English: Biography: Frances Albrier grew up in Tuskegee, Ala., and attended the Institute there until she went to Howard University to train in nursing. Moving to Berkeley, Calif., in 1920, she found few job opportunities open to Blacks. She became a Black Cross Nurse in Marcus Garvey's Universal Negro Improvement Association and later worked as a maid for the Pullman Company, where she became involved in unionizing the porters, waiters, and maids on the trains. Her many polltical activities began in 1938 with her election to the Alameda County Democratic Central Committee; she was the first woman member. Mrs. Albrier has been active in many civic organizations and clubs, both integrated and Black. She was a leader in the California Association of Colored Women's Clubs, held the presidency of the San Francisco chapter of NCNW, and is a member of Labor's Nonpartisan League and WILPF. Among her other memberships are the East Bay Women's Welfare Club, League of Women Voters, Little Citizens' Study and Welfare Club, NAACP, and YWCA. She has been at the forefront of every major civil rights movement, often setting up ad hoc organizations to achieve specific local goals. She has helped to pave the way for Blacks to work as clerks in neighborhood stores, to teach in public schools, and to run for and to be elected to the city council, the school board, and the state legislature.

Description: The Black Women Oral History Project interviewed 72 African American women between 1976 and 1981. With support from the Schlesinger Library, the project recorded a cross section of women who had made significant contributions to American society during the first half of the 20th century. Photograph taken by Judith Sedwick
Repository: Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America.
Collection: Black Women Oral History Project
Research Guide: http://guides.library.harvard.edu/schlesinger_bwohp

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