Gertrude Mossell: Author Page
Gertrude Bustill Mossell, born in 1855, was a journalist, teacher, and poet. She began her literary career at sixteen when her high school commencement speech “Influence” was published in the Christian Recorder. As an early feminist, Mossell focused her journalistic work on women’s rights and responsibilities, becoming the first woman to publish an ongoing column in an African American newspaper in December 1885. “The Woman’s Department” ran in the New York Freeman, a leading African American Newspaper of the time. She married Dr. Nathan Frances Mossel, with whom she had two daughters. Together, they established Douglas Memorial Hospital and Training School in 1895, where Gertrude played a crucial yet often unrecognized role, raising over $30,000 for its creation.
In 1894, Mossell published The Work of the Afro-American Woman, a feminist and political text featuring essays and poems by various women, including businesswomen, journalists, educators, and missionaries. Notable publications like the New York Independent and the Chicago Inter-Ocean praised the book for highlighting the accomplishments of African American women and their ability to maintain dignity and identity while pioneering in their fields. This text serves as a very early anthology of poetry by African American women by writers such as Phillis Wheatley, Frances E.W. Harper, Mary Ashe Lee, H. Cordelia Ray, and Josephine Heard, among others. Mossell’s own poetry includes topics such as motherhood (see “My Babes That Never Grow Old”) and HBCUs (see “Tell the North That We Are Rising”).
Despite her significant contributions, Mossell’s name is often absent from contemporary 19th-century discourse. After her death in 1948, she left a legacy of journalistic excellence and fervent advocacy of women’s rights, highlighted by her role in organizing the Philadelphia branch of the National Afro-American Council, a predecessor to the NAACP.
Works Cited
Encyclopedia of African American Women Writers: [2 Volumes]. United Kingdom, ABC-CLIO, 2007.
Streitmatter, Rodger. Raising Her Voice: African-American Women Journalists Who Changed History.
University Press of Kentucky, 2021.