Elizabeth Piper Ensley (January 19, 1847 – February 23, 1919), was an educator and an African-American suffragist.

Although some sources claim that Ensley was born in 1848 in the Caribbean, census and marriage records, as well as her grave, place her birth at New Bedford, Massachusetts, on January 19, 1847.

Newell, born in Nashville, Tennessee[3] on August 23, 1852, was the son of Clara and George Ensley.

[11] Born into slavery, he was owned by his maternal grandfather who hired a teacher to teach him to read and write.

[13] Upon returning from Europe on December 22, 1870,[9] she established a circulating library in Boston[1][10] and became a public school teacher,[10] working in Trenton, New Jersey.

[9] She was the treasurer of the Colorado Non-Partisan Equal Suffrage Association, and beginning with a fund of 25 dollars, helped gain the money necessary for the campaign.

[19] The suffrage amendment was approved in November 1893, making Colorado the second state to grant voting rights to women.

[22] The CACW led community and educational programs, including the George Washington Carver Day Nursery.

[1] Ensley served as the second Vice President of the Colorado State Federation of Colored Women's Clubs.

"[23] Ensley was the only African-American member of the predominantly white board of the Colorado Federation of Women's Clubs.