by Susan Zehnder, Education Director
Coming across a name twice in one week is a good sign to dig a little deeper, and this is how I was introduced to
Crystal Eastman. Turns out not only did this woman have connections to Elmira,
women’s suffrage and Mark Twain, she was among the first American women to
receive a law degree. She was the first woman appointed by a New York Governor
to a state legal commission dealing with employment - a group she was later
elected to lead – and she was co-founder of both the National Women’s Peace Party
and the American Civil Liberties Union (commonly known as the ACLU). Amazingly,
she accomplished all of this before her untimely death at the age of 48.
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| Crystal Eastman |
Crystal Eastman was born in 1881, the second of
four children to Samuel Eastman and Annis Ford Eastman. The Eastmans had
married after meeting as students at Oberlin College. Samuel was ordained as a
Presbyterian minister, and his first assignment was to Canandaigua’s First
Congregational Church.
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| Samuel and Annis Eastman |
Samuel Eastman had
served in the Civil War, and had suffered from terrible pneumonia. His health
went on to bother him throughout his life. Soon health issues forced him to
resign his Canandaigua ministry, and his wife Annis took up teaching to raise
money for the growing family. They had four children. Annis soon discovered a
talent for speaking and was asked and accepted offers to preach at various local
churches. She became an early feminist and popular speaker. Notable speeches
she gave were before the Congress of Women and the National Council of Women of
the United States.
In 1892, Annis became the first woman
Congregational minister, and was ordained by a council headed by the Reverend
Thomas K. Beecher of Elmira. The Eastmans and Beechers became lifelong friends
and colleagues. When Reverend Beecher died in 1900, both Eastmans were
appointed to take his place and they moved their family from Canandaigua to
Elmira.
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| Revs. Thomas K. Beecher, Annis and Samuel Eastman |
Other members of the
progressive congregation included Samuel L. -also known as Mark Twain - and
Livy Clemens. They knew the Eastmans so well that when Twain died, Reverend
Annis Ford Eastman was asked to give the eulogy at his funeral. She wrote the
eulogy, but her failing health prevented her from delivering it. Her husband
spoke on her behalf.
The Eastman’s oldest child had died early from scarlet fever. Now there were three children and Crystal was their only daughter. She left Elmira to study at Vassar College, with plans to pursue advanced studies in NYC while her brother Max finished up at Williams College.
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| Vassar College |
The family’s financial plans required her to compromise.
Her parents decided Crystal would pursue her master’s degree in sociology from
Columbia, while Max took a year off. Crystal would then return to Elmira and
work while Max finished his studies. Everyone agreed, and upon completing
graduate school, Crystal returned to Elmira to teach high school English and
history for two years.
In 1906, Crystal returned to New York City to
enroll in law school at New York University. The program had recently began to
admit women students, and she earned her degree in 1907. She was particularly
interested in labor issues and worked on a project called the Pittsburgh
Survey. This was an in-depth look at workplace injuries, employment, and
unemployment issues. Her scholarship on the project brought her to the
attention of the NY Governor. Governor Hughes appointed her to the New York
State Commission of Employee’s Liability and Causes of Industrial Accidents,
Unemployment and Lack of Farm Labor. Crystal became the first woman appointed
to any state level commission in New York, and went on to be the elected
Secretary of the commission.
Following in her mother's footsteps, Crystal
became active in the suffrage movement. Ironically her first contribution to
the cause was to help her brother Max establish the Men's League for Women's
Suffrage, and important organization that fought alongside and boosted women's
rights.
Crystal married Wallace Benedict and they left New
York for Milwaukee, his hometown. In Wisconsin, she campaigned for suffrage
issues which went on to be soundly defeated. Within the year, she moved back
alone to NYC. The couple divorced two years later.
By this time, World War I was looming. Crystal, along with other
prominent activists, turned their attention away from women getting the vote to
working on Peace and anti-Militarism campaigns. Concerned about the state of
civil liberties for all citizens, she co-founded the National Woman’s
Peace Party to defend free speech during wartime. Her advocacy work gained her
international experience, and she traveled and lectured throughout Europe. She
worked closely with prominent social reformers, activists and radicals of the
day, including Walter Fuller who became her second husband. Walter was an
Englishman, poet, anti-war activist, intellectual and editor, and together they
had two children.
In 1920, when the US Government began to suppress free speech and
freedom of the press, Crystal co-founded the National Civil Liberties Bureau
later known as the American Civil Liberties Union. This was her most
significant legacy.
Her work to protect citizens’ civil rights
targeted her, and she and her husband were blacklisted by the government.
Unable to find work, they fled the country to work in London, England.
In 1927, Walter had a stroke and died. Crystal returned to the US
only to die six months later from inflammation of the kidneys. She was 48 years
old. Crystal Eastman is buried in Woodlawn Cemetery in Canandaigua, NY.
