page_title: Mary Mossell Griffin
section_title: Early life
hierarchical_section_title: Mary Mossell Griffin / Early life
caption_attribution_description: English: Aaron Albert Mossell I and Eliza Bowers with 5 of their children. From left to right are: Mary Mossell; Alvaretta Mossell; Charles Mossell; Aaron Albert Mossell II the father of Sadie Tanner Mossell (1898-1989); and Nathan Francis Mossell (1856-1946).
context_page_description: Mary Mossell Griffin was an American writer, clubwoman, and suffragist based in Philadelphia.
context_section_description: Mary "Mazie" Campbell Mossell was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the elder daughter of Dr. Nathan Francis Mossell and Gertrude Bustill Mossell, a writer, newspaper columnist, and editor.  She came from an unusually well-educated family:  Her father was the first African-American graduate of the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, and a prominent member of Philadelphia's medical community. Her uncle Aaron Albert Mossell II was the first African-American from the University of Pennsylvania School of Law. Her first cousin Sadie Tanner Mossell was the first African-American woman to earn a Ph.D. in the United States, also at the University of Pennsylvania. Another first cousin was singer and activist Paul Robeson. Her grandfather Charles Hicks Bustill was a prominent abolitionist in Philadelphia.
caption: Aaron Albert Mossell I, Eliza Bowers and five of their children (From left to right are: Mary Mossell; Alvaretta Mossell; Charles Mossell; Aaron Albert Mossell II, the father of Sadie Tanner Mossell and Nathan Francis Mossell)
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