Mary Isabel "Maybelle" Stephens Mitchell (January 13, 1872 – January 25, 1919) was an American suffragist, clubwoman, and activist. Born into a prestigious planting family of

Irish Catholic Irish Catholics are an ethnoreligious group native to Ireland whose members are both Catholic and Irish. They have a large diaspora, which includes over 36 million American citizens and over 14 million British citizens (a quarter of the British ...

background, she was educated at the Villa Maria Convent in

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...

and the Atlanta Female Seminary in

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to the ...

. A social and political activist, Mitchell was a leader in the women's suffrage movement in Georgia, protesting against state laws and meeting with local politicians to advocate for the rights of women, and was a member of the

Atlanta Woman's Club The Atlanta Woman’s Club is one of oldest non-profit woman’s organizations in Atlanta, organized November 11, 1895. It is a 501(c)3 non-profit philanthropic organization made up of professional women of all ages, races and religions. The At ...

. In 1915, she served as the president of the Atlanta Women's Suffrage League and, later, co-founded the League of Women Voters in Georgia. Mitchell helped establish the Catholic Layman's Association of Georgia, fighting against

Anti-Catholicism in the United States Anti-Catholicism in the United States concerns the anti-Catholic attitudes first brought to the Thirteen Colonies by Protestant European settlers, composed mostly of English Puritans, during the British colonization of North America (16th–17 ...

. She was the mother of author and journalist

Margaret Mitchell Margaret Munnerlyn Mitchell (November 8, 1900 – August 16, 1949) was an American novelist and journalist. Mitchell wrote only one novel, published during her lifetime, the American Civil War-era novel '' Gone with the Wind'', for which she wo ...

, whose character Ellen Robillard O'Hara from ''

Gone With the Wind Gone with the Wind most often refers to: * ''Gone with the Wind'' (novel), a 1936 novel by Margaret Mitchell * ''Gone with the Wind'' (film), the 1939 adaptation of the novel Gone with the Wind may also refer to: Music * ''Gone with the Wind'' ...

'' may have been based on Mitchell.

Personal life and family

Mitchell was born Mary Isabel Stephens on January 13, 1872, at her parents' Jackson Street mansion in

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...

.https://www.peachtree-online.com/staff/seasonal/pdfs/MargaretMitchell&JohnMarsh.pdf She was the seventh child of Captain John Stephens, a

Confederate Confederacy or confederate may refer to: States or communities * Confederate state or confederation, a union of sovereign groups or communities * Confederate States of America, a confederation of secessionist American states that existed between 1 ...

officer and merchant who served on the Atlanta Police Commission, and Annie Fitzgerald, a landowner. Her father had immigrated from Ireland as a young man. Her mother was the daughter of planter Philip Fitzgerald, an

emigrant who owned

Rural Home Rural Home, also known as the Fitzgerald House, was a plantation house in Clayton County, Georgia. Built in the 1830s, the house was acquired by Philip Fitzgerald, a planter class, planter and Irish immigrant, in 1836. Rural Home was the childhood ...

, a plantation in

Clayton County Clayton County is the name of two counties in the United States: * Clayton County, Georgia in the Atlanta Metropolitan Area * Clayton County, Iowa It was also the former name of Clay County, Arkansas Clay County is a county located in the U.S. ...

near Jonesboro. Monklands Villa Maria Montreal 2012-09-19-b

Mitchell attended a finishing school at the Villa Maria Convent in

, where she learned to speak French fluently, and graduated with honors from the Atlanta Female Seminary in 1892. She married Eugene Muse Mitchell, an attorney and historian, in 1893. They had three children: Russell Mitchell, Stephens Mitchell, and

. Although her husband had

Huguenot The Huguenots ( , also , ) were a religious group of French Protestants who held to the Reformed, or Calvinist, tradition of Protestantism. The term, which may be derived from the name of a Swiss political leader, the Genevan burgomaster Be ...

roots, she had all three of her children baptized in the Catholic Church. In the summertime she and her family would stay at the Fitzgerald family plantation in Clayton County with her aunts, Mary Ellen Fitzgerald and Sarah Fitzgerald. Her husband was later served as the president of the board of education in Atlanta.

Activism

Mitchell was very active and well-respected in Atlanta

society A society is a group of individuals involved in persistent social interaction, or a large social group sharing the same spatial or social territory, typically subject to the same political authority and dominant cultural expectations. Socie ...

. She was known for her progressive views, enthusiasm for politics, and morality. She was frequently written about in ''

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution ''The Atlanta Journal-Constitution'' is the only major daily newspaper in the metropolitan area of Atlanta, Georgia. It is the flagship publication of Cox Enterprises. The ''Atlanta Journal-Constitution'' is the result of the merger between ...

''. She championed women's suffrage in Georgia, helping establish the League of Women Voters in Georgia and serving as the president of the Atlanta Women's Suffrage League in 1915. She often protested against state laws that discriminated against women and met with local politicians to discuss women's rights. She served as the president of the Women's Study Club and was an active member of the

Catholic Church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

. Mitchell helped establish the Catholic Layman's Association of Georgia, which worked to explain Catholic beliefs and fight against

. Mitchell was also an active member of the

, a philanthropic organization affiliated with the

General Federation of Women's Clubs The General Federation of Women's Clubs (GFWC), founded in 1890 during the Progressive Movement, is a federation of over 3,000 women's clubs in the United States which promote civic improvements through volunteer service. Many of its activities ...

."Georgia Suffrage News"
(March 3, 1915) ''Athens Daily Herald'', p. 4. Retrieved March 1, 2013.

Death

Mitchell contracted the

Spanish flu The 1918–1920 influenza pandemic, commonly known by the misnomer Spanish flu or as the Great Influenza epidemic, was an exceptionally deadly global influenza pandemic caused by the H1N1 influenza A virus. The earliest documented case wa ...

and later developed

pneumonia Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung primarily affecting the small air sacs known as alveoli. Symptoms typically include some combination of productive or dry cough, chest pain, fever, and difficulty breathing. The severity ...

. She died on January 25, 1919. Her funeral was held at Sacred Heart Catholic Church, where she had been a parishioner. She is buried at Oakland Cemetery.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mitchell, Maybelle Stephens 1872 births 1919 deaths 19th-century American women 20th-century American women Activists from Atlanta American people of Irish descent American political activists American suffragists Burials at Oakland Cemetery (Atlanta) Catholics from Georgia (U.S. state) Deaths from pneumonia in Georgia (U.S. state) Members of the League of Women Voters Maybelle Roman Catholic activists Deaths from the Spanish flu pandemic in Georgia (U.S. state)