Addie Whiteman Dickerson
Addie Whiteman Dickerson was a businessperson, politician, clubwoman, suffragist, and peace activist.
Biography
Dickerson née Whiteman was born in 1878 in Wilmington, North Carolina. She attended the Gregory Normal School and Scotia Seminary.In 1908 she married G. Edward Dickerson with whom she had one child. The couple settled in Philadelphia, where Dickerson had a career as a real estate broker and served as the first female African American notary public in Pennsylvania.
Dickerson was active as a clubwoman and suffragist. She was a founding member of the Philadelphia chapter of the Federated Women's Club. She was also a member of the National Association of Colored Women, and the National Council of Negro Women.
After American women won the Nineteenth Amendment to [the United States Constitution|right to vote], Dickerson ran for a seat on the Pennsylvania [House of Representatives] in 1930 as a Republican. She did not win. For a time she served as chairman of the Philadelphia Republican Council of Colored Women. Dickerson was also an advocate on behalf of the international peace movement. She was a founding member of the International [Council of Women of the Darker Races]. She became president of the organization in 1928.
Dickerson died on May 31, 1940.