Mrs Eliza McCabe
The Tacoma Colored Women’s Club is seeking to preserve and transform the historic home of Tacoma’s prominent black civil rights activist, Nettie Asberry. The house, in the heart of Tacoma’s Hilltop district, will be used as a community center to build upon and provide a cultural home for the black population of Tacoma.
With your financial support we can make the Asberry Historic Home Site a reality.
The Many Lives Of Dr Nettie Asberry
Activist
Nettie helped Tacoma’s established and growing black community to demonstrate activism and meaningful influence on Tacoma’s civic and cultural matters. An important and lasting influence that can be traced back to a letter written in opposition to the history of racism in the United States, which was reprinted and borrowed from in protests across the country. It was written and signed by Nettie Asberry
Organizer
In the early 1900s, Nettie began traveling across the state of Washington, encouraging diverse groups of black folk to organize into clubs to voice their causes influenced by the teachings of Booker T. Washington. The Washington State Federation of Colored Women was created in 1917, and Nettie became its president.
Artist
Nettie was bright and talented. At eight years old she started piano lessons. Nettie worked as a music teacher, an organist, and a music director. Nettie was one of Tacoma’s most respected artists and teachers. She held an arts degree and studied music composition at the Kansas Conservatory of Music and Elocution.
Influencer
In 1913 Nettie founded the Tacoma Chapter of the NAACP, cited in the organization’s magazine Crisis, as the first chapter west of the Mississippi River. She was an activist in the suffrage movement gaining women, including black women, the right to vote in Washington State in 1910, a decade before the passage of the 19th amendment nationwide.