Mary Wood Binford Jordan was a very well-educated woman. Born in 1874 to Lucy and Perry Wood, she graduated from Howard University and taught at the William Hooper Councill School, the first public school for African Americans in Huntsville. She married Henry Connard Binford, Jr. in 1899. After her husband died, she married Mr. R.L. Jordan. She died in Fayetteville, Tennessee but is buried in Glenwood Cemetery with her first husband.

Mary Wood Binford (1874-1955) was born in Montgomery, Alabama to Lucy and Perry Woods. Her father was a brick mason. She was an 1897 graduate of Howard University, a member of Lakeside Methodist Episcopal Church (now Lakeside United Methodist Church) and a teacher at that church’s school that became the William Hooper Councill School. The Councill School was the first public school for African Americans in Huntsville and was named for the founder of Huntsville’s Alabama A&M University, a historically Black university.

Mary Wood was in Washington, D.C. when Mary Church Terrell, Ida B. Wells, and Margaret Murray Washington formed the National Association of Colored Women, an organization whose purpose was to uplift African American women and families. It was an umbrella organization for local clubs to work together on causes important to the African American community, including women’s suffrage, anti-lynching legislation, and Jim Crow laws. The Association’s founding principle, “lifting as we climb,” encouraged successful African American women to take on leadership roles and spearhead reform in their local communities. It is likely Mary became acquainted with women's suffrage and its importance to the success of the African American community during her time at Howard University.

Mrs. Binford married Henry Connard Binford, Jr., also a Howard University graduate, in Montgomery, AL in December 1899. Mr. Binford was born in 1874, the son of Frances Ann Hendley and Henry C. Binford, Sr., one of Huntsville's most influential African American families. After graduating, Mr. Binford, Jr. taught briefly in Huntsville at the Councill School. Then he and Mrs. Binford moved to Kansas and Baltimore, Maryland, where Mr. Binford accepted positions at schools. The family returned to Huntsville in 1908, when Mr. Binford, Jr. accepted the position as principal at the Councill School. Mr. Binford, Jr. died in 1919.

The Binford children were all educated at Howard University. Dr. Claxton Perry Binford was a medical doctor who received his medical degree from Meharry Medical School in Nashville, TN. The Rev. Elmer C. Binford became the principal of West Madison Junior High School. Mrs. Ruth Pearl Binford Carter became an instructor at Alabama A&M University. There were also Dorothy Binford Jeffries and Henry F. Binford.

Mary Binford is mentioned on the historic marker for the Lakeside Methodist Episcopal Church, as having started the Annual Harvest Cultural Festival in 1901. In 1920, the U.S. adopted the 19^th Amendment granting women the vote. Out of the 1,370 women in Huntsville registered to vote in 1920, there were six African American women. Mary Binford was one of them. The six women are recognized on an Alabama Historic Association marker placed in William Hooper Councill Park.

Henry C. Binford, Sr. served as an early principal of the school founded at Lakeside Methodist Episcopal Church. He was the owner of the newspaper, The Journal, and a leader of the Masonic Order. Voters elected Henry C. Binford, Sr. to two terms as City Alderman, representing the 4th Ward. The Binfords lived near the current location of the Huntsville Madison County Public Library.

Mary Wood Binford remarried Mr. R. L. Jordan. She died in 1955. She was funeralized at Lakeside Methodist Episcopal Church and buried at Glenwood Cemetery.

Donna Castellano, “Mary Wood Binford,” Historic Huntsville Foundation.

Greg Miley, Alabama Officials Unveil Historic Marker Honoring the First Women Voters in Huntsville,” Speakin Out Weekly News, https://speakinoutweeklynews.net/2021/10/29/historic-marker-dedication/,

October 29, 2021.

Historic Huntsville Foundation, Lifting as They Climbed: Celebrating Huntsville’s First Black Women Voters, https://www.historichuntsville.org/lifting-as-they-climbed-celebrating-huntsvilles-first-black-women-voters/.

Lee Roop, “Alabama honors six Black women who sought the vote,” Huntsville Real-Times News, August 21, 2020, https://www.huntsvilleal.gov/historicmarkers/william-hooper-councill-high-school-site/

Lee Roop, Black Alabama family had ‘our own hidden figure’ and didn’t know it, Huntsville Real-Time News, Oct. 24, 2021 (updated Oct. 25, 2021), https://www.al.com/news/huntsville/2021/10/black-alabama-family-had-our-own-hidden-figure-and-didnt-know-it.html