Fauset, Crystal Bird (1893–1965)

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Fauset, Crystal Bird (1893–1965)

First African-American woman to be elected to a state legislature. Born Crystal Dreda Bird on June 27, 1893, in Princess Anne, Maryland; died on March 28, 1965, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; youngest of nine children of Benjamin (a school principal) and Portia E. (Lovett) Bird; attended public school in Boston; graduated from Boston Normal School, 1914; B.A. from Columbia University's Teachers College, New York, 1931; married Arthur Huff Fauset (an educator), in June 1931 (divorced 1944).

Born in Pennsylvania in 1893, Crystal Fauset grew up in Boston, where she lived with her aunt following the death of her parents. After graduating from Normal School in 1914, she taught school for three years. Fauset began to speak out about the concerns of the black American community and race relations in general, through her association with the Young Women's Christian Association (YWCA) and the American Friends Service Committee. In 1931, she received her bachelor's degree from Columbia University and also married Arthur Fauset, the principal of Philadelphia's Singerley School. They would divorce in 1944. During the early 1930s, thinking she could reach more people through political action, Fauset joined the administrative staff of the Works Progress Administration (WPA) of Philadelphia and organized the Philadelphia Democratic Women's League. In 1936, she became the director of black women's activities for the National Democratic Committee and, as reported in the Philadelphia Record, started "selling Roosevelt humanitarianism to Negro housewives."

In 1938, with the backing of party leaders, Fauset ran for Democratic representative in the Pennsylvania legislature. Believing that low economic status was the largest problem in the black community, she vowed to fight for "more relief, more WPA and better housing." Conducting her campaign mainly by telephone, she beat her opponent by 7,000 votes, in a district that was predominately white, and took her place as the only woman among six black members in the Pennsylvania legislature at the time. Her legislative tenure was marked by a number of impassioned speeches, during which she encouraged all citizens, especially black women, to become actively involved in community activities and to use the power of the ballot to alter the course of history.

Late in 1939, after less than a year in her legislative post, Fauset resigned to join the WPA as assistant state director of the Education and Recreation Program, hoping that it would give her a broader opportunity to improve race relations. In 1941, as a result of her leadership in Roosevelt's election campaigns and her friendship with Eleanor Roosevelt , Fauset was named special consultant to the director of the Office of Civilian Defense. In 1944, she resigned that post to take part in the Democratic election campaign, but she subsequently withdrew from the Democratic National Committee over a dispute with party leadership and switched her support to the Republican candidate for president, Governor Thomas E. Dewey. Fauset helped establish the United Nations Council of Philadelphia in 1945 and served as an officer until 1950, the year she attended the founding of the United Nations in San Francisco. She later embarked on speaking tours in India, the Middle East and Nigeria, and also pursued a diplomatic post in Africa.

By 1955, when Fauset was awarded a second Meritorious Service Medal from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania (her first was awarded in 1939), she was becoming disenchanted with politics. Despite her disappointments, she remained active in political and educational concerns until her death on March 28, 1965.