Ensley, Elizabeth Piper, 1847-1919

Elizabeth Piper Ensley was born in New Bedford, Massachusetts, on January 19, 1847. She was a student at the West Newton English and Classical School, and continued her studies abroad in Europe from 1869 to 1870. Upon her return from her studies, she became a public-school teacher in New Jersey. She went on to teach at Howard University and Alcorn State University in Mississippi. In the late 1880’s, she moved with her family to Denver, Colorado, where she established herself as a prominent activist, and advocated for women’s suffrage, relief efforts for the poor, and women’s education. She founded the Colorado Association of Colored Women’s Clubs (CACW) in 1904, served as the second Vice President of the Colorado State Federation of Colored Women’s Clubs, and was the only African-American member of the Colorado Federation of Women’s Clubs. Ensley married fellow educator and activist Newell Houston Ensley on September 4, 1882, in Boston. They had three children together, Roger (born in 1883), Charlotte (bornin 1885), and Jean (born and died in 1888). Sadly, Newell died in 1888, the same year that they lost their last child Jean at the age of 3 months. Elizabeth Piper Ensley died in Denver in 1919. In 2020, she was posthumously named an honoree of the National Women’s History Alliance, and a Colorado Women’s Hall of Fame recipient.