Historical Soceity of Delaware - Emma BG Sykes, Suffragist

African-American women had an uncomfortable position in the suffrage movement. Although many of them wanted to vote, the white-dominated movement did not welcome them to the struggle. White women feared the political consequences of being too closely allied with African Americans. They also did not want anything to stand in the path to their goal.

In this area, as in so many others of that time, African Americans fought their own battle. In Wilmington, they organized the Equal Suffrage Study Club, which did march in the big parade in May 1914.

Emma Belle Gibson Sykes was an active African-American suffragist. She was born in Christiana but spent most of her life in Wilmington. Mrs. Sykes taught at Howard High School from 1908 until 1939. She was active in church and community affairs as well as the Republican Party. As a member of St. Matthew's Episcopal Church, she was the first woman elected to a church vestry in Delaware.