Daisy E. Lampkin

1883 - 1965

BiographyDaisy L. Lampkin (1883-1965) was a civil rights leader and worked for the Pittsburgh Courier as the Vice President as well as a stockholder for the Courier. She was born in Washington, D.C., and lived in Reading, Pennsylvania, before moving to Pittsburgh in 1909. She married William Lampkin who used to work for the Pittsburgh Gage and Supply Company as a clerk around the time she moved to Pittsburgh. Her fight for civil rights started very early in her career. Around 1912, she organized a woman’s suffrage tea in addition to several protests and clubs to help the people in the black community. She brought together the first American Red Cross chapter for black women and was a two-time alternate delegate to the National Republican Convention in the 1920s. Lampkin also became the chairman of the board of directors for the National Association of Colored Women, Inc. and was also on the board of directors of the Urban League in Pittsburgh. Lampkin was the national field secretary of the NAACP from 1935-1947. She was the first black woman to be honored by the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission with her name in the state’s historical ledger and a marker outside her home in the Hill District.

Sources:
McKenzie, Edna B. “Think Positive: Learning from Daisy Lampkin.” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Newspapers.com. p.7. 7 August 1991.

Byrd, Jerry. “Hill’s Legendary Daisy Lampkin Takes a Place in State History.” The Pittsburgh Press, Newspapers.com. p.21. 10 August 1983.