Chinatown Suffragette Could Be Memorialized At LES Post Office

LOWER EAST SIDE, NY — The House of Representatives approved a measure on Wednesday to rename a Lower East Side post office after one of Chinatown's most ardent suffragettes.

The bill, which would rename the post office at 6 Doyers St. after Mabel Lee, now moves to the U.S. Senate for approval.

U.S. Rep. Nydia Velázquez sponsored legislation last year to rename the federal building to honor Lee, who died 1950. Lee was the first Chinese woman to receive a doctorate from Columbia University, and organized hundreds of people in New York's Chinatown community to march in the 1917 pro-suffrage marches in New York City, according to Velázquez's office.

"I’m proud my colleagues have approved my bill that would honor Mabel Lee’s legacy," Velázquez, a Democrat, said in a statement. "Mabel Lee was a steadfast advocate for women’s rights and for the greater Asian American community. Her hard work and activism empowered many, bringing more Chinese-American women into the electoral process and helping them to secure voting rights."

If approved, the legislation will rename the post office the "Mabel Lee Memorial Post Office."

Image credit: Courtesy of Google Maps