The first in a series of historical suffrage markers installed throughout Maryland was dedicated on February 23, 2019 at 1532 and 1534 Druid Hill Avenue in honor of once-neighbors Augusta Chissell and Margaret Hawkins.

Many white suffragists resisted including black women in their efforts to win the vote. Augusta T. Chissell (1880-1973) and Margaret Briggs Gregory Hawkins (1877-1969) were neighbors at 1532 and 1534 Druid Hill Avenue. Chissell and Hawkins used their West Baltimore homes as meeting places for the Progressive Women’s Suffrage Club and the DuBois Circle. Members organized suffrage campaigns and addressed other social issues of the time.

Following passage of the 19th Amendment, Chissell wrote A Primer for Women Voters, a recurring column in the Afro-American offering guidance to new African American women voters. She also organized training sessions, weekly “Citizenship Meetings,” and lectures on voting and civic responsibility. Chissell was one of fourteen founding members of the Baltimore branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), serving as the first vice president of the organization in 1912.

Hawkins attended high school preparatory school at Howard University, attended St. Augustine College and Boston University, and was a career history teacher at Frederick Douglass High School in Baltimore. She was active in her community as a social and activist. Hawkins became the first African American woman to serve on the Central Branch YWCA executive committee of the Board of Directors. She also served as the vice president of the Progressive Women’s Suffrage Club and was involved in the 1909 effort by African American women to ensure the retention of the 15th Amendment for men in Baltimore City.