#AAPIHeritageMonth In 1912, when most Chinese were banned from entering America, 16-year old Mabel Ping-Hua Lee -on horseback - helped lead one of the largest suffragette marches of the time in NYC's Washington Square Park. (Her photo from the NY Tribune) newspapers.com/clip/54974276/… 
Mabel Lee grew up in NYC's Chinatown - the daughter of a Chinese Protestant minister - it was a time when racist exclusion immigration laws made gender ratio of Chinese men/woman about 14:1 She attended @BarnardCollege & then @Columbia - 1st woman to receive PhD in Economics.
At age 18 she wrote for a student journal in which she argued that suffrage for women was necessary to a successful democracy - her speech "The Submerged Half" at invitation of the the Women's Political Union about the rights of woman in China was covered by the New York Times.
She hoped to lead a woman's movement in China but after her father died she took over running The First Chinese Baptist Church - a church that she expanded into a community center offering vocational classes, a health clinic & kindergarten. humanitiesny.org/amended-episod…
Mabel Ping-Hua Lee died at age 70 in NYC. NY state gave women voting rights 1917 but Chinese Americans couldn't be citizens until 1943. We don't know if Mabel ever enjoyed the rights she fought for as a 16-yr old girl astride a white horse in Washington Square Park.
In September 2020, the NYT featured Mabel Ping-Hua Lee in their "Overlooked" series. nytimes.com/2020/09/19/obi…
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