Peabody, Lucia M.

Lucia M. Peabody was one of several women who, in 1873, having been elected to the Boston School Committee, found themselves barred from taking office. The women's eligibility to serve was challenged on the grounds of their sex. The Committee refused to seat them. Peabody brought legal action, filing a petition at the state Supreme Court for a mandamus to compel the school commissioners of Boston to restore her to her elected office. The court refused. Led by Representative Fitzgerald, a friend of woman suffrage, the state legislature enacted a law providing that women throughout the state, if elected, might serve on school committees. Peabody took up membership on the Committee. Records show that she also ran in 1877 and in 1883, and perhaps in other election cycles, and articles indicate that she served on the Board for ten years. State legislative involvement in this question occurred across the country. In 1873-74 suffrage women successfully lobbied the California legislature for a bill making women eligible to serve on school boards in that state. In 1877 Peabody was listed on Boston's 4th Ward Democratic ballot. Her party affiliation earlier is not known. Later in her life, Peabody was president of the Highland Aid Society. The society provided shoes for needy children who attended school in Roxbury.