Amelia Ann Tapscott Allen: Pioneer Educator and Public Official (1864–1911)

Amelia Ann Tapscott Allen, teacher and school board member in Saline County, Kansas, was possibly one of the first Black women elected to a public office in the United States. She was born in April 1864 in Washington County, Texas, to James R. and Palace Tapscott. Most likely her mother, Palace, was formerly an enslaved woman, and Amelia and at least two of her ten siblings were probably born into slavery. Amelia Tapscott had an unusual childhood, owing to her parents’ unconventional relationship. Her father ­­was White, and her mother was Black. Census records list Alabama as the birth place of both parents, and Palace may have been among the enslaved people held by the Tapscott family or related families in Alabama. By 1860 James and Palace Tapscott lived in Washington County, Texas, where enslaved people constituted more than half of the population. Her parents’ relationship was unorthodox for the era and defied societal norms regulated by miscegenation and marriage laws. By the mid-nineteenth century, interracial relationships were outlawed throughout much of the United States, and laws banning interracial marriage were not  repealed until the Loving v. Virginia case (1967).

Amelia Tapscott was raised on her parents’ farm in Washington County. The 1870 census listed her (under the name “Milly”) as a “cotton picker” at six years of age. She was still living, with eight other siblings, on the family farm at the time of the 1880 census. She likely had some form of early education, as the census did not indicate that she could not read or write. In the 1880s she attended school at Tillotson Collegiate and Normal Institute, a newly-opened educational institution for African Americans in Austin. Tillotson College also offered elementary training along with secondary and college training.

She received approximately seven years of training, however, about eight months prior to graduation, she was forced to find work to earn and save enough money to finish paying for school. It is unclear if Amelia Tapscott was able to eventually finish her education at Tillotson College. At some point in the 1880s she moved to Salina, Saline County, Kansas, where she taught at local schools. There she met Sandy Allen, a Black farmer from Ohio, and they married on December 11, 1888. Census information indicates that they had six children, but one child died very young.

By 1890 Amelia Allen had become a notable local educator. The Saline County Journal described her as “bright” with “eyes full of intelligence” and whose “refined manners and correct language bespeak education.” The periodical also characterized her as a “lady of many attainments and a university education.” That year, Allen was elected to the Saline County School Board and became, according to the Saline County Journal, “probably the first woman of her race elected to fill this position.” News of her accomplishment even reached the national African American periodical, The Appeal, whose editors payed recognition to her achievement. In October 1891 Allen was apparently a potential candidate for the Ladies’ Board of Managers of the upcoming Columbian Exposition as reported by the African American newspaper The Freeman out of Indianapolis, but no further mention of this possibility was made.

Amelia Allen lived in Kansas for several years, but by the time of the 1900 census she and her family were living in Lacey, Oklahoma, where her husband farmed. Their youngest child, age four, was recorded as being born in Oklahoma. Allen’s father died in 1909, and, according to the terms of his will, he bequeathed his farm of fifty acres in Washington County, Texas, to Amelia and her siblings. Amelia Ann Tapscott Allen died on February 23, 1911, in Lacey, Oklahoma, and was buried in the Lacy Cemetery.