1874-1958
Armita Douglas was active in the suffrage movement and a civic leader in Newark, advocating for Black women to become more politically active. She said in 1923, ” “the best mother is not the mother who stays at home all the time and gets a flower once a year…there are girls outside our own home who have not the surroundings they should have. Those girls are your problem.”
Armita helped organize the New Jersey Federation of Colored Women’s Clubs, and later chaired their Civics Department, and served as President (1927-1933). In 1931, while President the Afro covered her for calling out the Orange mayor about the lack of Black teachers. With the NJFCWC, she helped organize Black women to support the suffrage movement and help get the 19th Amendment passed.
In Newark, Armita helped organize the NAACP and the Urban League in Newark and was a charter member of the city’s Phyllis Wheatley Literary Club. She was also active in the the New Jersey League of Women Voters and the New Jersey Colored Women’s Republican Club. Armita organized the New Jersey Junior Federation in 1925, to help young women in the state.
Later in life, Armita was an officer in the Newark chapter of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom. She also served as an officer with the Newark Interracial Committee.
Born in Virginia, Armita came to Newark and married George Douglas, a Black lawyer, in 1899. They lived on Marshall St, and later Thomas St. in Newark.
Bibliography
Robb George, “Armita Harris Douglas“
Mrs. Armita Harris Douglas Dies, Newark Evening News, December 11, 1958, p. 43.
Our Heritage, NJ Federation of Colored Women’s Clubs
Census records
Newark Library Digital Collections
“NJ Mayor Embarrassed by Response” Afro American Oct 17, 1931
“Mrs. George A Douglas” Montclair Times Dec 11, 1958