Marie Jackson Stuart

{{Infobox person

| name = Marie Jackson Stuart

| image = Marie Jackson Stuart, New York Federation of Colored Women's Clubs, ca.1912.jpg

| caption = Secretary of the New York Federation c. 1912

| birth_date = 1878

| birth_place = Pennsylvania

| death_date = November 14, 1925

| death_place = New York, New York

| occupation = Actress and activist

}}

Marie Jackson Stuart (1878-1925) was a New York-based dramatic reader who used her performances and oratory skills to promote Black women's suffrage.{{cite encyclopedia |title=Biography of Marie Jackson Stuart, 1878-1925 |encyclopedia=Women and Social Movements in the United States,1600-2000 |year= 2020 |last=Botzum |first=Lexie |publisher=Alexander Street Press |location=Alexandria, VA |url=https://search.alexanderstreet.com/view/work/bibliographic_entity%7Cbibliographic_details%7C4744400 |access-date=6 March 2023 }} She was president of the Harriet Tubman Neighborhood Club of New York when Tubman died and it was Stuart who designed a marker for Tubman's grave.

Biography

Marie Jackson Stuart was born around 1878 in Pennsylvania.

She moved to New York sometime before 1906, where she was first known for her oratory and elocution. She was also involved in acting and drama, women's clubs, and the Black women's suffrage movement. In 1906, she purchased a home in Orange, New Jersey.{{cite news |title=New York City News |publisher=The New York Age |date=May 17, 1906}} She held concerts and recitals to benefit local clubs or charities.{{cite news |title=New Jersey - Orange |publisher=The New York Age |date=September 27, 1906}}

=Dramatic career=

Stuart performed at lyceum venues, such as Carnegie Lyceum{{cite news |title=Advertisement |publisher=The New York Age |date=March 28, 1907}} and St. Mark's lyceum. In 1909, the Women's Suffrage League sponsored a lyceum activity where Stuart spoke about "Negro Citizenship."{{cite book |last1=Perry |first1=Jeffrey B. |title=Hubert Harrison: the voice of Harlem radicalism, 1883-1918 |date=2008 |publisher=Columbia University Press |location=New York |isbn=9780231139113}} Stuart served as the corresponding secretary for St. Mark's Lyceum in 1910.{{cite news |title=New Officers for St. Mark's |publisher=The New York Age |date=April 7, 1910}}

Her most prominent performance was in Three Plays for a Negro Theatre in 1917. where she played Granny Maumee. The play was put on by the Colored Players at the Old Garden Theatre in Madison Square Garden, and it marked a change in how Black actors were perceived by critics and the public.{{cite book |last1=Weldon Johnson |first1=James |title=Black Manhattan |date=1930 |publisher=Alfred A. Knopf |location=New York, NY}} The play was radical for its discussion of racial identity and the position of Black people in the American framework.

Stuart worked with W. E. B. Dubois to help produce The Pageant for the New York Emancipation Exposition, which toured around the US.

=Activism=

Stuart was a founding member and organizer of the Empire State Federation of Women's Clubs, and served as secretary and organizer.{{cite news |title=Empire Federation Convenes |publisher=The New York Age |date=July 22, 1909}} She attended the 1913 convention in Buffalo, New York.

By 1912, Stuart was president of the Harriet Tubman Neighborhood Club of New York. When Tubman died in 1913, the Club hosted a memorial for her passing and Stuart spoke at the service.{{cite news |title=Tubman Memorial Services |publisher=The New York Age |date=April 17, 1913}} Over the next two years under her guidance, the club raised money to build a monument over her unmarked grave in Auburn, NY.{{cite news |title=What the People Say |publisher=The New York Age |date=March 18, 1915}} Stuart designed the marker.{{cite web |title=Harriet Tubman Biography |url=http://www.harriettubmanbiography.com/_wsn/page13.html |website=Wayback Machine |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080227060032/http://www.harriettubmanbiography.com/_wsn/page13.html |access-date=7 March 2023|archive-date=2008-02-27 }}

Stuart was involved with several organizations that focused on improving the lives of young Black women. She was part of the Brooklyn YWCA and directed at least one dramatic performance of young ladies.{{cite news |title=Brooklyn Y.W.C.A. |publisher=The New York Age |date=May 1, 1913}} Stuart was tied to the White Rose Industrial Association and attended or performed at several of their functions.{{cite news |title=Reception for Mrs. Keyser |publisher=The New York Age |date=September 12, 1912}} She sat on the board of the Union Rescue Home.{{cite news |title=Home Reorganized |publisher=The New York Age |date=July 24, 1913}}