Sarah Massey Overton

Sarah Massey Overton
Sarah Massey Overton
Born	Sarah Massey; 1850; Lennox, Massachusetts
Died	August 24, 1914 (aged 63–64); San Jose, California
Nationality	American
Spouse(s)	Jacob Overton (m. 1869)

Sarah Massey Overton (1850 – August 24, 1914) was a suffragist, women's rights activist, and African-American rights activist.[1][2]

Biography

She was born in Lennox, Massachusetts but moved to California in the 1880s.[2] There she attended St. Phillip’s Mission School.[2] In 1869 she married Jacob Overton, 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 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]

Overton had a daughter named Harriet and a son named Charles.[4]

Overton died on August 24, 1914 in San Jose, California.[2]

References

"The African-American Suffragists History Forgot". MAKERS. October 22, 2015. Retrieved October 24, 2015.
Herbert G. Ruffin II (June 5, 2011). "Overton, Sarah Massey (1850–1914)". The Black Past. Retrieved October 24, 2015.
Herbert G. Ruffin (March 28, 2014). Uninvited Neighbors: African Americans in Silicon Valley, 1769–1990. University of Oklahoma Press. pp. 45–. ISBN 978-0-8061-4583-9.
Delilah Leontium Beasley (1919). The Negro Trail Blazers of California: A Compilation of Records from the California Archives in the Bancroft Library at the University of California, in Berkeley; and from the Diaries, Old Papers, and Conversations of Old Pioneers in the State of California ... Times Mirror printing and binding house. pp. 232–.

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[1] "The African-American Suffragists History Forgot". MAKERS. October 22, 2015. Retrieved October 24, 2015.

[blackpast1914-2] Herbert G. Ruffin II (June 5, 2011). "Overton, Sarah Massey (1850–1914)". The Black Past. Retrieved October 24, 2015.

[Ruffin2014-3] Herbert G. Ruffin (March 28, 2014). Uninvited Neighbors: African Americans in Silicon Valley, 1769–1990. University of Oklahoma Press. pp. 45–. ISBN 978-0-8061-4583-9.

[Beasley1919-4] Delilah Leontium Beasley (1919). The Negro Trail Blazers of California: A Compilation of Records from the California Archives in the Bancroft Library at the University of California, in Berkeley; and from the Diaries, Old Papers, and Conversations of Old Pioneers in the State of California ... Times Mirror printing and binding house. pp. 232–.