Introducing one of my FAVORITE Asian American Historical Heroines…

In 1912, at only 16 years of age, Mabel Ping Hua Lee, led a parade of ten thousand suffragists through New York City while riding on horseback. A New York Times article, regarded Mabel as “the symbol of the new era, when all women will be free and unhampered.”

But because of the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, that barred Chinese from becoming US citizens, she was not able to vote. It would be another 25 years AFTER the 19th Amendment passed before she was granted the right.

Lee went on to become the first Chinese woman to get a PhD in economics.

Her father Reverend Lee Towe founded the First Chinese Baptist Church in Chinatown now located at 21 Pell St, which Dr. Lee later led after her father’s death. Dr. Lee was a suffragist, pioneer, a community activist and supporter for her fellow Chinese Americans and a member of Women’s Political Equality League. She was also the first Asian American woman to graduate from Barnard College in 1921.

When the Chinese Exclusion Act was repealed in 1943, Dr. Lee was finally able to become a recognized United States citizen; and allowed her right to vote.

Don’t give up your right to vote. People have fought hard for our voices to be heard and counted.

Further Learning:

https://www.womenshistory.org/…/biog…/mabel-ping-hua-lee

https://barnard.edu/…/new-york-citys-chinatown-post…

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