Program

National Votes for Women Trail

Subject

Education, People, Site

Location

620 Dr Mary McLeod Bethune Blvd, Daytona Beach, FL 32114, USA

Lat/Long

29.2121743, -81.0316872

Grant Recipient

National Collaborative for Women's History Sites

Educator and suffragist Frances Reynolds Keyser advocated for women’s right to vote and was a leader in African American women’s clubs in both New York and Florida. Keyser served as president of the New York State Federation of Colored Women’s Clubs and later the Florida State Federation of Colored Women’s Clubs. She also served on the executive committee of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1911, when the organization was incorporated. Keyser was listed in the notice of its incorporation in the September 1911 edition of the NAACP’s publication The Crisis, along with the Articles of Incorporation that read in part:

That the principal objects for which the corporation is formed are voluntarily to promote equality of rights and eradicate caste or race prejudice among the citizens of the United States; to advance the interests of colored citizens; to secure for them impartial suffrage; and to increase their opportunities for securing justice in the courts, education for their children, employment according to their ability, and complete equality before the law.

From 1912 to 1922, Keyser worked as a teacher and administrator at the Daytona Literary and Industrial Training School for Negro Girls in Daytona Beach, Florida. The school was founded by fellow suffragist and activist Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune in 1904, and was later made coeducational and named Bethune-Cookman University.

Keyser died in 1932. In the September 17, 1932 edition of the African American newspaper the New York Age, Bethune’s “Tribute To My Friend And Co-Worker Frances R. Keyser” was published and read in part:

Frances Reynolds Keyser was a rare gift to Providence. Her high intelligence bordered on genius, and was so matured through erudition that she radiated culture and refinement to any environment of which she found herself a part. …

She was tireless in her efforts to promote higher standards for the school. Very often Mrs. Keyser would work all day, and then all night. She never grew weary of her task. She believed in me and in the ideals I sought to instill in the young girls who came to our institution. …

Students, teachers and friends of Bethune-Cookman College, and the women of Florida and the Nation offer a tribute of love and gratitude to the memory of Frances Reynolds Keyser.