Clementina Black | |
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| Born | Clementina Maria Black 27 July 1853 Brighton, England |
| Died | 18 December 1922 (aged 69) |
| Occupation(s) | Writer, feminist, trade union activist and suffragist |
Clementina Maria Black (27 July 1853 – 19 December 1922) was an English writer, feminist and pioneeringtrade unionist, closely connected with Marxist and Fabian socialists. She worked for women's rights at work and for women's suffrage.
Clementina Black was born inBrighton, one of eight children of the solicitor, town clerk and coroner of Brighton, David Black (1817–1892), son of a naval architect toCzar Nicholas I of Russia,[1] and his wife, Clara Maria Patten (1825–1875), daughter of a court portrait painter.[2] Black was educated at home, at 58 Ship Street, Brighton[1] mainly by her mother, and became fluent in French and German.[3]
In 1875, Clementina's mother died of a rupture caused by lifting her invalid husband, who had lost the use of both legs. Clementina, as the eldest daughter, was left in charge of an invalid father and seven brothers and sisters, as well as doing a teaching job. Her siblings included the mathematicianArthur Black and the translatorConstance Garnett.[3] She and her sisters moved in the 1880s toFitzroy Square in London, where she spent her time studying social problems, doing literary work, and lecturing on 18th-century literature.
Black made the acquaintance of Marxist andFabian socialists, such asOlive Shreiner,Dollie Radford, andRichard Garnett of theBritish Museum.[1] She also became a friend of theMarx family, notablyEleanor Marx.[4] She was involved over a long period with the problems of working-class women and the emerging trade union movement. In 1886, she became honorary secretary of theWomen's Trade Union League and moved an equal-pay motion at the 1888Trades Union Congress. In 1889, she helped to form theWomen's Trade Union Association, which later became theWomen's Industrial Council.
Black was among the organisers of theBryant and May strike in 1888. She was also active in theFabian Society. In 1895 she became editor ofWomen's Industrial News, the journal of the Women's Industrial Council, which encouraged middle-class women to research and report on the conditions of work for poorer women, and by 1914 had investigated almost 120 trades.[5] In 1896 she began to campaign for a legal minimum wage as part of the Consumers League and credited as being involved in theBryant & May match company industrial dispute[6] where exploited women workers eventually took action.[5]
By the early 1900s Black was also active in the burgeoningwomen's suffrage campaign, becoming the honorary secretary of the Women's Franchise Declaration Committee, which gathered a petition of 257,000 signatures.[5] Black joined theNational Union of Women's Suffrage Societies (NUWSS) and the London Society of Women's Suffrage. By 1912–1913, Black was acting editor ofThe Common Cause[7] the "organ of the women's movement for reform", using her writing rather than direct action (unlike the militant suffragettes) to influence change.[5]
Black's first novel of seven,A Sussex Idyl [sic], was published in 1877.An Agitator (1894) concerned a socialist strike leader. It was described byEleanor Marx as "a realistic account of the British working-class movement".[4] Her others were non-political, the last,The Linleys of Bath (1911), being among the most successful.[8][9]
Black's two political works,Sweated Industry and the Minimum Wage (1907) andMakers of our Clothes: a Case for Trade Boards (jointly with C. Meyer, 1909) have been called "powerful works of propaganda".[4]
Details from theBritish Library catalogue.
Clementina Black remained unmarried. She took into her home her niece Gertrude Speedwell, after the girl's father, Clementina's brother Arthur, had murdered his wife and son, then committed suicide.[10] She died at her home inBarnes, Surrey on 19 December 1922 and was buried atEast Sheen Cemetery, London.[4][11][12] The biblical inscription on her grave fromPhillipians 4:8 read:
Finally brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue and if there be any praise, think on these things.[1]
