Helen Bright Clark
Encyclopedia
Helen Bright Clark was a British
women's rights
activist and suffragist. The daughter of a radical Member of Parliament
, Clark was a prominent speaker for women's voting rights and at times a political realist who served as a mainstay of the 19th century suffrage movement in South West England
. A liberal in all senses, Clark aided progress toward universal human brotherhood through her activities in organizations which assisted former slaves
and aboriginal peoples.
, Lancashire
, England
to Quakers Elizabeth Priestman Bright and future Privy Council member, statesman John Bright
. Clark's mother soon sickened and then died of tuberculosis
in September 1841. John Bright's sister, Priscilla Bright, later Priscilla Bright McLaren, took the place of the mother and served an influential role in raising Clark. Six years after her mother's death, Clark's father remarried, eventually having seven more children including John Albert Bright
and William Leatham Bright
.
As Helen Bright, Clark attended the Quaker school in Southport
, under the tutelage of Hannah Wallis—this was the same school attended by her aunt Priscilla under the instruction of Wallis' mother. In 1851, aunt Priscilla bore a daughter Helen Priscilla McLaren
.
, and young Helen Bright became especially interested in Mill's advocacy of the "enfranchisement of women
"—the idea that the right to vote should be extended to women. In 1861 she wrote to her step-cousin Agnes McLaren, "how absurd to talk of repression and taxation going hand in hand, and all the while excluding wholly the one half of the population from the franchise." In 1866 as Helen Bright she signed the "Ladies' Petition" on suffrage being circulated by Elizabeth Garrett
and Emily Davies
, as did her former teacher Hannah Wallis. The petition with its 1,499 signatures was presented by Mill to the House of Commons in June 1866. Later that year, Helen Bright married William Stephens Clark (1839–1925) of Street
, Somerset
. William Clark was a liberal Quaker, the owner of a shoe factory, and member of a family friendly to the idea of women's rights: his sister and niece had also signed the suffrage petition.
Clark joined the Enfranchisement of Women Committee in 1866–67 and in 1870 was a member of the Manchester National Society for Women's Suffrage. Clark spoke publicly for the first time in 1872, giving a lecture in Taunton
during a meeting organised by the Bristol and West of England National Society for Women's Suffrage. In her speech, she questioned the irony "that though it was perfectly right for a woman to dance at a public hall, the moment she ventured upon a public platform to advocate public peace, morality and justice, she was stepping out of her sphere."
On 9 March 1876 in the Victoria Rooms, Clifton, Bristol
, Clark spoke strongly for the removal of the voting disabilities of women, in support of a parliamentary bill to that end introduced by a Mr. Forsyth. On 26 April, Clark's father John Bright
, MP
, spoke in the House of Commons against the bill, saying that "The Bill seems to be based on a proposition that is untenable ... it is a Bill based on an assumed hostility between the sexes."
On 23 January 1879 at Bristol, Clark gave a stirring speech for suffrage that was later printed and distributed as a four-page pamphlet. She noted that the struggle for women's suffrage was looked upon by many "as chiefly of a sentimental character" and that the overriding "question of peace or war is to the front." Clark argued that women's political power should be called upon to advocate for peace and to allow society forward progress. Of the Parliamentary franchise, she said,
Clark appeared in 1881 in front of the Bradford Demonstration for Women.
on 17–18 October 1883, a major convention was held, called by the National Liberal Federation
, for the purpose of determining the Liberal stance on whether the political franchise should be extended to male householders in counties. Though John Bright was acknowledged leader of the Liberals, John Morley
presided over the two days of debate among delegates from 500 Liberal associations. Two of a handful of women chosen as delegates included Bright's daughter Helen Bright Clark, and Jane Cobden, daughter of the Radical statesman Richard Cobden
. When Walter McLaren of Bradford made a motion on the first morning to include a resolution in favor of women's suffrage, the two women delegates spoke strongly in favor. Though Bright was considered a Radical
and a Liberal
, and though he had accompanied Mill during the presentation of the Ladies' Petition to the House, he was never personally in favor of women voting. In front of her father, 1,600 delegates, and an audience which included Susan B. Anthony
visiting from America, Clark "made her impassioned appeal", bringing the audience to a "hushed and profound silence." Anthony described how heroic it seemed for a daughter to speak in faithfulness to her own highest convictions even when those convictions were "in opposition to her loved and honored father." Only 30 delegates voted against the resolution.
John Bright presided over a great public meeting held in the town hall on the evening of the second day. Some 5,000 appeared seeking entrance, but thousands were turned away for lack of room. Bright was introduced by Sir Wilfrid Lawson who joked that the resolution adopted by the conference was "somewhat in advance of the ideas of the speaker of the evening," a comment which elicited roars of laughter from the crowd and a grin of merriment from Bright. However, Bright's subsequent speech to the crowd, one which elucidated many of the high points of Liberal achievement, was seen by Anthony to avoid mention of the women's suffrage resolution and any acknowledgment of the small but significant steps toward women's emancipation that had taken place in the UK from 1866 to 1882.
, advocating more radical reform. Clark sided with Lydia Becker
and her supporters who backed the couverture clause introduced by William Woodall
to the Liberal Reform bill. Woodall's proposal was an incremental one: it sought votes for unmarried women only, not for wives. Clark gave her support on the grounds that this not wholly satisfactory clause had more chance of passing and could subsequently be used as a wedge by which women's suffrage could be expanded. Though he attempted several times through 1889, Woodall was unable to cement such a clause into a bill before the House.
In the early 1890s, Elizabeth Cady Stanton
traveled through Europe gathering support for, and inviting participation in, her work-in-progress The Woman's Bible
. One evening, Stanton spoke to a crowd at Clark's home about the state of the suffrage movement in America. Local clergymen present questioned Stanton about the Bible
's position of woman in relation to man, and Stanton described at length how equality among the sexes was supported by Bible verse, but that the Bible could be selectively quoted to support conflicting arguments. Because of this, said Stanton, it should be limited in its authority. Clark, though sympathetic to Stanton's views, expressed to Stanton her fear that some of the strictest of those in attendance might have been shocked by her ultra-liberal opinions.
In 1914 as war was mounting in Europe, Clark joined the International Woman Suffrage Alliance (IWSA), a group of women who sought voting rights, most of whom advocated world peace. Clark signed an "Open Christmas Letter
" addressed "To the Women of Germany and Austria" which was published in IWSA's Jus Suffragii in January 1915. Among the other 100 signers were Margaret Ashton
, Emily Hobhouse
, Sylvia Pankhurst
and a wide range of women united by the wish for a quick end to hostilities. The letter was a plea for world peace among women, and was answered in kind by 155 Germanic feminists including Anita Augspurg
, Lida Gustava Heymann
and Rosa Mayreder
. Carrie Chapman Catt
in America, founder of IWSA, proposed that, instead of the annual IWSA meeting taking place in Berlin (which appeared impossible due to the war), an international congress of women should meet in The Hague
on 28 April. Clark found that her position in the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies
(NUWSS) was in the minority: she advocated for NUWSS to send delegates to The Hague in April. However, NUWSS membership was primarily concerned with helping the UK men win the war.
during a trip he made to England, one in which he befriended John Bright. Clark heard Douglass speak about the state of racial inequality in America. When Douglass returned to England in 1886–87, he visited Clark once again at her home, and spoke about race oppression, caste barriers and African Americans' "total inability to protect themselves without the ballot of which they had been deprived by cruel persecution and the fraudulent manipulation of the ballot box." At this gathering, Clark's neighbor Catherine Impey
, seeing Douglass for the second time, was inspired to launch a magazine called Anti-Caste in 1888, dedicated "to the interests of the coloured race;" the first anti-racism magazine in England.
In the 1860s, Clark became active in the UK branch of the Freedman's Aid Society
which sought to assist former slaves in establishing basic yet comfortable homes. In the 1880s, Clark was a founding member of the Society for the Furtherance of Human Brotherhood. In 1906, with Helena Brownsword Dowson and Jane Cobden Unwin, Clark became active in the Aborigines' Protection Society
.
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
women's rights
Women's rights
Women's rights are entitlements and freedoms claimed for women and girls of all ages in many societies.In some places these rights are institutionalized or supported by law, local custom, and behaviour, whereas in others they may be ignored or suppressed...
activist and suffragist. The daughter of a radical Member of Parliament
Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...
, Clark was a prominent speaker for women's voting rights and at times a political realist who served as a mainstay of the 19th century suffrage movement in South West England
South West England
South West England is one of the regions of England defined by the Government of the United Kingdom for statistical and other purposes. It is the largest such region in area, covering and comprising Bristol, Gloucestershire, Somerset, Dorset, Wiltshire, Devon, Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly. ...
. A liberal in all senses, Clark aided progress toward universal human brotherhood through her activities in organizations which assisted former slaves
Slavery
Slavery is a system under which people are treated as property to be bought and sold, and are forced to work. Slaves can be held against their will from the time of their capture, purchase or birth, and deprived of the right to leave, to refuse to work, or to demand compensation...
and aboriginal peoples.
Early life
In 1840, Clark was born Helen Priestman Bright in RochdaleRochdale
Rochdale is a large market town in Greater Manchester, England. It lies amongst the foothills of the Pennines on the River Roch, north-northwest of Oldham, and north-northeast of the city of Manchester. Rochdale is surrounded by several smaller settlements which together form the Metropolitan...
, Lancashire
Lancashire
Lancashire is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in the North West of England. It takes its name from the city of Lancaster, and is sometimes known as the County of Lancaster. Although Lancaster is still considered to be the county town, Lancashire County Council is based in Preston...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
to Quakers Elizabeth Priestman Bright and future Privy Council member, statesman John Bright
John Bright
John Bright , Quaker, was a British Radical and Liberal statesman, associated with Richard Cobden in the formation of the Anti-Corn Law League. He was one of the greatest orators of his generation, and a strong critic of British foreign policy...
. Clark's mother soon sickened and then died of tuberculosis
Tuberculosis
Tuberculosis, MTB, or TB is a common, and in many cases lethal, infectious disease caused by various strains of mycobacteria, usually Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Tuberculosis usually attacks the lungs but can also affect other parts of the body...
in September 1841. John Bright's sister, Priscilla Bright, later Priscilla Bright McLaren, took the place of the mother and served an influential role in raising Clark. Six years after her mother's death, Clark's father remarried, eventually having seven more children including John Albert Bright
John Albert Bright
John Albert Bright was an English Liberal Unionist Member of Parliament in England. He was the son of the Liberal reformer John Bright....
and William Leatham Bright
William Leatham Bright
William Leatham Bright was an English Liberal politician.Bright was the son of John Bright, M.P., of One Ash, Rochdale and his wife Margaret Elizabeth Leatham. He was educated at Grove House School, Tottenham, and at the University of London...
.
As Helen Bright, Clark attended the Quaker school in Southport
Southport
Southport is a seaside town in the Metropolitan Borough of Sefton in Merseyside, England. During the 2001 census Southport was recorded as having a population of 90,336, making it the eleventh most populous settlement in North West England...
, under the tutelage of Hannah Wallis—this was the same school attended by her aunt Priscilla under the instruction of Wallis' mother. In 1851, aunt Priscilla bore a daughter Helen Priscilla McLaren
Helen Priscilla McLaren
Helen Priscilla Rabagliati, MBE was a local philanthropist and campaigner for improvements in health, women's condition and political change.She was the daughter of Duncan McLaren and Priscilla Bright ....
.
Women's suffrage
The Brights held in their house copies of essays written by John Stuart MillJohn Stuart Mill
John Stuart Mill was a British philosopher, economist and civil servant. An influential contributor to social theory, political theory, and political economy, his conception of liberty justified the freedom of the individual in opposition to unlimited state control. He was a proponent of...
, and young Helen Bright became especially interested in Mill's advocacy of the "enfranchisement of women
Women's suffrage
Women's suffrage or woman suffrage is the right of women to vote and to run for office. The expression is also used for the economic and political reform movement aimed at extending these rights to women and without any restrictions or qualifications such as property ownership, payment of tax, or...
"—the idea that the right to vote should be extended to women. In 1861 she wrote to her step-cousin Agnes McLaren, "how absurd to talk of repression and taxation going hand in hand, and all the while excluding wholly the one half of the population from the franchise." In 1866 as Helen Bright she signed the "Ladies' Petition" on suffrage being circulated by Elizabeth Garrett
Elizabeth Garrett Anderson
Elizabeth Garrett Anderson, LSA, MD , was an English physician and feminist, the first woman to gain a medical qualification in Britain and the first female mayor in England.-Early life:...
and Emily Davies
Emily Davies
Sarah Emily Davies was an English feminist, suffragist and a pioneering campaigners fore women's rights to university access. She was born in Southampton, England to an evangelical clergyman and a teacher in 1830, although she spent most of her youth in Gateshead...
, as did her former teacher Hannah Wallis. The petition with its 1,499 signatures was presented by Mill to the House of Commons in June 1866. Later that year, Helen Bright married William Stephens Clark (1839–1925) of Street
Street, Somerset
Street is a small village and civil parish in the county of Somerset, England. It is situated on a dry spot in the Somerset Levels, at the end of the Polden Hills, south-west of Glastonbury. The 2001 census records the village as having a population of 11,066...
, Somerset
Somerset
The ceremonial and non-metropolitan county of Somerset in South West England borders Bristol and Gloucestershire to the north, Wiltshire to the east, Dorset to the south-east, and Devon to the south-west. It is partly bounded to the north and west by the Bristol Channel and the estuary of the...
. William Clark was a liberal Quaker, the owner of a shoe factory, and member of a family friendly to the idea of women's rights: his sister and niece had also signed the suffrage petition.
Clark joined the Enfranchisement of Women Committee in 1866–67 and in 1870 was a member of the Manchester National Society for Women's Suffrage. Clark spoke publicly for the first time in 1872, giving a lecture in Taunton
Taunton
Taunton is the county town of Somerset, England. The town, including its suburbs, had an estimated population of 61,400 in 2001. It is the largest town in the shire county of Somerset....
during a meeting organised by the Bristol and West of England National Society for Women's Suffrage. In her speech, she questioned the irony "that though it was perfectly right for a woman to dance at a public hall, the moment she ventured upon a public platform to advocate public peace, morality and justice, she was stepping out of her sphere."
On 9 March 1876 in the Victoria Rooms, Clifton, Bristol
Bristol
Bristol is a city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, with an estimated population of 433,100 for the unitary authority in 2009, and a surrounding Larger Urban Zone with an estimated 1,070,000 residents in 2007...
, Clark spoke strongly for the removal of the voting disabilities of women, in support of a parliamentary bill to that end introduced by a Mr. Forsyth. On 26 April, Clark's father John Bright
John Bright
John Bright , Quaker, was a British Radical and Liberal statesman, associated with Richard Cobden in the formation of the Anti-Corn Law League. He was one of the greatest orators of his generation, and a strong critic of British foreign policy...
, MP
Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...
, spoke in the House of Commons against the bill, saying that "The Bill seems to be based on a proposition that is untenable ... it is a Bill based on an assumed hostility between the sexes."
On 23 January 1879 at Bristol, Clark gave a stirring speech for suffrage that was later printed and distributed as a four-page pamphlet. She noted that the struggle for women's suffrage was looked upon by many "as chiefly of a sentimental character" and that the overriding "question of peace or war is to the front." Clark argued that women's political power should be called upon to advocate for peace and to allow society forward progress. Of the Parliamentary franchise, she said,
Clark appeared in 1881 in front of the Bradford Demonstration for Women.
Liberal convention at Leeds, 1883
In LeedsLeeds
Leeds is a city and metropolitan borough in West Yorkshire, England. In 2001 Leeds' main urban subdivision had a population of 443,247, while the entire city has a population of 798,800 , making it the 30th-most populous city in the European Union.Leeds is the cultural, financial and commercial...
on 17–18 October 1883, a major convention was held, called by the National Liberal Federation
National Liberal Federation
The National Liberal Federation was the union of all English and Welsh Liberal Associations. It held an annual conference which was regarded as being representative of the opinion of the party’s rank and file and was broadly the equivalent of a present-day party conference.-Foundation:The...
, for the purpose of determining the Liberal stance on whether the political franchise should be extended to male householders in counties. Though John Bright was acknowledged leader of the Liberals, John Morley
John Morley, 1st Viscount Morley of Blackburn
John Morley, 1st Viscount Morley of Blackburn OM, PC was a British Liberal statesman, writer and newspaper editor. Initially a journalist, he was elected a Member of Parliament in 1883...
presided over the two days of debate among delegates from 500 Liberal associations. Two of a handful of women chosen as delegates included Bright's daughter Helen Bright Clark, and Jane Cobden, daughter of the Radical statesman Richard Cobden
Richard Cobden
Richard Cobden was a British manufacturer and Radical and Liberal statesman, associated with John Bright in the formation of the Anti-Corn Law League as well as with the Cobden-Chevalier Treaty...
. When Walter McLaren of Bradford made a motion on the first morning to include a resolution in favor of women's suffrage, the two women delegates spoke strongly in favor. Though Bright was considered a Radical
Radicals (UK)
The Radicals were a parliamentary political grouping in the United Kingdom in the early to mid 19th century, who drew on earlier ideas of radicalism and helped to transform the Whigs into the Liberal Party.-Background:...
and a Liberal
Liberal Party (UK)
The Liberal Party was one of the two major political parties of the United Kingdom during the 19th and early 20th centuries. It was a third party of negligible importance throughout the latter half of the 20th Century, before merging with the Social Democratic Party in 1988 to form the present day...
, and though he had accompanied Mill during the presentation of the Ladies' Petition to the House, he was never personally in favor of women voting. In front of her father, 1,600 delegates, and an audience which included Susan B. Anthony
Susan B. Anthony
Susan Brownell Anthony was a prominent American civil rights leader who played a pivotal role in the 19th century women's rights movement to introduce women's suffrage into the United States. She was co-founder of the first Women's Temperance Movement with Elizabeth Cady Stanton as President...
visiting from America, Clark "made her impassioned appeal", bringing the audience to a "hushed and profound silence." Anthony described how heroic it seemed for a daughter to speak in faithfulness to her own highest convictions even when those convictions were "in opposition to her loved and honored father." Only 30 delegates voted against the resolution.
John Bright presided over a great public meeting held in the town hall on the evening of the second day. Some 5,000 appeared seeking entrance, but thousands were turned away for lack of room. Bright was introduced by Sir Wilfrid Lawson who joked that the resolution adopted by the conference was "somewhat in advance of the ideas of the speaker of the evening," a comment which elicited roars of laughter from the crowd and a grin of merriment from Bright. However, Bright's subsequent speech to the crowd, one which elucidated many of the high points of Liberal achievement, was seen by Anthony to avoid mention of the women's suffrage resolution and any acknowledgment of the small but significant steps toward women's emancipation that had taken place in the UK from 1866 to 1882.
Moderation and peace
In May 1884, Clark broke with her aunt Priscilla Bright McLaren who was, with Ursula Mellor BrightUrsula Mellor Bright
Ursula Mellor Bright was a women's suffrage campaigner.Her father was Liverpool merchant Joseph Mellor; he died when Ursula was very young. Her mother married Thomas Blackburn, a Liverpool surgeon. She was a daughter of John Pennington of Hindley, Lancashire...
, advocating more radical reform. Clark sided with Lydia Becker
Lydia Becker
Lydia Ernestine Becker was a leader in the early British suffrage movement, as well as an amateur scientist with interests in biology and astronomy...
and her supporters who backed the couverture clause introduced by William Woodall
William Woodall (UK politician)
William Woodall , was a British Liberal politician, philanthropist and supporter of women's suffrage.Woodall was the elder son of William Woodall, of Shrewsbury, and his wife Martha , and was educated at Crescent Schools, Liverpool...
to the Liberal Reform bill. Woodall's proposal was an incremental one: it sought votes for unmarried women only, not for wives. Clark gave her support on the grounds that this not wholly satisfactory clause had more chance of passing and could subsequently be used as a wedge by which women's suffrage could be expanded. Though he attempted several times through 1889, Woodall was unable to cement such a clause into a bill before the House.
In the early 1890s, Elizabeth Cady Stanton
Elizabeth Cady Stanton
Elizabeth Cady Stanton was an American social activist, abolitionist, and leading figure of the early woman's movement...
traveled through Europe gathering support for, and inviting participation in, her work-in-progress The Woman's Bible
The Woman's Bible
The Woman's Bible is a two-part book, written by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and a committee of 26 women, and published in 1895 and 1898 to challenge the traditional position of religious orthodoxy that woman should be subservient to man. By producing the book, Stanton wished to promote a radical...
. One evening, Stanton spoke to a crowd at Clark's home about the state of the suffrage movement in America. Local clergymen present questioned Stanton about the Bible
Bible
The Bible refers to any one of the collections of the primary religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. There is no common version of the Bible, as the individual books , their contents and their order vary among denominations...
's position of woman in relation to man, and Stanton described at length how equality among the sexes was supported by Bible verse, but that the Bible could be selectively quoted to support conflicting arguments. Because of this, said Stanton, it should be limited in its authority. Clark, though sympathetic to Stanton's views, expressed to Stanton her fear that some of the strictest of those in attendance might have been shocked by her ultra-liberal opinions.
In 1914 as war was mounting in Europe, Clark joined the International Woman Suffrage Alliance (IWSA), a group of women who sought voting rights, most of whom advocated world peace. Clark signed an "Open Christmas Letter
Open Christmas Letter
The Open Christmas Letter was a public message for peace addressed "To the Women of Germany and Austria", signed by a group of 101 British women suffragists at the end of 1914 as the first Christmas of World War I approached...
" addressed "To the Women of Germany and Austria" which was published in IWSA's Jus Suffragii in January 1915. Among the other 100 signers were Margaret Ashton
Margaret Ashton
Margaret Ashton was an English suffragist, local politician, pacifist and philanthropist, the first woman City Councillor for Manchester....
, Emily Hobhouse
Emily Hobhouse
Emily Hobhouse was a British welfare campaigner, who is primarily remembered for bringing to the attention of the British public, and working to change, the poor conditions inside the British concentration camps in South Africa built for Boer women and children during the Second Boer War.-Early...
, Sylvia Pankhurst
Sylvia Pankhurst
Estelle Sylvia Pankhurst was an English campaigner for the suffragist movement in the United Kingdom. She was for a time a prominent left communist who then devoted herself to the cause of anti-fascism.-Early life:...
and a wide range of women united by the wish for a quick end to hostilities. The letter was a plea for world peace among women, and was answered in kind by 155 Germanic feminists including Anita Augspurg
Anita Augspurg
Anita Augspurg was a German lawyer, actor, writer and feminist.- Biography :The fifth daughter of a lawyer, during her adolescence Augspurg often worked in her father's law office. In Berlin, she was trained for teaching at secondary schools for girls and took acting classes in parallel...
, Lida Gustava Heymann
Lida Gustava Heymann
Lida Gustava Heymann was a German women's rights activist.Together with her partner and girlfriend Anita Augspurg she was one of the most prominent figures in the bourgeois women's movement...
and Rosa Mayreder
Rosa Mayreder
Rosa Mayreder was an Austrian freethinker, author, painter, musician and feminist. She was the daughter of Franz Arnold Obermayer, a wealthy restaurant operator and barkeeper, and his second wife Marie.Rosa had 12 brothers and sisters and although her conservative father did not believe in the...
. Carrie Chapman Catt
Carrie Chapman Catt
Carrie Chapman Catt was a women's suffrage leader who campaigned for the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution which gave U.S. women the right to vote in 1920...
in America, founder of IWSA, proposed that, instead of the annual IWSA meeting taking place in Berlin (which appeared impossible due to the war), an international congress of women should meet in The Hague
The Hague
The Hague is the capital city of the province of South Holland in the Netherlands. With a population of 500,000 inhabitants , it is the third largest city of the Netherlands, after Amsterdam and Rotterdam...
on 28 April. Clark found that her position in the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies
National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies
The National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies , also known as the Suffragists was an organisation of women's suffrage societies in the United Kingdom.-Formation and campaigning:...
(NUWSS) was in the minority: she advocated for NUWSS to send delegates to The Hague in April. However, NUWSS membership was primarily concerned with helping the UK men win the war.
Racial equality
While still a child, Clark met Frederick DouglassFrederick Douglass
Frederick Douglass was an American social reformer, orator, writer and statesman. After escaping from slavery, he became a leader of the abolitionist movement, gaining note for his dazzling oratory and incisive antislavery writing...
during a trip he made to England, one in which he befriended John Bright. Clark heard Douglass speak about the state of racial inequality in America. When Douglass returned to England in 1886–87, he visited Clark once again at her home, and spoke about race oppression, caste barriers and African Americans' "total inability to protect themselves without the ballot of which they had been deprived by cruel persecution and the fraudulent manipulation of the ballot box." At this gathering, Clark's neighbor Catherine Impey
Catherine Impey
Catherine Impey was a British Quaker activist against racial discrimination. She founded Britain's first anti-racist journal, Anti-Caste, in March 1888 and edited it until its last edition in 1895....
, seeing Douglass for the second time, was inspired to launch a magazine called Anti-Caste in 1888, dedicated "to the interests of the coloured race;" the first anti-racism magazine in England.
In the 1860s, Clark became active in the UK branch of the Freedman's Aid Society
Freedman's Aid Society
The Freedmen’s Aid Society was founded in 1861 during the American Civil War by the American Missionary Association , a group supported chiefly by the Congregational, Presbyterian and Methodist churches in the North. It organized a supply of teachers from the North and provided housing for them,...
which sought to assist former slaves in establishing basic yet comfortable homes. In the 1880s, Clark was a founding member of the Society for the Furtherance of Human Brotherhood. In 1906, with Helena Brownsword Dowson and Jane Cobden Unwin, Clark became active in the Aborigines' Protection Society
Aborigines' Protection Society
The Aborigines' Protection Society was an international human rights organisation, founded in 1837, to protect the health and well-being and the sovereign, legal and religious rights of the indigenous peoples subjected by colonial powers. The Society published tracts, pamphlets, Annual Reports and...
.