Philip and Jane Gibson Piper|work=New England Historic Genealogical Society; Boston, Massachusetts; Vital Records of New Bedford, Massachusetts to the Year 1850}} Her father, Phillip F. Piper, was born in Virginia and her mother, Jane Gibson, was born in Georgia.{{citation|title=Philip F Piper and Jane Gibson, June 26, 1846, New Bedford, Massachusetts |work=Town and City Clerks of Massachusetts. Massachusetts Vital and Town Records. Provo, UT: Holbrook Research Institute (Jay and Delene Holbrook)}}{{efn|Philip, born about 1820, was the son of William and Amelia Piper. William Piper, a former slave in Alexandria, Virginia, was a domestic servant for William Rotch Rodman, who earned his income from the banking and whaling industries. Piper, known for his skill in caring for horses, lived at 54 Bedford Street, two blocks from Rodman's residence at 58 Bedford Street, in what is now a historical area in New Bedford. Former slaves often became part of the middle class in New Bedford. Piper's wife, Amelia, was also a former slave.{{Cite news |last=Marean |first=Pamela |url=https://www.southcoasttoday.com/article/20121215/entertain/212150312 |title=Behind the mansions: Researchers explore 'microcosm of historic New Bedford' |date=December 15, 2012 |access-date=March 4, 2020 |language=en}}}} Her father worked on the ship Rebecca Simms.{{efn|In 1839, he was a captain of Rebecca Simms (sailed out of New Bedford - general trading service; refitted as a whaler before 1850) and lived at 87 S. Sixth Street, New Bedford, Massachusetts.{{citation|title=Philip F. Piper|work=New Bedford, Massachusetts, City Directory, 1839|page=110 }}}} In 1868, she graduated from the West Newton English and Classical School, also known as the Allen School. From 1869 to December 1870, she traveled to England and Europe.{{efn|It is said that during the early 1870s, Ensley studied abroad in Germany and Switzerland, but she is said to have returned to the United States in December 1870.{{Cite web |url=http://friendsofriversidecemetery.org/riverside-biographies/ |title=Friends of Historic Riverside Cemetery » Riverside Biographies |first=DL |last=Hennesy |editor=K. Alexander |access-date=March 4, 2020}}}}

File:Newell Houston Ensley (1852-1888).png (1852-1888)]]

She married her husband Newell Houston Ensley on September 4, 1882, in Boston. Newell, born in Nashville, Tennessee on August 23, 1852, was the son of Clara and George Ensley. Born into slavery, he was owned by his maternal grandfather who hired a teacher to teach him to read and write.{{efn|Both of his parents were literate. He was a buggy boy, servant, and rent collector to his grandfather. After the Civil War, he was a paid worker for his grandfather, until his death. His mother was established in a cabin on 30 acres in 1866.}} After the Civil War, Newell worked and attended a school near her home and became the teacher and a Sunday school teacher. He desired to become a preacher.{{efn|He toured the north with Dr. Phillips, representing the Home Mission schools.{{Cite book |last=Simmons |first=Rev. William J. |url=https://docsouth.unc.edu/neh/simmons/simmons.html |title=Men of Mark: Eminent, Progressive and Rising |publisher=G. M. Rewell & co. |year=1887 |pages=361}}}} He graduated third in his class from Roger Williams University in Nashville in June 1878, and then attended Newton Theological Seminary in Massachusetts, where he was the only black man in his graduating class (ca. 1881). He first taught Latin and theology at a school in Raleigh, North Carolina. He was a professor of rhetoric, Hebrew, and science at Howard University and Alcorn State University.{{Cite web |url=https://teva.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/reconaa/id/189/ |title=Men of Mark: Eminent, Progressive and Rising - Newell Ensley |website=Tennessee State Library and Archives |language=en |access-date=March 4, 2020}} Among his favored topics were "Toussaint L'Ouverture," "Pluck versus Luck," "The Rights of Women," "Temperance" and "The Rights of the Negro." They had three children: Roger (born 1883), Charlotte (born 1885),{{citation|title=Elizabeth P. Ensley, 1722 Logan Street, Denver - year of birth 1847 |work= 1900 United States Federal Census Year: 1900; Census Place: Denver, Arapahoe, Colorado; Roll: 119; Page: 14B; Enumeration District: 0069; FHL microfilm: 1240119}} and Jean (March 1888 – June 1888).

They lived in Washington in 1880s, and then Mississippi, before moving to Denver, Colorado in 1887 or 1888.{{efn|Jameson states that she came to Denver in the early 1890s.}} The African-American community was only about 2% of Denver's total population. Newell died in Denver, Colorado, on May 23, 1888.{{Cite book |title=The Newton Theological Institution: General Catalogue |publisher=Andover Newton Theological School |year=1912 |page=160}} Ensley lived at 855 S. Emerson, in a craftsman house. She also lived at 1722 Logan, Denver, Colorado in 1900, when her mother and her two surviving children (of three) lived with her.

Upon returning from Europe on December 22, 1870, she established a circulating library in Boston{{Cite journal |date=May 1920 |title=Elizabeth Piper Ensley |journal=The Crisis |volume=20 |pages=38}} and became a public school teacher, working in Trenton, New Jersey. From 1882 to 1883, Elizabeth was a member of the faculty of Howard University.{{Cite web |url=http://www.denverpost.com/lifestyles/ci_3336111?source=infinite-up |title=Denver cemetery's data "very valuable" to state |date=December 23, 2005 |access-date=October 24, 2015 |newspaper=The Denver Post}} She taught at Alcorn State University in Mississippi before moving to Denver.{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WzBr2tJYgGoC&pg=PA374 |title=Writing the Range: Race, Class, and Culture in the Women's West |publisher=University of Oklahoma Press |year=1997 |isbn=0806129298 |editor-last=Jameson |editor-first=Elizabeth |location=Norman, OK |pages=374}} Ensley was the Denver correspondent for The Woman's Era, the national publication of the National Association of Colored Women's Clubs (NACWC) by 1894, when she reported on the first election in which women could vote.{{Cite book |last1=Lerner |first1=Gerda |url=https://archive.org/details/blackwomeninwhit00gerd |url-access=registration |title=Black Women in White America: A Documentary History |last2=Lerner |first2=Robinson-Edwards Professor of History and Senior Distinguished Research Professor Gerda |date=1992 |publisher=Vintage Books |isbn=978-0-679-74314-9 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/blackwomeninwhit00gerd/page/337 337] |language=en}} It was the first monthly newspaper published by and for African-American woman.

Due to the Silver Panic of 1893, miners who had lost their jobs were in Denver with their families. In Colorado, Elizabeth joined Denver's relief efforts for the poor and the homeless, contacting people that she knew in Washington, D.C., and Boston to help fund relief efforts.

Women had the right to vote in school board elections, but not in other elections, in accordance with the state constitution of 1876. Inspired by her experiences with the women's suffrage groups in Boston, Elizabeth joined the campaign to put a women's suffrage amendment on the November 1893 ballot in Colorado, so that women could vote in all elections. She was the treasurer of the Colorado Non-Partisan Equal Suffrage Association, and beginning with a fund of 25 dollars, helped gain the money necessary for the campaign. Ensley worked to persuade African-American men to vote in favor of voting rights for women.{{Cite web |url=https://www.intermountainhistories.org/items/show/257 |title=Elizabeth P. Ensley: Suffragette and African American Women's Club Leader |last=Rounsville |first=Sarah |website=Intermountain Histories |access-date=April 13, 2019}} The suffrage amendment was approved in November 1893, making Colorado the second state to grant voting rights to women.

Alongside Ida Clark DePriest,{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iXw5DQAAQBAJ&q=%22ida+depriest%22&pg=PA216|title=Women and Work: Exploring Race, Ethnicity, and Class|publisher=Sage Publications|year=1997|isbn=9780803950597|editor-last=Higginbotham|editor-first=Elizabeth|volume=6: Women and Work|location=Thousand Oaks, CA|pages=220|editor-last2=Romero|editor-first2=Mary}} she organized the Colorado Colored Women's Republican Club to teach African-American women to be educated voters. While she identified most with the Republican Party, she wrote that "there should be thorough and systematic organization of the women of all parties."{{Cite web |url=http://womenwriters.digitalscholarship.emory.edu/content.php?level=div&id=era1_09.15&document=era1 |title=Emory Women Writers Resource Project : The Woman's Era, Volume 1 : club notes 0 |website=womenwriters.digitalscholarship.emory.edu |access-date=April 13, 2019 |archive-date=April 14, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200414065041/http://womenwriters.digitalscholarship.emory.edu/content.php?level=div&id=era1_09.15&document=era1 |url-status=dead }}

She established the Women's League in 1894 to inform black women how to vote, communicate the importance of voting, and communicate the nature of the issues. She was also very involved in ensuring equality for all and civil rights.

She founded the Colorado Association of Colored Women's Clubs (CACW) in 1904,{{Cite web |url=http://www.his.com/~njohn/wow/ensley.htm |title=Women of the West Museum: The LoDo Mural Project |publisher=His.com |access-date=October 24, 2015}} which created a stronger alliance by joining eight organizations throughout Colorado.{{Cite web |url=https://www.coloradovirtuallibrary.org/digital-colorado/colorado-histories/boom-years/elizabeth-piper-ensley-activist/ |title=Elizabeth Piper Ensley: Activist |date=July 13, 2015 |website=Colorado Virtual Library |language=en-US |access-date=March 4, 2020}} The CACW led community and educational programs, including the George Washington Carver Day Nursery. Ensley served as the second Vice President of the Colorado State Federation of Colored Women's Clubs. She delivered an address to the Federation in 1906 titled "Women and the Ballot."{{Cite book |last=Terborg-Penn |first=Rosalyn |url=https://archive.org/details/africanamericanw00terb |title=African American Women in the Struggle for the Vote, 1850-1920 |date=1998 |publisher=Indiana University Press |isbn=0-253-33378-4 |page=[https://archive.org/details/africanamericanw00terb/page/98 98] |url-access=registration}} Ensley was the only African-American member of the predominantly white board of the Colorado Federation of Women's Clubs.

She died on February 23, 1919, in Denver,{{efn|The Friends of the Riverside Cemetery stated that she died on June 6, 1919, but The New York Age had reported in March of that year that she died on February 23.}} at the home of her daughter, Charlotte Ensley Britton.{{Cite news |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/46091640/obituary-for-elizabeth-piper-ensley/ |title=Obituary for Elizabeth Piper Ensley (Aged 62) |date=March 15, 1919 |work=The New York Age |access-date=2020-03-04 |pages=2}} She is buried in the Ensley family plot at Riverside Cemetery in Denver, Colorado.

In 2020, Ensley was posthumously named an honoree of the National Women's History Alliance and inducted into the Colorado Women's Hall of Fame.{{cite web |title=2020 Honorees |url=https://nationalwomenshistoryalliance.org/2020-honorees/ |website=National Women's History Alliance |access-date=8 January 2020 |archive-date=15 January 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200115050016/https://nationalwomenshistoryalliance.org/2020-honorees/ |url-status=dead }}{{Cite web|date=2019-11-05|title=Colorado Women's Hall of Fame Announces 2020 Class of Inductees|url=https://www.5280.com/2019/11/the-colorado-womens-hall-of-fame-announces-2020-class-of-inductees/|access-date=2020-11-09|website=5280|language=en}}

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{{reflist}}

• {{find a Grave|id=76430116|name=Elizabeth Piper Ensley}}
• {{cite web |url=https://history.denverlibrary.org/colorado-biographies/elizabeth-piper-ensley-1847-1919 |title= Elizabeth Piper Ensley (1847 - 1919) |website=Denver Public Library |date= 16 June 2020 |publisher= |access-date=29 September 2022 |quote=Elizabeth was born the child of a former slave and spent her life fighting for women's suffrage and the rights of African Americans.}}
• {{cite web |url=https://www.historycolorado.org/story/womens-history/2020/02/18/elizabeth-piper-ensley-and-100th-anniversary-19th-amendment |title=Elizabeth Piper Ensley and the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment|date=18 February 2020 |website=History Colorado |access-date=30 September 2022|quote=Piper was an African American educator, political activist, and suffragist}}
• {{cite web |url=https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/elizabeth-ensley |title=Elizabeth Ensley |last=Hayden |first=Stuart |website=Colorado Encyclopedia |date=18 June 2021 |access-date=30 September 2022 |quote=Elizabeth Piper Ensley (1847–1919) was a political activist and reformer who worked throughout her life for gender and racial equality. }}

{{Colorado Women's Hall of Fame}}

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Category:1847 births

Category:1919 deaths

Category:African-American suffragists

Category:Suffragists from Colorado

Category:African-American women educators

Category:Activists for African-American civil rights

Category:Howard University faculty

Category:People from New Bedford, Massachusetts

Category:Activists from Denver

Category:Educators from Denver

Category:American women academics

Category:20th-century African-American people

Category:20th-century African-American women

Category:19th-century African-American women

Category:Burials at Riverside Cemetery (Denver, Colorado)

Category:19th-century African-American educators

Category:19th-century American educators

Category:Colorado pioneers