On October 21, 1917, Elizabeth R. Morris, Mary A. Johnson, and Rosa J. Fisher were photographed as members of Hartford’s Colored Women’s Liberty Loan Committee. Their portrait records African American women’s participation in the Second Liberty Loan campaign and places three named community members within the larger story of America’s wartime mobilization.
Liberty Loans offered Americans a way to lend their savings to the federal government through interest-bearing bonds. The Second Liberty Loan opened on October 1, 1917, with a subscription deadline of October 27. Its bonds carried a 4 percent interest rate, making a purchase both a financial investment and an act promoted as patriotic service. Women played a substantial role in the sales campaign nationwide, with some 60,000 recruited to sell bonds during the second drive.
In Hartford, this wartime service formed part of a broader history of Black women’s community leadership. Rosa J. Fisher, whose husband was pastor of Union Baptist Church, served on the committee for the second loan drive. Mary A. Johnson became a prominent civic and political organizer, helping establish Hartford’s Women’s League and serving as its first president. The League’s Community House later provided childcare, classes, housing, and skills training. These connections place the photograph within a continuing tradition of community organization rather than an isolated moment of wartime volunteering.
The Second Liberty Loan resulted in approximately $3.8 billion in bonds issued. The Hartford portrait gives that national financial effort a human face: three Black women whose participation connected their community to the financing of the American war effort.
Photo Caption:
Financing the Great War — Hartford’s Colored Women’s Liberty Loan Committee
Left to right: Elizabeth R. Morris, Mary A. Johnson, and Rosa J. Fisher, photographed on October 21, 1917. Members of Hartford’s Colored Women’s Liberty Loan Committee, they participated in the local effort supporting the Second Liberty Loan campaign during World War I. Photograph: State Archives, Connecticut State Library, RG012.
