Maude A. Morris Explained

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:

She died in her seventies in 1961.[9]

Notes and References

  1. Book: Frank Lincoln Mather . Who's who of the colored race: a general biographical dictionary of men and women of African descent . 1915 . 217 . Lyon, Ernest .
  2. Book: Carl Patrick Burrowes. Power and Press Freedom in Liberia, 1830-1970: The Impact of Globalization and Civil Society on Media-government Relations. 2004. Africa World Press. 978-1-59221-294-1. 121.
  3. Book: Ernest Jerome Yancy. Historical Lights of Liberia's Yesterday and Today. 1967. Around the world Publishing House. 212.
  4. Web site: The Origin of Liberian women entry in Government . . 16 February 2015 . 1 February 2021.
  5. News: Sarah Simpson George . A Statement on the Status of the Women of the Republic of Liberia . The Federation Journal . March–April 1953 . 1 February 2021 . 1, 5 .
  6. Liberia Today. Successful Rubber Entrepreneurs. Liberian Embassy in Washington. 4. 10. October 1955. 3–5.
  7. News: GVL's Oil Palm Mill Is Good News, but Will the Company Keep Its Promise? . Daily Observer . 22 February 2017 . 1 February 2021 . 5 February 2021 . https://web.archive.org/web/20210205142515/https://www.liberianobserver.com/opinion/editorials/gvls-oil-palm-mill-is-good-news-but-will-the-company-keep-its-promise/ . dead .
  8. Book: Elwood D. Dunn. Amos J. Beyan. Carl Patrick Burrowes. Historical Dictionary of Liberia. https://books.google.com/books?id=qt0_RrW8ghkC&pg=PA137. 2000. Scarecrow Press. 978-1-4616-5931-0. 136–7. Foreign Relations of Liberia.
  9. Book: William Tubman. D.Elwood Dunn. The Annual Messages of the Presidents of Liberia 1848–2010: State of the Nation Addresses to the National Legislature. https://books.google.com/books?id=saY4ubEU20QC&pg=PA1309. 2011. Walter de Gruyter. 978-3-598-44169-1. 1309. Annual Message to the Legislature, December 9, 1961.

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