Carrie Williams Clifford (September 1862 in Chillicothe, Ohio – November 10, 1934) was an author, clubwoman, and activist in the women's rights and civil rights movements in the United States. and raised and educated in the state, Clifford left the state to teach in Parkersburg, West Virginia, for three years. In 1886, she returned to Cleveland, Ohio, married Ohio state legislator William H. Clifford, and became an engaged clubwoman.
Political work
While living in Cleveland, Clifford founded the Minerva Reading Club, which discussed current social problems. Her work as the assistant recording secretary for the National Association of Colored Women led her to found the Ohio Federation of Colored Women's Clubs in 1901. At his request, Clifford helped organize a women's auxiliary within the Niagara Movement and succeeded in recruiting a large number of female delegates for the 1907 Niagara Movement meeting in Boston. and The Widening Light (1922), the first of which she dedicated to her mother and the second of which she dedicated to her race. She wrote in the preface of Race Rhymes that the common theme of the poems is "the uplift of humanity" and that she hoped her poems would "change some evil heart, right some wrong and raise some arm strong to deliver." In her essay "Votes for Children," published in the NAACP paper The Crisis, Clifford argued in favor of women's enfranchisement as a way of protecting children and the family.
Poems
- "Brothers." Opportunity. 1925
- "Lines to Garrison." Alexander's Magazine 1 (1906–1907): 8–9.
- "Love’s Way (A Christmas Story)." Alexander's Magazine 1 (1906–1907): 55–58.
Essays
- "Cleveland and its Colored People" (1905)