1878-1956
(Thanks to George Robb who did much research on Harris).
Blanche Harris was active in the suffrage movement in Newark. She was president of the Lincoln Branch, Women’s Political Union of Newark. She spoke around the state on suffrage in this role.
Harris was also active in political campaigning. In 1912, she worked on Theodore Roosevelt’s campaign. In 1920, Harris became President of the Colored Women’s Republican Club of Newark. She helped the campaign of the first African American, Dr. Walter G. Alexander, to the New Jersey Assembly. She was vice-chairman of New Jersey’s Colored Republican State Committee in 1924 and worked on Calvin Coolidge’s presidential campaign and Hamilton F. Kean’s Senate Run, again speaking around the state.
In the 1930s she worked as an attendant in the Newark courts. In 1941, we know she worked on the campaign of John A Brady.
Harris was born in Maryland and moved to Newark with her family in the late 1880s. She worked as a dressmaker and helped organize several branches of the Independent Order of St. Luke.
Bibliography
Newspapers.com
Newark Eagles Papers