Bertha Grant Higgins (bornDillard; November 18, 1872 – December 30, 1944) was an Americansuffragist,civil rights activist andclubwoman. She was involved in supporting women's suffrage inRhode Island. She strongly supported theDyer Anti-Lynching bill and worked towards equal rights forAfrican Americans.
Higgins was born as Bertha Grant Dillard on November 18, 1872, inDanville, Virginia.[1] Before she was married, she studiedfashion design inLondon andParis.[1] She married her first husband, Walker C. Thomas in 1887 and the couple moved toJersey City, New Jersey.[1] She waswidowed in 1897 and the next year, married Dr. William H. Higgins.[1] They moved toManhattan where Higgins finished his residency and Bertha Higgins worked as aseamstress.[1] In 1903, the couple moved toProvidence, Rhode Island.[1] Higgins had one daughter, Prudence, in 1913.[1] She also helped to raise her younger sister,Chesta Dillard, who became a pharmacist and businesswoman in Philadelphia.[2] During this time, Higgins worked as ahomemaker and was involved in community organizations.[3] She worked with a group of black women in 1907 to petition the mayor and the school to hire a black teacher.[4]
Higgins became involved in the fight forwoman's suffrage in 1913.[5] Higgins believed that having voting rights would benefit black people as a whole.[5] She became involved with theWoman Suffrage Party of Rhode Island.[5] Suffragists in Rhode Island were more welcoming to black members than other groups in the country.[6] At the 1913 Conference of theRhode Island Union of Colored Women's Clubs, she discussed and debated women's suffrage which led to the group endorsing her view.[1] She wrote letters to elected officials.[4] In 1916, she helped raise money for the suffrage effort by staging a suffragevariety show with the patronage of the Twentieth Century Art and Literary Club.[5] DuringWorld War I, she led activities to support soldiers in the war.[6]
After women in Rhode Island gained the right to vote (first in 1917 at presidential elections and finally in 1920 after the ratification of the19th Amendment), she continued to encourage voting.[7] Higgins was one of the founding members of the Rhode IslandLeague of Women Voters.[8] In 1920, Higgins founded the Julia Ward Howe Republican Women's Club in order to help recruit black women into theRepublican Party and support Republican candidates.[8] She was dedicated to the election ofWarren Harding as President of the United States and was even invited to hisinauguration.[8] She became the vice president of the National Republican's Women Auxiliary, Colored, Eastern District by 1925 and worked withMary Church Terrell.[8]
Higgins put pressure on her representative,Clark Burdick and SenatorLeBaron Colt to support theDyer Anti-Lynching bill.[4] Burdick supported the bill, though Colt did not.[4] Higgins blamed the Republican senators for the defeat of the bill.[8]
In 1932, Higgins created the Colored Independent Political Association of Rhode Island.[9] She started the group after becoming disillusioned with the Republican party.[9] Higgins was also critical of the lack of support for civil rights issues from her local Republican politicians.[10] Higgins eventually backed theDemocratic Party in the1932 presidential election.[11] Her Julia Ward Howe club eventually became the Julia Ward Howe Democratic Women's Club.[4]
Higgins also lobbied and worked to see black people obtain "gainful employment" and was successful in seeing her daughter become the first blacksocial worker at the Rhode Island Department of Public Welfare.[12]
In 1938, Higgins lost her husband to a possiblesuicide.[10] For a year and a half, she left politics and activism, only returning on a limited basis in the 1940s.[10] DuringWorld War II, she worked to support soldiers and to help reintegrate returning black soldiers.[10] She spoke at the 1942 Rhode Island Democratic Party Convention.[10]
Higgins had been suffering fromheart disease and recovering from astroke.[13] On December 30, 1944, Higgins died in her home in Providence.[14]