Program

National Votes for Women Trail

Subject

People, Site

Location

362 2nd Street, Niagara Falls, NY, USA

Lat/Long

43.0883129, -79.060518

Grant Recipient

National Collaborative for Women's History Sites

Charlotte Johnson Dett was a leading African American community activist and suffragist in Niagara Falls, New York. Born in Canada in 1862, historians believe that Charlotte’s mother was a freedom-seeker on the Underground Railroad who made the journey north amidst the American Civil War. After spending her early life in Canada, Charlotte moved to New York alongside her family in 1893. Not long after, Dett purchased and operated a rooming house in her new community. She would continue to run this rooming house until the 1930s, and the business put Charlotte in touch with many prominent figures visiting the region. A popular tourist destination then as it remains todays, Niagara Falls attracted honeymooners and tourists hoping to visit the Falls and explore the area. Though there were several hotels and boarding rooms nearby, historians note that Dett’s boarding house was likely the only one that would rent rooms to African Americans in the area at the time.

While living in Niagara Falls Charlotte established herself as a prominent leader advocating for women’s suffrage, access to education and political rights for African Americans. Dett served on the executive board of the Women’s Republican Club and as Vice President of the Empire State Federation of Women’s Club in 1913. As reported in the New York Age on July, 10 1913, “the federation placed itself on record as being in favor of women’s suffrage.” Dett was also listed as the treasurer of the Federation of Colored Women around this time. Current organizers and historians note that Dett was a driving force in establishing the Niagara Community Center along with her role in the equal suffrage movement.

Following her death, the Niagara Falls Gazette remarked in its April 8^th 1937 issue that, “[Dett] was one of the most talented women on Niagara frontier.” And, as described in the same article, Dett’s truly was a “remarkable career.”

The site of this marker sits approximately where her seventeen room boarding house once stood. One of Dett’s sons, Dr. R. National Dett, would go on to reach national acclaim as a musical composer, which also helped attract many prominent visitors to the boarding house.