Florence Luscomb

Activist Florence Luscomb dedicated most of her life fighting for a variety of causes.

Women's Rights Collection at Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute, Harvard University

Quick Facts

Significance:

Suffragist, activist

Place of Birth:

Lowell, Massachusetts

Date of Birth:

February 6, 1887

Place of Death:

Watertown, Massachusetts

Date of Death:

October 27, 1985

Participating in women's rights, civil rights, labor, and peace movements throughout the 1900s, Florence Luscomb embodied what it means to be an activist.

Raised in Boston by her mother, Florence Luscomb became exposed to social justice issues early on in her life.¹ Hannah Luscomb, her mother, participated in both the women's suffrage and labor movements, taking Florence to the National American Woman Suffrage Association convention in 1892 to hear Susan B. Anthony speak.²

Florence Luscomb attended local Boston schools and became one of the few women admitted to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. While studying there, Luscomb joined its chapter of the College Equal Suffrage League, a women’s suffrage organization. Soon after graduating with a degree in architecture in 1909, Luscomb began her career as a suffragist.³

Along with other young suffragists, Florence Luscomb helped revitalize the movement by bringing the issue of women's suffrage to the wider public. She attended the first open-air meetings, campaigned in towns throughout the state, and sold The Woman's Journal on street corners. Luscomb also joined other innovative suffragists in reaching out to local Boston communities of varying class, racial, ethnic, and religious backgrounds. As a result, Florence Luscomb stood out as one of the state's most popular and effective suffrage speakers.⁴

While advocating for women's suffrage in local Black churches, Florence Luscomb opened her eyes to the injustice against African Americans. She joined the Boston chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in its early years of establishment, serving in numerous leadership positions. Recognizing the particular plight of African Americans, Luscomb noted: "Discrimination against women is bitter, but it is to me nowhere near as terrific an oppression as is discrimination against black people."⁵ Florence Luscomb supported the civil rights movement and collaborated with Boston's Black leaders throughout the course of her life.

In the decades following the ratification of the 19^th Amendment, Luscomb continued her involvement in politics. In 1920, she began working with the Boston League of Women Voters, which supported her run for Boston City Council in 1922. Luscomb later ran as a third party candidate in several races, including in the 1936 election for Massachusetts 9^th District in the House of Representative (People's Labor Party) and in the 1952 race for Massachusetts Governor (Progressive Party).⁶

During this time, Florence Luscomb broadened her activism beyond the causes of women and African Americans. She joined a variety of civil rights, labor, and peace organizations, including the American Civil Liberties Union, the Massachusetts Civic League (a public welfare organization), the International Ladies Garment Workers Union, and the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom.⁷

Florence Luscomb's progressive views often clashed against the views of the state and federal government. Historian Sharon Hartman Strom noted that her FBI file contained over 9,000 pages. Luscomb's defense of Communism gained the most attention. While not a Communist herself, she criticized the Red Scare and became a target during red-baiting schemes. When subpoenaed by the Commission to Investigate Communism in Massachusetts, Luscomb attended but refused to comply.⁸ Instead, she gave a statement condemning the Commission for its unconstitutional activity, stating:

I will not be an accessory to your subversion. I will not answer compulsory questions by government inquisitors into matters of my conscience and opinions, speech, writings, associations and political views in violation of the constitutional provisions of Article 1 of the United States Bill of Rights...I cannot and will not tear up the Constitution and its guaranteed liberties, won with blood and tears. I cannot and will not be a party with you in destroying American democracy.⁹

Well into her 70s and 80s, Florence Luscomb continued to participate in the peace movement and women’s liberation. Still able to draw a crowd in 1970, Luscomb referenced her early activism in women's rights during an anti-Vietnam War speech on Boston Common:

Almost 70 years ago I began my activities in the movement which today goes by the name of ‘Women’s Liberation’, but which by whatever name is nothing more nor less than an ultimatum that women shall be acknowledged and treated as full, equal members of the human race. We ask nothing more: we will take nothing less.¹⁰

After a long and successful life as an activist, Florence Luscomb died at the age of 98 in 1985. Living with a strong moral compass, she always stood firm in her understanding of American patriotism: "To me, patriotism demands not the losing of one's eyes to the faults and misdeeds of one's country, but rather the fighting and ending of them, so making America better."¹¹

Footnotes:

1. Read about Florence Luscomb’s connections to Lowell, her town of birth, at Lowell National Historical Park’s webpage: "Florence Luscomb."
2. “Suffragist Florence Luscomb, 98: championed causes for 60 years,” Boston Globe, October 28, 1985; “Feminist Florence Luscomb honored, questions equality,” Boston Herald, February 07, 1977.
3. Sharon Hartman Strom, Political Woman: Florence Luscomb and the Legacy of Radical Reform (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2001).
4. Strom, Political Woman, 74-77.
5. “Suffragist Florence Luscomb, 98: championed causes for 60 years,” Boston Globe, October 28, 1985.
6. “Suffragist Florence Luscomb, 98: championed causes for 60 years,” Boston Globe, October 28, 1985; Strom, Political Woman.
7. “Suffragist Florence Luscomb, 98: championed causes for 60 years,” Boston Globe, October 28, 1985; “Feminist Florence Luscomb honored, questions equality,” Boston Herald, February 07, 1977; Strom, Political Woman.
8. Strom, Political Woman, 230-239.
9. "Statement by Miss Florence H. Luscomb to the Commission to Investigate Communism in Massachusetts – January 7, 1955," Florence Luscomb Post Suffrage Documents, folder 643, Women's Rights Collection, Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute, Harvard University. 
10. "Florence Luscomb Speech on Boston Common, April 15, 1970," Additional Papers of Florence Luscomb, MC625; T-177, 3.10, Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute, Harvard University, https://hollisarchives.lib.harvard.edu/repositories/8/archival_objects/1640127.
11. "Statement by Miss Florence H. Luscomb to the Commission to Investigate Communism in Massachusetts – January 7, 1955," Florence Luscomb Post Suffrage Documents, folder 643, Women's Rights Collection, Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute, Harvard University.