Mabel Ping-Hua Lee was born in China in 1896 but lived most of her life in the United States, where, due to the Chinese Exclusion Act, she had no path to naturalization until the law changed in 1943. Even though it would not benefit her for decades, Mabel Lee worked for women’s suffrage, leading the New York City Suffrage Parade on horseback at the age of only 16. Lee was the first Chinese woman to earn a PhD in Economics in the United States, graduating from Columbia University in 1921 with a dissertation entitled: “The Economic History of China: With Special Reference to Agriculture,” and then spent her life helping the Chinese community in New York City through her work with as director of the First Chinese Baptist Church of New York City. 

Joining me to help us learn more about Mabel Lee is Dr. Cathleen Cahill, Associate Professor of History at Pennsylvania State University and author of the 2020 book Recasting the Vote: How Women of Color Transformed the Suffrage Movement.

Our theme song is Frogs Legs Rag, composed by James Scott and performed by Kevin MacLeod, licensed under Creative Commons. The episode image is “Radiogram; 6/26/1937; Case #12-943; Chinese Exclusion Act case file for Mabel Lee (Ping Hua Lee);” from Chinese Exclusion Act Case Files, ca. 1882 - ca. 1960; Records of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, Record Group 85; National Archives at New York, New York, NY.

Selected Sources:

• “Dr. Mabel Ping-Hua Lee,” National Park Service
• “The 16-Year-Old Chinese Immigrant Who Helped Lead a 1912 US Suffrage March,” by Michael Lee, History.com, March 19, 2021
• “Asian American Legacy: Dr. Mabel Lee,” by Tim Tseng, December 12, 2013.
• “Overlooked No More: Mabel Ping-Hua Lee, Suffragist With a Distinction,” by Jia Lynn Yang, The New York Times, September 19, 2020.
• “Mabel Ping-Hua Lee ’1916: A Pioneer of the Suffrage Movement,” by Lois Elfman, Barnard Magazine, Fall 2020.

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