Hester C. Jeffrey, née Whitehurst (c. 1842 – January 2, 1934, also known as Jeffreys or Jeffries, or Mrs. R. Jerome Jeffrey, after her husband) was an African-American activist, suffragist, and community organizer in Rochester, N.Y., and New York City. She is known for her involvement with the Political Equality Club, the Women's Christian Temperance Union, and the National Association of Colored Women's Clubs. Biography Hester C. Whitehurst Jeffrey was born to free black parents, Robert Edward Whitehurst and Martha F (née Pitts) Whitehurst, circa 1843 in Norfolk, Virginia. She was educated, and an accomplished musician. By 1845, Jeffrey and her mother and her sister, Phoebe Whitehurst, had moved to Boston where their half-brother, Manuel Smith, was born in February 1845. In the 1855 Massachusetts Census and in the 1860 US census, the three children are listed in the household of their maternal uncle, Coffin Pitts. In the 1865 Massachusetts Census (dated May 1st), the three siblings were living in their own household; Hester and Phoebe worked as dressmakers. Hester married Roswell Jerome Jeffrey on July 19, 1865, in Boston. Her husband's maternal grandfather was the Rev. Jehiel Beman and his uncle was the Rev. Amos Beman, both noted abolitionists from Connecticut. Her husband's father, the Reverend Roswell Jeffrey, was a real estate investor and political activist in Rochester. Hester and Jerome Jeffrey lived in Troy, N.Y., from 1868 to 1872, where he worked as machinist and waiter, according to the 1870 US Census and city directories. They moved back to Boston and lived at 11 Church Street, where their son Jerome was born on April 19, 1874. City death records show he died five days later and was buried in the Central Burying Ground. Her brother Manuel died at their home in June of that year. In the 1910 US Census, Hester reports that she had had four children but none were living. The children do not appear on census records, so presumably all died young. Her father-in-law died in 1890 in Rochester NY, and Jerome inherited 1/6 of his father's considerable estate. Hester and Jerome left Boston for Rochester in 1891. In Rochester, she became involved in the Political Equality Club and the Women's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU), She later became a national organizer for the National Association of Colored Women's Clubs (NACWC). She served at various times as the National Organizer of Colored Women's Clubs, New York