Reflect on women that participated and advocated for the rights of black Americans with bravery as they fought for equality and against injustices.
February is Black History Month or African-American History Month. It is time to reflect on those that fought for the rights of black Americans. In 1926 Dr. Carter G. Woodson, a scholar pioneered the celebration of historical African Americans. His celebrations coincided with the birth months of Frederick Douglass (an abolitionist and social reformer) and Abraham Lincoln (the 16th US President). The response from the community was overwhelming. Different entities endorsed Dr. Woodson’s efforts.
Since 1976 US Presidents designate the entire month of February as Black History Month. During this time black Americans are remembered for their bravery and fight for equality and against injustices. Women also played a role in these accomplishments. Additionally, some benefited from these initial braveries. They constructively used it as a stepping stone to create noteworthy contributions all the while continuing the battles familiar to civil rights activists. Here are some influential women who showed bravery and contributed to the ongoing fight against injustices. These women are inspirational females that are a huge part of American history.
Black Women That Inspire
Sojourner Truth – 1797 – 1883
Sojourner Truth Quote: Truth is powerful and it prevails.
Isabella Baumfree later bestowed the name Sojourner Truth onto herself. She was a staunch women’s rights activist. In 1851, at the Ohio Women’s Rights Convention, she gave her famous speech ‘Ain’t I a Woman?’. Ms. Truth is in history as the first black woman to win a case against a white man. She successfully brought legal proceedings to rescue her son from slavery. She was a dedicated abolitionist and Methodist. During the Civil War, Ms. Truth helped the Union Army with the recruitment of black troops. She advocated for prison reforms and land grants for former slaves.
“Although her health was in its decline, she continued to travel and speak. She died in her Battle Creek home on November 26, 1883 at age 86. She was buried in Battle Creek’s Oak Hill Cemetery. In her life, she tirelessly advocated for the rights of African Americans, women, and for numerous reform causes including prison reform and against capital punishment. She is memorialized in countless art works, murals, and statues. She provided the namesake for the 1997 NASA Mars Pathfinder robot Sojourner, and for the asteroid 249521 Truth.” – (Source: Sojourner Truth – National Park Service )
Harriet Tubman – 1822 –1913
Harriet Tubman Quote: Every great dream begins with a dreamer. Always remember, you have within you the strength, the patience, and the passion to reach for the stars to change the world.
She was born to enslaved parents in Dorchester County, Maryland. Harriet Tubman turned out to be one of the most famous black women. In the year 1849, she risked her life when she ran to freedom and became a conductor on the Underground Railroad. As a conductor, she led enslaved people, including her family to freedom. Not only was she an abolitionist. She also worked as a spy for the Union Army during the American Civil War. Known as Moses or Minty, Araminta Harriet Ross died in the year 1913. Released in 2019 was Harriet a biographical film about Harriet Tubman.
“Harriet Tubman, who will soon be the first African-American to grace a U.S. currency note, spent her whole adult life raising money either to rescue slaves or help them start life afresh on free soil. While her abolitionist friends in the North were generous contributors to the cause, Tubman also self-funded her heroic raids through an activity she enjoyed and excelled at: cooking.” – (Source: ‘Nurse, Spy, Cook:’ How Harriet Tubman Found Freedom Through Food – NPR)
Ida B. Wells – 1862 – 1931
Ida B.Wells Quote: The way to right wrongs is to turn the light of truth upon them.
Ida B. Wells fought for African Americans’ equality. As an investigative journalist and educator, she was a well-known woman. She was born in 1862. Ms. Wells led an anti-lynching campaign after the lynching of her friends. While traveling for the campaign she promoted justice for the ‘colored community’. She founded Chicago’s Alpha Suffrage Club, which was the first black woman suffrage group. Being an energetic civil rights activist, Ms. Wells helped migrants. She founded her Negro Fellowship League to do so.
“Wells visited places where people had been hanged, shot, beaten, burned alive, drowned or mutilated. She examined photos of victims hanging from trees as mobs looked on, pored over local newspaper accounts, took sworn statements from eyewitnesses and, on occasion, even hired private investigators. It was astoundingly courageous work in an era of Jim Crow segregation and in which women did not have the vote. Hannah-Jones, who writes for the New York Times Magazine, says: “There was no protection from the law for a black woman who was going into territories where black people had been stolen from the jail and lynched with the help of law enforcement.” – (Source: Ida B Wells: the unsung heroine of the civil rights movement -The Guardian )
Madam C. J. Walker – 1867-1919
Madam C. J.Walker Quote: If I have accomplished anything in life it is because I have been willing to work hard.
She was born in 1867 as Sarah Breedlove, to recently freed slaves in Louisiana. At the age of 7, she became an orphan and moved to Mississippi. In the 1890s, Ms. Walker suffered from a scalp ailment that led to extreme hair loss. She built on her experience gained from working in a hair-care product company to develop hair-care treatments for African Americans. It is then that she came up with the Madam C.J. Walker Company. Her entrepreneurial shrewdness propelled her to be a wealthy self-made woman. At that time, she was the wealthiest African-American businesswoman also.
“Though most of her activities on behalf of blacks were aimed toward education and the building of personal and racial pride, Madam Walker fought against prejudice. In 1915, she began a lawsuit to protest discrimination at a theater in Indianapolis. She encouraged her agents to develop their political muscle and advocate for civil and human rights. In 1917, she urged the group to decry lynchings in the South. During World War I, she was a member of a delegation to Washington to protest the War Department’s segregationist policies to President Woodrow Wilson.” – (Source: Madam C. J. Walker – Indian Historical Society)
Zora Neale Hurston – 1891 – 1960
Zora Neale Hurston Quote: There are years that ask questions and years that answer.
Zora Neale Hurston showed interest and contributed to the lives of her community. She was an anthropologist, a folklorist, author of 4 novels, and a filmmaker. Evident in her work was her interest in the lives and ways of the African American population. Some of her notable work includes Their Eyes Were Watching God, Mules, and Men, and Jonah’s Gourd Vine. In her work, she portrayed racial struggles. Zora died in Florida in January 1960. Held in Florida in her honor is Zora Neale Hurston Festival of the Arts and Humanities.
“Without doubt, Hurston was a woman of strong character, and she went through life mostly alone. She burned sorrow and fear like fuel, to keep herself going. She made a point of not needing what she could not have: whites who avoided her company suffered their own loss; she claimed not to have “ever really wanted” her father’s affection. Other needs were just as unwelcome. About love, she knew the way it could make a woman take “second place in her own life.” Repeatedly, she fought the pull.” – (Source: A Society Of One (Zora Neale Hurston, American contrarian) – The New Yorker )
Dorothy Height – 1912 – 2010
Dorothy Height Quote: My mother helped me understand how not to show off what I knew, but how to use it so that others might benefit.
Dorothy Irene Height served the National Council of Negro Women. She was the President for 40 years. Ms. Height participated in civil rights and women’s rights movements. She focused on issues such as illiteracy and unemployment for African American women. She took part in organizing the ‘March on Washington’. There Martin L. King delivered the famous ‘I Have a Dream’ speech. The U.S Postal Service in 2017 honored her civil rights legacy with the Dorothy Height Forever stamp. She won the Congressional Gold Medal and Presidential Medal of Freedom.
“The recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom and other prestigious awards, Ms. Height was accorded a place of honor on the dais on Jan. 20, 2009, when Mr. Obama took the oath of office as the nation’s 44th president. In a statement on Tuesday, he called Ms. Height “the godmother of the civil rights movement and a hero to so many Americans.” – (Source: Dorothy Height, Largely Unsung Giant of the Civil Rights Era – The New York Times )
Rosa Parks – 1913 – 2005
Rosa Parks Quote: No, the only tired I was, was tired of giving in.
Rosa Louise McCauley Parks is famous for her role in the Montgomery Bus Boycott. As it was the norm in those days, she boarded a segregated bus. In such buses, black people had to give up their seats to white people. On 1st December 1955, a frustrated Mrs. Parks refused to give up her seat to a white passenger. This led to her arrest. She advocated for racial equality, and to end racial segregation. The African American community boycotted riding the buses for 381 days. Resulting in racial segregation becoming unconstitutional by the Supreme Court. The Rosa Parks Story, Rosa Parks Forever, and the Rosa Parks Museum are some of the ways to learn about her history.
“If we travel back in time to the December evening in 1955 when Rosa Parks boarded that city bus, we can begin to glimpse just why her courage was so extraordinary. We know from her account of the event that she made her defiant decision in an instant. It took tremendous courage. But it took even more courage for her to stand by her decision in the minutes, days, and years that followed.” – (Source: What If I Don’t Move to the Back of the Bus? – The Henry Ford)
Maya Angelou – 1928 –2014
Maya Angelou Quote: If you don’t like something, change it. If you can’t change it, change your attitude.
A great memoirist and poet, Marguerite Annie Johnson was born in 1928 in Missouri. Before becoming an author, she did many odd jobs. During this time, she changed her name to Maya Angelou. Her first autobiography is ‘I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings’. It focuses on her early life including her rape at the age of eight years. She has worked on movies, written books of essays, plays, and several books of poetry and TV shows. Her awards include the Tony Award, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, National Book Award nomination, and 50 honorary degrees.
“Angelou also carried out a wide variety of activities on stage and screen as writer, director, and producer. In 1972, she became the first African American woman to have her screen play turned into a film with the production of “Georgia, Georgia”. The supporting parts that she played in the films, “Look Away” in 1973 and “Roots” in 1977, garnered her Tony nominations.” – (Source: Maya Angelou – NWHM)
Lorraine Hansberry – 1930 – 1965
Lorraine Hansberry Quote: Never be afraid to sit awhile and think.
Lorraine Hansberry, best known for, the play “A Raisin in the Sun” was born in Chicago, Illinois in the year 1930. The play highlights the struggles of black Americans and it opened at Broadway. She became the youngest playwright, the first African American dramatist, and the 5th woman to win the New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award. In the year 1963, Lorraine joined the Civil Rights Movement and she was active until her death. She died of pancreatic cancer in 1965 at the young age of 34.
“As a young, black woman, Hansberry was a groundbreaking artist, recognized for her strong, passionate voice on gender, class, and racial issues. She was the first black playwright and youngest American to win a New York Critics’ Circle award. She and her words were the inspiration for Nina Simone’s song “To Be Young Gifted and Black. In 2017, she was inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame. In 2018, a new American Masters documentary, “Lorraine Hansberry: Sighted Eyes/Feeling Heart,” was released, by filmmaker Tracy Heather Strain.” – (Source: Biography of Lorraine Hansberry, Creator of ‘Raisin in the Sun’ – ThoughtCo.)
Oprah Winfrey – 1954 to present
Oprah Winfrey Quote: Turn your wounds into wisdom.
Oprah Gail Winfrey was born in the year 1954 in Kosciusko, Mississippi. She is a renowned personality, successful talk show host, media and publishing mogul. Her very popular show ‘Oprah Winfrey Show’ ran from 1986 to 2011. She is also a great philanthropist. Oprah is the founder of Family for Better lives. She is an activist for children’s rights. President Bill Clinton signed her bill, the National Child Protection Act into law. She is a recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
“It is equally difficult to overstate the impact she has had upon 21st-century culture. Not only did she pioneer the tabloid talk show, spawning a thousand imitations, but through it, she also popularised the emotional, empathetic, intimate communication that we now demand from figures in public life and even politics. The Wall Street Journal coined the term ‘Oprahfication’, to describe public confession as a form of therapy.” –(Source: Oprah Winfrey: her untold story – UK Telegraph)
In closing
Notable black women Sojourner Truth, Harriet Tubman, Ida B. Wells, Dorothy Height, and Rosa Parks. With courage, they contributed to civil rights and fought against injustices. Other strong women not only benefited from these activists but also carried the torch as it were. They created for themselves footprints of accomplishments in business and entertainment, while they continued the fight for civil rights. These include Madam C. J. Walker, Zara Neale Hurston, Maya Angelou, and Lorraine Hansberry. Oprah Winfrey is the only one from this list still standing. Along with Oprah Winfrey, other black women inspire such as Michelle Obama. These inspirational figures use their platform and respective crafts to further encourage and motivate not only black people but society on a whole.
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