Grace P. Campbell

Grace Campbell campaigned for the 19th District seat in the New York State Assembly in 1919 and 1920. She did not win either race, but received about 10% of the vote both years. Campbell may have been the first African American woman in New York to run for a political office. Grace P. Campbell was born in Georgia in 1882 to Emma Dyson Campbell, an African American woman from Washington, D.C., and William Campbell, an immigrant from Jamaica. The family eventually settled down in Washington, D.C and from there Grace Campbell moved to New York City around 1905. Campbell was one of the first African American women to join the Socialist Party and was a founding member of several Socialist organizations. She helped to found the 21st Assembly branch of the Socialist Party as well as the People's Educational Forum, a Socialist organization in opposition to Marcus Garvey. In 1919, she became one of the founders of the African Blood Brothers (ABB), a secret fraternal order advocating armed self-defense, equal rights, and self-determination. Campbell was the only female founder of the ABB and was the only woman to serve on its Supreme Council, where she was Director of Consumer Cooperatives. In the early 1920s, Campbell, joined the Communist Workers Party where she was an active and influential behind-the-scenes organizer until her death in 1943.