Mary Campbell Mossell Griffin (October 11, 1882 – June 4, 1968) was an American writer, clubwoman, and suffragist based in Philadelphia. She led successful efforts to pass Pennsylvania's anti-lynching law. She co-founded a summer camp with Anna J. Cooper. She wrote a 1915 text titled Afro-American Men and Women Who Count.
Early life
Mary "Mazie" Campbell Mossell"Philly Matron Dies; Family Dates to 1608" Pittsburgh Courier (January 5, 1963): 7. via Newspapers.com was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the elder daughter of Nathan Francis Mossell, a physician, and Gertrude Bustill Mossell, a writer, newspaper columnist, and editor.Rodger Streitmatter, Raising her Voice: African American Women Journalists Who Changed History (University Press of Kentucky 2015): 37-48.
She came from an unusually well-educated family: Her father was the first African-American graduate of the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, and a prominent member of Philadelphia's medical community. Her uncle Aaron Albert Mossell II was the first African-American from the University of Pennsylvania School of Law. Her first cousin Sadie Tanner Mossell was the first African-American woman to earn a Ph.D. in the United States, also at the University of Pennsylvania. Another first cousin was singer and activist Paul Robeson. Her mother was a member of the Bustill family; her maternal grandfather, Charles Hicks Bustill, was a prominent abolitionist in Philadelphia."Penn Biographies: Nathan Francis Mossell" University of Pennsylvania Archives and Records Center.
Career Mossell taught kindergarten from 1907 to 1908 in Darby, Pennsylvania. She wrote for several newspapers, including the Philadelphia Courant, the Philadelphia Tribune, and The Washington Sun. She was president of the Harriet Tubman Association (named for Harriet Tubman), and the Sojourner Truth Suffrage League (named for Sojourner Truth), and she organized the Phillis Wheatley Literary Society (named for Phyllis Wheatley). She was the author of Afro American Men and Women who Count (1915)."Mary Campbell Mossell Griffin" in Frank Lincoln Mather, Who's Who of the Colored Race (Chicago 1915): 124. In 1927–1928, she headed a national survey of black women wage earners."Women Plan Nationwide Survey" Chicago Defender (November 26, 1927): A1. With Anna J. Cooper, she established a New Jersey summer camp for Philadelphia children."Anna Cooper, M. D., Passes at Age 66" Chicago Defender (May 16, 1936): 3.
Mary Mossell Griffin chaired the suffrage department of the Northeastern Federation of Women's Clubs during the 1910s, and of the legal department of the National Association of Colored WomenLisa G. Materson, For the Freedom of her Race: Black Women and Electoral Politics in Illinois 1877–1932 (UNC Press 2009): 159. during the 1920s.Bettye Collier-Thomas, Jesus, Jobs, and Justice: African American Women and Religion (Knopf Doubleday Publishing 2010): 260–261. In the latter role, she took an active role in seeing an anti-lynching bill successfully through the Pennsylvania legislature with legislator Andrew F. Stevens."Mrs. Mossell Griffin's Lynch Bill as a Model" , NAACP Papers, Part 7: The Anti-Lynching Campaign, 1912-1955, Series B: Anti-Lynching Legislative and Publicity Files, 1916–1955, Library of Congress (Microfilm, Reel 3, Frame 672). She was president of the Northeast Republican Women's Alliance in 1924."Woman Voters Preparing for Hard Battle in Fall" Chicago Defender (April 26, 1924): 13. In 1940, she was selected to chair the Phillis Wheatley Monument Fund, to erect a monument at the Boston gravesite of Wheatley."Headquarters of Phyllis Wheatley Monument Fund is Opened in Philly" Chicago Defender (August 3, 1940): 18.
Mossell Griffin took an interest in local affairs too. In 1934, she led a successful campaign to employ black clerks at an open air produce market in Philadelphia."Women Win Victory" Pittsburgh Courier (October 27, 1934): 6. via Newspapers.com In 1941, she supported parents protesting about an overcrowded school in need of repairs."Among Our Colored Citizens" Delaware County Daily Times (October 13, 1941): 29. via Newspapers.com In 1936, Mary Mossell Griffin ran for a seat on Philadelphia's 7th Ward executive committee.Mossell Griffin, "On the Political Front" Chicago Defender (April 4, 1936): 11.
Personal life Mossell married Joshua R. Griffin Jr., a medical doctor from Richmond, Virginia, in 1909. They had one child, Francis Raleigh Griffin. She was widowed when Dr. Griffin died in 1931.Geraldine Rhoads Beckford, Biographical Dictionary of American Physicians of African Ancestry, 1800-1920 (Africana Homestead Legacy 2013): 133.
She died in Richmond in 1968.Virginia, U.S., Death Records, 1912–2014
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