An Untold Legacy Story
Mary Virginia Cook Parrish (August 8, 1862 – October 11, 1945) taught, wrote, and spoke on many issues, such as women's suffrage, equal rights in the areas of employment and education, social and political reform, and the importance of religion and Christian education. She was at the founding session of the National Association of Colored Women in 1896 at the 19th Street Baptist Church in Washington D.C. She was an early proponent of Black Baptist feminism and founder of the National Baptist Women's Convention in 1900.
Coming from a background where gaining an education was a struggle and a great privilege, Cook-Parrish understood the severity of the amount of discrimination and inequality faced in the realms of education, societal conventions, and human rights. Her mission works with white Baptist missionary women expanded her inter-organizational alliances. Parrish spoke at a number of Baptist Conventions on the importance of equal education for all, women's rights, and social reform. In 1893 she was elected the recording secretary of the National Baptist Educational Convention. As she continued to address these issues, she became a famed and passionate speaker within the women's sphere.
In the 1930s, when Parrish learned she could not join a Parent Teacher Association in Louisville, Kentucky, she organized her own in the city's black-only school. She refused to accept that black children were without a playground and arrived at the mayor's office to demand one be built. Three weeks later, the children had their playground. When she brought ten little girls with her to the local YWCA, "they called the police and said you may not stay here; these children are not welcome." She then organized a new chapter called the Phillis Wheatley (West End) YWCA. She also served as the first president of the Colored Republican's Women's Club in Louisville. In 1932 she served as an alternate delegate to the National Republican Convention in Chicago.
Mary Virginia Cook-Parrish worked towards gaining equality for all in society. She spoke out and wrote about the issues of women's rights and equality in education for African Americans and women. She got the word out that what was happening in society was unfair and needed fixing. Cook-Parrish set the stepping stones for the greater civil rights movement that was to come.
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