Biography
Early Life
Georgia Mabel DeBaptiste was the first woman to serve as president of the Women’s Auxiliary to the National Baptist Convention of America (NBCA) in 1915.
DeBaptiste was born in 1867 and was raised by her father, the Head Pastor of Olivet Baptist Church in Chicago. Her mother died in the early 1870s.
Because of her father’s leadership in the American Baptist Association and the Baptist Free Mission Society, she grew up heavily involved in the activities of the denomination and the local community.
Cultural Activism
She excelled in her studies in Chicago and nearby Evanston public schools. By the time she graduated from Knox College, she had developed into a talented writer and journalist.
She had a regular column in the Baptist Herald, and also wrote for the Baptist Headlight and Our Women and Children. Alice Dunnigan (The Negro History Bulletin, May 1965) noted that “Her writings showed a great concern for the needs and necessities of her race.”
DeBaptiste’s ability to connect issues of importance to a largely religious audience was a skill that would serve her for the rest of her life.
Her talents extended to music, which she taught at Selma University in Alabama. She also taught both language and music at Lincoln Institute in Missouri before joining the faculty at Western College in Kansas City.
Lawson Scruggs’ Women of Distinction (1893) described her as “courteous, sweet in temper, and yet of a decided and commanding bearing, charitable, devoted, and true.”
Around the turn of the twentieth century, she worked as a Chicago Post Office clerk, becoming one of the first African American women to hold this position.
Civil Leadership
After marrying Dr. C. H. Faulkner, she moved to Monrovia, Liberia. There, the couple worked to provide medical care for those impoverished. DeBaptiste was also a columnist for the African Mission Herald and likely viewed her time in Liberia as a missionary calling.
Little is known about what caused the end of her marriage to Faulkner, but by 1915, she was remarried to W.R. Ashburn, the leader of Mount Zion Baptist Church in Evanston.
DeBaptiste’s status as First Lady, combined with her life-long affiliation in the Baptist church, poised her to be the first president of the Women’s Auxiliary in the NBCA. Her peers elected her to the position twice.
Her faith and passion for teaching extended to contributing to social welfare initiatives for local communities. She served in leadership roles in several religious and philanthropic organizations in Chicago. This included the Young Women’s Christian Association, the World Fellowship of Faith, the Mothers Union, and Home for Business and Working Young Women.
The circumstances and date of her death are unknown. However, Georgia Mabel DeBaptiste’s leadership in the Baptist Women’s Auxiliary and her social contributions in Chicago are still celebrated today.
