Jessie Ackermann
| Jessie A. Ackermann | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
July 4, 1857 Frankfort, Illinois |
| Died | March 31, 1951 (aged 93) Pomona, California |
| Nationality | American |
| Occupation | Social reformer |
Jessie Ackermann (July 4, 1857 – March 31, 1951) was a social reformer, feminist, journalist, writer and traveller. She was the second round-the-world missionary appointed by the World's Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WWCTU), becoming in 1891 the inaugural president of the federated Australasian Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU), Australia's largest women's reform group. Although an American, Ackermann is considered a major voice in the Australian suffrage movement.
As well as being the author of three books, Ackermann gave talks on travel and temperance around the world and became a skilled and popular speaker with a wide following.She was described as a "speaker of no mean order". In her talks, she advocated equal political, legal and property rights for women.
Ackermann was actively involved in campaigns for women's rights as well as the ongoing international struggle against opium and also tobacco. She became World's superintendent of the WCTU's anti-opium department in 1893-95 and in 1891 established an Anti Narcotics Department of the WCTU in Australia. In 1906 she was made a fellow of the Royal Scottish Geographical Society, one of the few women to be able to put these letters after her name.
The daughter of Charles Ackerman(n), and his wife Amanda, née French, Ackermann grew up in Chicago and then moved to California, where in 1880 she studied at the University of California, Berkeley, but did not graduate. In 1881 she began working as a temperance organiser for the Independent Order of Good Templars in California, moving to the Woman's Christian Temperance Union in 1888, "with its special opportunities for work among women". After undertaking a mission to British Columbia and Alaska she was chosen as world missionary at the WCTU national convention in New York City in October 1888. Before the WCTU, Ackermann had served the World Order of Rechabites, whose motto was: "Agitate, educate, legislate and demonstrate". In the 1920s she lived in Johnson City, Tennessee and in the 1930s, mostly at Los Angeles, California.
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