Maude A. Morris

Maude Amelia Morris, née Lyon (died 1961) was a Liberian women's rights activist and rubber farmer.

Life

Maude Lyon was the daughter of the US Resident Minister to Liberia, Ernest Lyon.[1] In 1907 she married John Lewis Morris (1882-1935), who later served as Liberian Secretary of State under Daniel E. Howard in the 1920s.[2]

In 1920 she founded the National Liberian Women Social and Political Movement (NLWSPM),[3] to press for women's involvement in the Liberian government. However, President Charles D. B. King opposed the organization on the grounds that it amounted to the "Americanizing" of Liberian women.[4] In 1932 Morris apparently tried again to organize women, heading a group which petitioned the national legislature to amend the constitution and establish female suffrage. "This was likewise treated with laughter and contempt".[5]

In 1924 Morris bought some young rubber trees from the Firestone plantation at Harbel. After they were successfully planted at the family homestead near Monrovia, a family rubber farm soon started to expand.[6] After her husband died in 1935, her eldest son Harry L. Morris returned to Liberia to help carry on the farm.[7] By 1954 the family had moved to live near Kakata. The farm consisted of almost 3,000 acres, and rubber sales grossed over $100,000 per year.[6]

In 1945 Morris was among Liberia's delegation to the San Francisco Conference which established the United Nations.[8]

British administrative reports painted a vivid picture of Morris in the late 1940s:

One of the most picturesque figures in Liberia, and, in spite of her age and enormous bulk, still a powerful factor in the public life of the country [...] she has brought up, single-handed, a family of four children and developed a derelict farm near Monrovia, left her by her late husband, into a prosperous rubber and fruit plantation. She is to be found on nearly all Government, Red Cross and social welfare committees; and her voice, raised consistently in the interest of justice and fair play, is a terror to Government officials and politicians who have been found wanting. She is always welcome in white people's homes as much as in those of her own race, and in this way acts as a sort of link between the two peoples. She is truly a venerable and honourable Liberian institution.[9]

She died in her seventies in 1961.[10]

References
  1. Frank Lincoln Mather (1915). "Lyon, Ernest". Who's who of the colored race: a general biographical dictionary of men and women of African descent. p. 217.
  2. Carl Patrick Burrowes (2004). Power and Press Freedom in Liberia, 1830-1970: The Impact of Globalization and Civil Society on Media-government Relations. Africa World Press. p. 121. ISBN 978-1-59221-294-1.
  3. Ernest Jerome Yancy (1967). Historical Lights of Liberia's Yesterday and Today. Around the world Publishing House. p. 212.
  4. "The Origin of Liberian women entry in Government". Facebook. 16 February 2015. Retrieved 1 February 2021.
  5. Sarah Simpson George (March–April 1953). "A Statement on the Status of the Women of the Republic of Liberia". The Federation Journal. pp. 1, 5. Retrieved 1 February 2021.
  6. "Successful Rubber Entrepreneurs". Liberia Today. Liberian Embassy in Washington. 4 (10): 3–5. October 1955.
  7. "GVL's Oil Palm Mill Is Good News, but Will the Company Keep Its Promise?". Daily Observer. 22 February 2017. Retrieved 1 February 2021.
  8. Elwood D. Dunn; Amos J. Beyan; Carl Patrick Burrowes (2000). "Foreign Relations of Liberia". Historical Dictionary of Liberia. Scarecrow Press. pp. 136–7. ISBN 978-1-4616-5931-0.
  9. British Documents on Foreign Affairs--reports and Papers from the Foreign Office Confidential Print: Africa, July 1946-December 1946. University Publications of America. 2000. p. 51. ISBN 978-1-55655-770-5.
  10. William Tubman (2011). "Annual Message to the Legislature , December 9, 1961". In D.Elwood Dunn (ed.). The Annual Messages of the Presidents of Liberia 1848–2010: State of the Nation Addresses to the National Legislature. Walter de Gruyter. p. 1309. ISBN 978-3-598-44169-1.
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