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Fannie Hopkins Hamilton was the founding treasurer of the Equal Suffrage Study Club, organized the first suffrage parade for Wilmington, Delaware, donated her time to the Red Circle Community Organization, participated in the "Walnut Street Y," and taught people about business and economic skills.

Early Life
Fannie Hopkins Hamilton was born in 1882 in Queen’s Anne’s County, Maryland as Frances Eleanor Hopkins and moved to Wilmington, Delaware when she was eight with her widowed mother. Her father, Rev. Oliver Hopkins, died when she was young and he was a Minister of the African Methodist Episcopal Church. Fannie had two younger siblings, John. O Hopkins, and Mary E. Hopkins. When her father died her mother remarried to Benjamin Briggs, a minister of the African Methodist Episcopal Church.

Education
Fannie Hopkins Hamilton went to local public schools as a young girl in Wilmington, Delaware. During her years as a mother, Fannie seeked an occupation as a seamstress and a dress maker, later traveling to Philadelphia to pursue advanced training at Drexel University. Soon, she developed her own shop. She also began teaching classes at Wilmington “colored” schools and encountered Alice Moore Dunbar, who was an African American political activist and poet during the Harlem Renaissance. Equipped with this contact, Fannie began to contribute to the Organization of Business and Professional Women in Wilmington.

Suffrage Work
Fannie Hopkins Hamilton contributed to the Equal Suffrage Study club in Wilmington and volunteered herself as treasurer in 1914. She played a major part in organizing Wilmington’s first big suffrage parade, also in 1914.

Uplifting the African-American community/Social Reform
After the 19th amendment was ratified, the group, Equal Suffrage Study Club, redefined themselves as the Colored Women’s Republican Committee. As a member, Fannie actively encouraged voter registration. She also gave her time to the Red Circle Community Association, which raised funds to improve African American children’s playgrounds. Additionally, Fannie managed recreational programs and gave budgeting advice to people at the “Walnut Street Y”- an African American branch of the YMCA.

Personal Life
Fannie was married to George W Hamilton for 62 years. They had two daughters together: Katherine Lorraine Hamilton and Elizabeth Anderson Parker. She had a granddaughter and three great-grandchildren as well.

Legacy
Her role in creating the Organization of Business and Professional Women in Wilmington lived on as well as her mentorship in teaching dressmaking at Wilmington schools. Fannie would donate her time to help families plan their wartime clothing budgets, work to provide foster homes and recreational programs for black children, and fund-raising for the Red Cross. Fannie played an active role in the Organization of Business and Professional women and a large portion of the community relied on Fannie’s business and economic skills.

Final years
During her final years, Fannie continued to pursue her career as a dressmaker, businesswoman, suffragist, and civil rights activist. Once her health started to fail, she died at the age of 81 in 1964.