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Founder of the Suffrage League of Virginia

Bio of Adele Goodman Clark

By Paula C. HendersonPublished 4 years ago 3 min read
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We celebrate the life of Adele Goodman Clark who passed away on this day, June 4, in 1983 at the age of 100.

Adele, along with several other women founded the Equal Suffrage League of Virginia. She also served as the first chair of the League of Women Voters in the year 1920, becoming president of the league in 1921.

In 1922 Adele was appointed to the Commission on the Simplification of State and Local Government by Governor Trinkle and in 1926 appointed to the Liberal Arts College for Women Commission by Governor Harry Byrd, Jr.

There is a grand statue of Adele Goodman Clark at the Virginia State Capitol building located at 1000 Bank Street, Richmond, Virginia. She is holding a sign that says “Votes For Women”. Her statue is a part of the Virginia Women’s Monument on Capitol Square unveiled in October of 2019 and will eventually include a total of 12 life size statues of real women who made a valuable contribution. The first unveiling was 7 finished statues. The 12 total that will be a permanent fixture are:

1. Cockacoeske: Pamunkey chieftain

2. Anne Burras Laydon: Jamestown colonist

3. Mary Draper Ingles: frontierswoman

4. Elizabeth Keckly: seamstress and confidante to Mary Todd Lincoln

5. Laura Copenhaver: entrepreneur in the textile industry

6. Virginia Randolph: educator

7. Adele Goodman Clark: suffragist and artist

8. Martha Washington: First lady

9. Clementina Rind: first woman printer in Virginia

10. Maggie L Walker: first African American woman to establish and be president of a bank

11. Sarah G Jones: first African American woman to pass the Virginia Medical Examining board’s examination

12. Sally L Tompkins: opened a private hospital to treat solders during the Civil War

A Historical Marker can be found on Brook Road in Richmond, Virginia. It tells of Adele's tireless fight for women’s rights and to keep art relevant in the state of Virginia. She was a leader in her community and for all women.

Born on September 27, 1882 in Montgomery, Alabama. Her father was a railroad worker and her mother was a music teacher. In 1894, at the age of 12, the family moved to Richmond, Virginia. Adele attended the Virginia Randolph Ellett School and started working as a stenographer when she was 19. At age 24 she enrolled at the New York School of Art.

The Virginia Randolph Ellett School was founded in the 1890s by Virginia Randolph Ellett and she was the Headmistress for almost 50 years. She founded the school with the notion that girls were capable of learning a higher education and desired an advanced education. The school has since been renamed St. Catherine. The founder, Virginia Randolph Ellett taught and lived at the school until her death in 1939.

Within two years Adele, along with 5 other women founded the Equal Suffrage League of Virginia. She was a delegate at the National American Woman Suffrage Association convention held in Washington DC where she and fellow advocate Nora Houston chose to offer chalk drawings rather than give speeches, handing out pamphlets as people approached.

Her partner, Nora Houston, born on June 24, 1883 in Richmond, Virginia was a women’s rights advocate and painter and the Nora Houston Foundation www.norahouston.org celebrates her legacy. The two purchased a house, together, in 1928.

Together, Nora and Adele opened an art studio in 1917, offering classes on painting, drawing and even the history of art. Soon they founded the Virginia Academy of Fine Arts and Handicrafts.

The Equal Suffrage League, founded by Adele and 5 other women became the Virginia League of Women Voters after women won the right to vote in 1920.

You can find much of Adele Goodman Clarks works of art at the TJC Gallery at 154 W. Main Street in Spartanburg, South Carolina. Visit their website for a peek of her beautiful artwork and find times of showing: http://thejohnsoncollection.org/adele-clark/

Adele is profiled in “Statues of Women: 267 Statues of Real women Who Lived plus 62 Museums that Honor Women”. The statues and museums are all located in the United States. The women they celebrate are from all over the world. Find out about the women celebrated with a statue or museum in your state: https://amzn.to/2XoUig5

By Paula C. Henderson

Author’s Page: https://amzn.to/2XOsKjf

Reference:

http://www.lva.virginia.gov/exhibits/destiny/notable/clark.htm

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/35124173/adele-goodman-clark

https://www.hmdb.org/marker.asp?marker=47379

http://womensmonumentcom.virginia.gov/index.html

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About the Creator

Paula C. Henderson

Paula is a freelance writer, healthy food advocate, mom and cookbook author.

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