FAUSET, CRYSTAL BIRD

Elected as a Democrat from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Crystal Bird Fauset (June 27, 1894–March 28, 1965) was the first African-American woman state legislator in the United States. She was born in Princess Anne, Maryland, and grew up in Boston. From 1918 to 1926, she worked for the Young Women's Christian Association (YWCA) as field secretary and adviser for the Program for Younger Girls. In 1931, Bird graduated with a bachelor's degree from the Teachers College of Columbia University in New York. She was married to Arthur Huff Fauset from 1935 to 1944.

During the early years of the Great Depression, Oscar DePriest was the lone black congressman and thus blacks sought political change primarily at the state and local level. Here Bird was effective. From 1933 to 1935 she worked for Swarthmore College's Institute of Race Relations in Pennsylvania. When Franklin Delano Roosevelt became president, Crystal Bird became a member of the Democratic Party; as director of Negro women's activities in Philadelphia, she encouraged black women to participate in politics. After this, she was appointed director of the Women and Professional Project in the Works Progress Administration (WPA) program in Philadelphia, where she succeeded in getting more black women employed.

In 1935, while serving on the Federal Housing Advisory Board, Fauset advocated better urban housing for the poor. In 1938 she won election to the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, where she sponsored legislation protecting women in the workplace. In 1939, however, Fauset resigned her house seat, and through the influence of her friend, first lady Eleanor Roosevelt, she became assistant director of education and recreation programs for the Pennsylvania WPA. Two years later, Fauset became a member of the so-called Roosevelt black cabinet in Washington, D.C., which included Mary McLeod Bethune and Arthur W. Mitchell, among others. As head of the race relations division of the Office of Civilian Affairs (OCD), Fauset promoted civil defense planning in the black community, recruited blacks for the military, and monitored complaints about race discrimination. Disappointed with the Roosevelt administration's record on civil rights, she bolted the Democratic Party in 1944 to support Republican presidential candidate Thomas E. Dewey, who rewarded Fauset's switch to the GOP by appointing her to the Republican National Committee's division on Negro affairs. During the postwar period Fauset was a strong supporter of African independence and she was active in local politics in Philadelphia. She died in Philadelphia in 1965.

See Also: AFRICAN AMERICANS, IMPACT OF THE GREAT DEPRESSION ON; DE PRIEST, OSCAR; RACE AND ETHNIC RELATIONS.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Banner-Haley, Charles Pete T. To Do Good and To Do Well: Middle-Class Blacks and the Depression, Philadelphia, 1929–1941. 1993.

Smith, Eric Ledell. "Crystal Bird Fauset Raises Her Vote for Human Rights." Pennsylvania Heritage 13, no. 1 (winter 1997): 34–39.

Weatherford, Doris. "Crystal Bird Fauset." In American Women's History: An A to Z of People, Organizations, Issues, and Events. 1994.

Eric Ledell Smith