Honoring Suffragist Mabel Ping-Hua Lee

A huge public mural features pioneering suffragist Mabel Ping-Hua Lee wearing a red hat and coat with yellow rose under the letters “Vote. It’s your voice” on a brick wall next to a tree-lined street in Washington, D.C.

August 7, 2026

A towering public mural in honor of pioneering suffragist Mabel Ping-Hua Lee (BC 1916, TC 1918, GSAS 1921) was unveiled in Washington, D.C. last month. Created by artist Jeff Huntington, known as Jahru, the artwork celebrates Lee’s historic journey from helping lead 10,000 marchers down Fifth Avenue at age 16 to becoming the first Chinese woman in the United States to earn a doctorate. 

“No nation can ever make real and lasting progress in civilization unless its women are following close to its men, if not actually abreast with them,” Lee argued in her 1915 speech “The Submerged Half,” while a Barnard College student. “In the fierce struggle for existence among the nations, that nation is badly handicapped which leaves undeveloped one half of its intellectual and moral resources.”

For more information, check out Barnard College’s article, and remember to “Vote. It’s Your Voice.”

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