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Dec 12, 2020 · By. Jone Johnson Lewis. Updated on December 12, 2020. Black women have made important contributions to the United States throughout its history. However, they are not always recognized for their efforts, with some remaining anonymous and others becoming famous for their achievements.
- Josephine Baker
- Oprah Winfrey
- Mae Jemison
- Shirley Chisholm
- Bessie Coleman
- Elizabeth Freeman
- Harriet Tubman
- Ida B. Wells
- Rosa Parks
- Maya Angelou
Born in St. Louis, Missouri, Josephine Baker's success as a Vaudeville dancer took her France, where she was lauded as one of the country's most popular performers. During World War II, Baker became a spy for the French resistance, passing on critical Nazi information to aid the war effort. Upon returning to the U.S., Baker found herself the target...
Oprah Winfrey began her career competing in beauty pageants before transitioning to broadcasting, where she found success as host of the Chicago TV talk show "People Are Talking." Her popularity led Winfrey to launch "The Oprah Winfrey Show," which aired for 25 years and established Winfrey as a media mogul. After founding her own production compan...
Born the youngest of three children in Decatur, Alabama, Mae Jemison was a student of science before going on to serve as a medical officer in the Peace Corps and establish her own practice as a doctor. Inspired by the Apollo moon trips but discouraged by the lack of female astronauts, Jemison pivoted careers and in 1987, applied to NASA where, out...
Shirley Chisholm became a household name after becoming the first Black woman to be elected to the United States Congress in 1968. A native of Brooklyn, New York, Chisholm served seven terms in Congress and made inroads by helping to expand the food stamp program. She also introduced legislation to benefit racial and gender inequality, and became a...
A Texas native, Bessie Coleman dreamt of flying planes. However, as a Black woman in the 1920s, getting her pilot's license in the U.S. was nothing short of impossible. That didn't stop the would-be aviator who, in the face of adversity, learned to speak French, then left to train in France, where Black people were permitted to become aviators. Wit...
Freeman, also known as Mumbet, was a nurse and midwife who successfully sued Massachusetts for her freedom in 1781, becoming the first African American enslaved woman to win a freedom suit in the state. Her suit helped lead to the permanent abolition of slavery in the state of Massachusetts.
American abolitionist Harriet Tubman is best known for her efforts to move slaves to liberation in the Underground Railroad, a network of antislavery activists. Her legacy is indelible in the movement to abolish slavery, as she is documented to have made approximately 13 trips through the Underground Railroad, leading dozens of slaves to freedom an...
Ida B. Wells was a prominent Black investigative journalist, educator and activist in the early civil rights movement. She was one of the founders of the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People), and led a powerful anti-lynching crusade in the U.S. in the 1890s.
Rosa Parks, a trailblazer known for her courageous participation in the Montgomery Bus Boycott, ignited the movement against racial segregation on public transit. Her defiance to give up her seat led to her arrest on Dec. 1, 1955, but led to revolutionary change. The United States Congress has since honored her as “the first lady of civil rights” a...
Maya Angelouhas a distinct voice as a Black writer and activist. She left a legacy with her large body of work, including memoirs, poems, essays and plays. She rose to fame in 1969 after the publication of “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings,” one of her autobiographies detailing her early years as a young Black woman.
Dec 30, 2021 · By John Harrington. PUBLISHED: December 30, 2021 at 11:10 a.m. | UPDATED: December 30, 2021 at 4:10 p.m. 36 Black women who changed American history | The stories of all these women point...
- The name to know: Isabel de Olvera, explorer, early 1600s. Her story in brief: Isabel de Olvera was born in Querétaro, Mexico, in the late 1500s to an African father and an Indian mother.
- The name to know: Monemia McKoy, mother of twins Millie and Christine, 1830’s – ? Her story in brief: Enslaved couple Monemia and Jacob McKoy lived in North Carolina in the mid-19th century.
- The name to know: Frances Thompson, transgender advocate, 1840 – 1876. Her story in brief: Although born into slavery in Alabama and assigned male at birth, by the age of 26 Frances Thompson was freed and living according to her own gender identity in a booming Black community in Memphis, Tennessee.
- The name to know: Augusta Savage, artist, 1892 – 1962. Image credit: Archives of American Art, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons. Her story in brief: Born to the family of a conservative Methodist minister in Green Cove Springs, Florida, Savage exhibited a passion and a talent for art from an early age, in particular for molding objects out of clay.
- Daisy Bates: A Civil Rights Hero. Daisy Bates was a complex, unconventional and largely forgotten heroine of the civil rights movement who led the charge to desegregate the all-white Central High School in Little Rock, Ark., in 1957.
- Sister Rosetta Tharpe: The Godmother of Rock & Roll. Despite not being a household name today, Sister Rosetta Tharpe is one of the most influential artists of the 20th century.
- Harriet Tubman. "I was conductor of the Underground Railroad for eight years, and I can say what most conductors can't say – I never ran my train off the track and I never lost a passenger."
- Maya Angelou. Learn how Dr. Maya Angelou began writing and reading poetry as a child.
Feb 23, 2019 · The first nurse. Mary Eliza Mahoney is recognized as the first black nurse in the United States. Wikicommons/Public Domain. Mary Eliza Mahoney, born in 1845, had been a cook, a janitor and...
Aug 29, 2022 · These Black Women Changed America Thirty years ago, photographer Brian Lanker made indelible images of historical lives; a new exhibition says their stories have never seemed more relevant
