Mary Elizabeth Jackson (1867–1923),[1] was an African-American female suffrage activist, YWCA leader and writer.

[4] In 1917, during World War I, she was appointed as "Special Industrial Worker among Colored Women" for the National War Work Council of the YMCA in which she analyzed employment trends and recommended programs to encourage fair employment of women of color.

In this role, she sought to provide good industrial jobs for Black women and foster interracial cooperation for social and racial justice movements at the time.

[1][6] Jackson wrote for the NAACP’s magazine The Crisis in November 1918 entitled, “The Colored Woman in Industry” which was detailing the working conditions of women in factories and a hopeful future of African-American women in industry.

[3] In this writing she describes discusses inequality of wages between races, and between genders, as well as the prejudices and poor working conditions.