"Carrie Williams Clifford"

From Chillicothe,Ohio.Little is known about her childhood years except she attended high school in Columbus,Ohio and was a talented student.Before leaving Ohio,Carrie was married to William H.Clifford,a lawyer and outspoken Republican member of the Ohio State Legislature.In addition to raising her family,Carrie founded the Minerva Reading Club.During the nineteenth century this club offered its members an opportunity for social improvement,leadership skill development and a forum for increased educational opportunity and a awareness of racial issues.Poetry readings,musicals performances and oratory cotests were all a part of the literary club practice.Her writings skills developed as she presented poetry and short stories to her group.This led to her involvement with the National Association of Colored Women (NACW).Then living in Cleveland,her work and extensive abilities benefited the organization,and in 1901,she founded the Ohio,Federation of Colored Women's Clubs(OFCWC),the first organization of its kind in the nation.Serving as president of the OFCWC,Carrie focused on family,community,women's rights and racial issues.She served as editor-in-chief of the women's edition of the Cleveland journal and was a contributor to publications,including Alexander's Magazine.She was part of the OFCWC's promotion of women's suffrage and she was among the groups African American and white women who participated in demonstrations.Around 1910,the Clifford's moved with their two young sons to Washington,D.C.with Howard University nearby,Carrie opened her home for literary salons,where African Americans intellectuals gathered for literary and political discussions.Among her guest were Mary Church Terrell,W.E.B. Dubois,Alain Locke,Georgia Douglass Johnson,Charles Chestnut and others.When the NAACP was formed in 1910,Carrie was among the prominent women who held leadership roles,stemming from her work in the pioneering Niagara Movement.She contributed articles to the Crisis,the magazine of this organization.Her eloquent essay "Votes for children" expressed her discontent that women were not allowed to vote.Carrie continued to write poetry,publishing two volumes:Race Rhymes 1911 and The Widening Light 1922.Topics for her poetry included issues of the day: discrimination,injustice,protest,slavery,democracy,and religion.Other topics included famous African American individuals such as William Braithwaite,Paul Lawrence Dunbar,Frederick Douglass and Phyllis Wheatley;African American institutions such as Howard University;and African American Broadway actors.Carrie also wrote short stories,article and poems that appeared in the Opportunity,the journal of the National Urban National Urban League.Her writings have been included in just a few of the anthologies focused on the African American authors.Robert T.Kerlin,who included Carrie's "An Easter Message"in his Negro Poets and Their Poems (1923) commented that Carrie sonnet contained "discord...of the kind that stab you."In the poem's octave,Carrie crafted "majestic images of spring and renewal,while there she painted a picture of African-American despair.