The nation's FIRST Black woman state legislator, Crystal Bird Fauset served in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives. Crystal Bird was born in Princess Anne, Maryland on June 17th, 1893. She was one of nine children. Her father was the first principal of Princess Anne Academy, a school for Black students. The Academy was the predecessor to the University of Maryland Eastern Shore. She grew up in Boston, Massachusetts and attended integrated public schools. After graduating from Boston Normal School in 1914, she became a school teacher. Her work with youth led her to become the first secretary for Black girls with the Young Women's Christian Association (YWCA) National Board in New York. Fauset later said her YWCA experience caused her to modify her liberal New England attitudes. “Problems cannot be segregated,” she declared, “wherever I went they appeared as interracial problems.”
In 1918, she traveled the country as field secretary for the (YWCA). During 1927 and 1928, while attending Columbia University in New York, she lectured on Black culture for the American Friends Service Committee, a Quaker organization. One of the missions of the organization was to foster intercultural exchange as a way to better racial understanding, and the AFSC sponsored Bird as a touring speaker to promote this message. She became a prominent speaker on race relations, delivering 210 speeches to over 40,000 people between 1927 and 1928. for the AFSC. Her work aimed to highlight the humanity of African Americans and foster interracial understanding. The AFSC had become interested in improving race relations in the United States and had formed their Interracial Section in 1925, two years before offering Bird a staffing position. She analyzed racial prejudice and emphasized the contributions of Black communities throughout history.
After finishing her service with the AFSC, Bird continued her education and received a degree from Teachers College, Columbia University, in 1931. In that same year, Bird married Arthur Huff Fauset, an educator, anthropologist, and civil rights activist, who was the half-brother of Harlem Renaissance writer Jessie Redmon Fauset. She then helped establish the Institute of Race Relations at Swarthmore College in 1933, for which she was the joint executive secretary of the summer seminars for two years. The institute documented employment and housing inequalities against Blacks. Fauset was especially interested in slum clearance and affordable housing projects for the Black communities of Philadelphia. She cited the poor infrastructure and a need for urban reform. Fauset spoke on her belief that disarmament and peace would be economically beneficial to African Americans and the nation, especially during that time of the Great Depression.
Fauset’s political career surged in the 1930s. In 1932 Fauset founded the Colored Women’s Activities Club for the Democratic National Committee where she helped African American women register to vote. She then helped establish the Institute of Race Relations at Swarthmore College in 1933, for which she was the joint executive secretary of the summer seminars for two years. The Institute documented employment and housing inequalities against African Americans. Fauset was especially interested in slum clearance and affordable housing projects for the Black communities of Philadelphia. She cited the poor infrastructure and a need for urban reform. In 1935, Fauset became assistant personnel director to the director of Philadelphia's Works Progress Administration (WPA), a New Deal agency centered on public works projects such as constructing roads and buildings, and financing artistic and literary endeavors.
During her time with Philadelphia's WPA, Fauset ended a racial quota system for sewing jobs which helped increase African American women's access to employment. As a member of the Federal Housing Advisory Board in 1935, she had advocated better urban housing. In November 1936, Fauset strode resolutely into the political arena. She was appointed director of women’s activities for the National Democratic Committee. At the 1936 Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, Fauset organized Black female WPA workers to form the Willing Works Democratic Organization (WWDO). With a thousand members, the WWDO helped increase voter participation and registration under the Democratic Party in Philadelphia, especially among Black communities.
Because of Mrs. Fauset's public speaking expertise and her knowledge of political affairs, the Philadelphia Democratic party leader urged her to run for the state legislature. She represented Philadelphia’s Eighteenth District, a district that was two-thirds White. On November 8, 1938, after a bitter primary, she was elected to the state legislature, winning by 7,000 votes. She was one of the first American politicians to utilize telephoning in her campaign. She was the first Black American woman ever elected to a state legislature. After her victory she said, "My interest is no way limited to my race, but is universal." During her time as a state legislator, she represented an area that was 66% White. During her term in the House of Representatives, Fauset introduced nine bills and three amendments on issues involving public health, housing, public relief, and working women. She sponsored an amendment to the Pennsylvania Female Labor Law of 1913 which protected women in the workplace. Fauset urged her colleagues to extend this protection to domestics, many of whom were African American.
Although she came from a middle-class background, she had firsthand knowledge of problems affecting lower-class Black Americans. In January 1940, Crystal Bird Fauset resigned from the General Assembly of Pennsylvania. In her letter of resignation she wrote that the “brief legislative experience was one of the most pleasant, most stimulating of my entire life,” but believed her new position offered more opportunity for public service. That new position was assistant state director of the WPA’s education-recreation program through the influence of her friend, first lady Eleanor Roosevelt. They developed a friendship and collaborated politically. Fauset became a member of the so-called Roosevelt Black cabinet in Washington, D.C., which included Mary McLeod Bethune and Arthur W. Mitchell, among others. The First Lady also helped Fauset get the position of assistant director and race relations director of the Office of Civil Defense.
The OCD was headed by Mayor of New York City, Fiorello LaGuardia, from 1941 to 1942, and then by James M. Landis. The agency was tasked with coordinating and monitoring the volunteer defense activities of American men, women, and children on the home front. As head of the race relations division of the Office of Civilian Affairs (OCD), Fauset promoted civil defense planning in the African American community, recruited Blacks for the military, and monitored complaints about race discrimination. By the summer of 1942, there were about 10 million volunteers and OCD events included air-raid drills, salvage drives, and planting Victory Gardens. Fauset was hired to specifically look at African American efforts after the OCD had been criticized for its lack of racial inclusiveness.
Disappointed with the Roosevelt administration's record on civil rights, she bolted the Democratic Party in 1944 to support Republican presidential candidate Thomas E. Dewey. Fauset broke away after questioning the Party's inaction on supporting African American voters and civil rights, and becoming discontented with the Roosevelt administration's slow record on civil rights and the President's discouragement of meetings about racial matters during the 1944 presidential campaign. Dewey appointed her to the Republican National Committee’s division on Negro Affairs. Her announcement received mixed reactions among African American newspapers. She went on to help found the United Nations Council of Philadelphia in 1945 (later the World Affairs Council).
She continued to volunteer for the organization years after. Fauset also attended the founding of the United Nations in San Francisco in 1950. Fauset travelled to Africa, India, and the Middle East in the 1950s to support independence movements. During her journeys, she inaugurated lasting friendships with future president of Nigeria. Her interest in the United Nations brought her into contact with Ralph Bunche, the Black diplomat who won the 1950 Nobel Peace Prize. Bunche’s support helped Fauset achieve her goals with the World Affairs Council, and to make a special tour of the Middle East. Beginning in 1955, Fauset lobbied for the opening of an Africa House in New York, a proposed forum for Black and White Americans to learn about the continent by interacting with Africans. In 1955, Fauset was awarded a second Meritorious Service Medal from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Crystal Bird Fauset, the first Black woman elected to a state legislature in the U.S, died on March 27 1965, in Philadelphia, leaving a legacy of advocating for economic and racial justice, and inspiring civic engagement.