Mabel Ping-Hua Lee

Mabel Ping-Hua Lee (; 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.

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 Magnuson 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. Provided by Wikipedia