Susie Lankford Shorter

Susie Isabel Lankford Shorter (January 4, 1859 – February 23, 1912) was an American educator, philanthropist, and writer.

Susie Lankford Shorter
Susie Isabel Lankford Shorter, from an 1893 publication.
Born
Susan Isabel Lankford

(1859-01-04)January 4, 1859
Terre Haute, Indiana
DiedFebruary 23, 1912(1912-02-23) (aged 53)
NationalityAmerican
EducationWilberforce University
Known forEducator, writer
Notable work
"Lifting as We Climb"
Spouse(s)
Joseph Proctor Shorter
​
​
(m. 1878⁠–⁠1910)​
his death

Early life

Susan Isabel (or Isabella) Lankford was born in Terre Haute, Indiana, the daughter of Whitten Strange Lankford and Clarissa Carter Lankford. Her father was a minister in the African Methodist Episcopal Church. She was educated at Wilberforce University in Ohio.[1]

Career

Susie Lankford taught for a few years before she married.[2] As a faculty wife at Wilberforce, she ran a student store, offered a free kindergarten for local children, and provided care for sick students in her home. She was president of the Wilberforce Ladies' College Aid Society.[3]

Shorter wrote articles for church publications. Her booklet "Heroines of African Methodism" (1891) was written to celebrate the eightieth birthday of Bishop Daniel Payne.[3] "We are proud of our women," she wrote. "Little has been written concerning them. They are walking in all life's avenues successfully, daring and doing what the women of other varieties of the human race dare and do."[4] She also wrote a column, "Plain Talk to Our Girls", for Ringwood's Afro-American Journal of Fashion, published by Julia Ringwood Coston.[5]

She wrote the song, "Lifting as We Climb",[6] for the Ohio chapter of the National Association of Colored Women's Clubs.[7]

Personal life

Susie Isabel Lankford married Joseph Proctor Shorter, a professor at Wilberforce University, in 1878. They had eight children together; at least three of their children died before reaching their teens. Susie Lankford Shorter was widowed in 1910 and died in 1912, aged 53 years.[3]

References
  1. Hallie Q. Brown, Homespun Heroines and Other Women of Distinction (Oxford University Press 1988): 205–206. ISBN 9780199763092
  2. Lawson Andrew Scruggs, Women of Distinction: Remarkable in Works and Invincible in Character (Scruggs 1893): 162–163.
  3. Jessie Carney Smith, ed., Notable Black American Women, Book 2 (VNR AG 1996): 595–597. ISBN 9780810391772
  4. Monroe Alphus Majors, Noted Negro Women: Their Triumphs and Activities (Donohue & Henneberry 1893): 147.
  5. Noliwe M. Rooks, Ladies' Pages: African American Women's Magazines and the Culture that Made Them (Rutgers University Press 2004): 30. ISBN 9780813534244
  6. John Russell Hawkins, Centennial Encyclopedia of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, Volume 1 (AME Church 1916): 202.
  7. Charles Harris Wesley, The History of the National Association of Colored Women’s Clubs: A Legacy of Service (NACWC 1984): 54.
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