Charlotte Washington Dett

Charlotte Washington Dett (1862-1937) was a suffragist, human rights advocate, community leader, and boarding house proprietor who was highly active in the women’s club movement. Historians have described Dett as “a gracious woman of high ideals with a commanding, forceful personality” and as “representative of the quintessential African American clubwoman of her time.”

During her lifetime, Dett held memberships with several social, political, and fraternal organizations, including the National Association of Women's Clubs, Empire State Federation of Women's Clubs, the Phyllis Wheatley Club (1932 President), Women's Republican Club (Executive Board member), Order of Eastern Star (officer), Bison City Court of Calanthe, Knights of Pythias, the Queen Esther Household of Ruth (officer), and The Niagara Political Club, among many others. An active Republican, Dett served as a Republican committeewoman in 1828-1933.

From her home in Niagara Falls, Dett traveled extensively to promote the rights of women and African Americans. In 1920, she was appointed parliamentarian of the Women’s National Association meeting in Tuskegee, Alabama, attended by more than 700 women from across the nation. In 1922, she and Mary Talbert addressed an audience in Richmond, Virginia about the need of African Americans to raise funds to preserve the Washington, D.C. home of Frederick Douglass. Locally, she organized political rallies in support of Republican candidates and agitated for women’s suffrage.

Born in Drummondsville, Ontario, Canada in 1862, Dett moved to Niagara Falls, New York in 1893. By 1900, she and her husband had separated, and Dett owned and managed a 17-room boarding house on her own while raising two surviving sons. Two other sons died in childhood. Her boarding house catered to the growing number of African American tourists and Black migrants to Niagara Falls. Guests included Madame C. J. Walker, the first American woman to be a self-made millionaire, and Mary McLeod Bethune, who would go on to hold a cabinet position in President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s administration.