Mabel Ping-Hua Lee

Mabel Ping-Hua Lee (Chinese: 李彬華; October 7, 1896 – 1966) was a Chinese-American women's rights activist and minister who campaigned for women's suffrage in the United States. Later in life, Lee became a Baptist minister, working with the First Chinese Baptist Church in Chinatown, New York City.

Born in China and raised in New York City, Lee received a bachelor's degree and master's degree from Barnard College of Columbia University, and later a doctorate in economics from Columbia University in 1921, becoming the first Chinese woman in the United States to earn a doctorate in economics. In the 1910s, Lee became an activist for women's suffrage, and participated in the 1912 New York City women's suffrage parade, where she rode on horseback. Following the eventual passage of the Nineteenth Amendment in 1920, Lee still was unable to vote due to her status as a Chinese immigrant per the Chinese Exclusion Act. She would not gain the right to vote until at least the passage of the Chinese Exclusion Repeal Act in 1943.

Lee became a Baptist minister in 1924, after taking over her father's church following his death. She went on to run the First Chinese Baptist Church for forty years, while also becoming a leader within the American Baptist Home Mission Society. Lee additionally became a community advocate for the Chinese community in New York and residents of Chinatown, working with the Chinese Community Center. In recognition of her life and advocacy on behalf of women and Chinese immigrants in the United States, the Chinatown U.S. Post Office on Doyers Street was renamed in her honor in 2017.

Early life

Mabel Ping-Hua Lee was born on October 7, 1896 in Guangzhou during the Qing dynasty of China. Her father was Lee To or Lee Towe, a minister who immigrated to the United States and worked in the American Baptist Home Mission Society. He first served as a missionary to the Chinese community in Washington state in 1898 and then was appointed to minister at the Morning Star Mission in New York City, where he became a leading member in New York's Chinatown. Her mother's name is recorded in US census documents alternately as Lennick or Libreck Lee.

Lee spent her early childhood in China, attending a missionary school where she learned English. She was raised by her mother and grandmother while her father was in America. It has been reported she traveled with her mother to America in the summer of 1900 when she was four years old to reunite with her father. However, most articles, including a 1912 New-York Tribune article, made mention that she settled with her family in New York by 1905. She was also an only child but the same New-York Tribune article writes of a baby sister. Her family lived in a tenement at 53 Bayard Street in Chinatown. She attended New York City's public schools, specifically Erasmus Hall High School in Brooklyn, which was a school meant to accommodate the increase in immigrant children.

Education

In 1913, Lee began attending Barnard College where she majored in history and philosophy. She joined the Debating Club and Chinese Students' Association. In 1916, she ran for president of this student association against Tse-ven Soong, who later became finance minister of China's national government. She wrote articles for The Chinese Students’ Monthly, in which she championed for woman's suffrage and argued for equality as necessary in a democracy. While at Barnard College, she also received a master's degree in educational administration.

In 1917, Lee was admitted to Columbia University for a doctorate in economics. The Chinese government was impressed with her research in the agricultural economy and granted her a Boxer Indemnity Scholarship which allowed her to continue her studies. She became the first woman to win this scholarship. She was the vice president of the Columbia Chinese Club and became associate editor of The Chinese Students’ Monthly. Lee graduated in 1921 or 1922 and earned a PhD in economics from Columbia University in 1921. She was selected by the Board of Council of Columbia University as the University Scholar in Economics for her research work in agricultural economics. This was the first time a Chinese student was given this award. Her final dissertation was titled "The Economic History of China: With Special Reference to Agriculture" and was later published. Her thesis was the first agricultural economics text written by a foreign Chinese student and maintained a balanced view of western economic ideology and Chinese traditional economic thought within the context of modern agricultural reform.

Post-education

After her studies, Lee traveled to Europe in 1923 to study postwar economics. A local Baptist newspaper reported, "On March 28, 1923, Miss Lee sailed for France where she is now engaged in the study of European Economics, in fuller preparation for her life work, in her native land, China. A position of great trust and signal honor awaits her arrival in China." Lee had numerous job opportunities including an offer from a Chinese firm interested in trade from the United States to China. She was also recruited for the Dean of Women students at the University of Amoy, now Xiamen University. However, after the sudden death of her father, she went back to New York City in 1924 to care for her mother. She was appointed by the American Baptist Home Mission Society to take on her father's duties and became chairman of the Morning Star Mission. Lee continued to travel to her homeland, eager to join the new generation of workers and help the people of China, but on her third trip to China in 1937, she decided otherwise. Racial and sexist discrimination were likely to reduce her chances of attaining her goals and it became unsafe to live in China with the Japanese invasion and the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War. These factors coupled with her familial and religious duties ultimately helped her decide to stay in New York.