Gertrude Wright Morgan

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Gertrude Wright Morgan (1861–1931) was an American suffragist and civil rights activist who helped start the NAACP and the Niagara Movement. She was the first African American to enroll in Springfield High School in Springfield, Illinois, and the first to graduate there, and she is believed to have been the first Black graduate in Illinois.

She was born in 1861 in Springfield to Thomas Wright and Sarah Fortune Wright. Her father had been enslaved, but he and Gertrude’s brother were later freed. In 1874, Gertrude became the first African American student at Springfield High School, which had just ended segregation. She faced harsh treatment from white students but graduated in 1877, ranking third in a class of 28 and writing an essay called "Unknown Heroes."

After graduation, she tried to become a teacher in Springfield, but Black people were not allowed to hold teaching jobs there. She moved to St. Louis and taught at the all-Black Charles Sumner High School. Clement Morgan also worked there, and after moving to Cambridge, Massachusetts and returning to St. Louis, he married Gertrude in 1897. They later moved to Cambridge, where they continued their civil rights work. Gertrude died in 1931, two years after her husband.