Viola Hill

She was a founding member of the Alpha Suffrage Club and a community leader within the African Methodist Episcopal Church.

Many Black people moved to northern cities in the early and mid-1900s as a result of widespread racist violence, segregation, and economic insecurity in the South.

[8] As a young woman, Viola Hill also hosted social clubs within her own home on south Dearborn Street in Chicago.

Wells, Mary E. Jackson, Vera Wesley Green, Sadie Lewis Adams, Laura Beasley, and K. J.

[11] It published the Alpha Suffrage Record in 1914 and 1915 to educate the community about local issues and candidates that would show up on the ballot.

[13] Illinois women could vote in local elections as of 1914; Black suffragists like Viola Hill "went to work immediately.

"[13] Besides publishing the Alpha Suffrage Record, the clubwomen canvassed local neighborhoods to recruit voters.

[11] Hill also contributed to the election of Chicago's first Black alderman, Oscar Stanton De Priest.

[18] In 1914, Viola Hill was a secretary for the Allen Christian Endeavor League of the Chicago District.

[20] The League was an AME organization which aimed to promote "practical Christian living" and charity work among young people in the church.

The production was part of the Federal Theatre Project, a program established during the Great Depression to fund the arts.

[29] Hill later served on the advisory board for the National Association of Negro Musicians (NANM).