Black women Herstory-Makers to celebrate today and everyday
We celebrate Black history, Black joy, Black resilience and Black resistance and learn about Black women and non-binary herstory-makers and change makers. Written by platform Social Justice Curator Aisha Becker-Burrowes
Check back for more! As we continue to tell more stories throughout the month!
SHIRLEY CHISHOLM
“In the end anti-black, anti-female, and all forms of discrimination are equivalent to the same thing: anti-humanism.” – Shirley Chisholm
Shirley Anita Chisholm was an American politician, educator, and author who is best known for becoming the first African-American congresswoman in 1968. Her motto: Unbought and Unbossed. Chisholm represented New York State in the U.S. House of Representatives for seven terms. In 1972, Chisholm made history again when she ran for the Democratic nomination, becoming the first woman and African American to seek the nomination for president of the United States from one of the two major political parties.
Born in Brooklyn, New York, Chisholm was the oldest of four daughters to immigrant parents Charles St. Hill, a factory worker from Guyana, and Ruby Seale St. Hill, a seamstress from Barbados. Chisholm graduated from Brooklyn College in 1946 and began her career as a teacher. She also earned a master’s degree from Columbia University in early childhood education. Although professors encouraged her to consider a political career, she replied that she faced a “double handicap” as both Black and female.
Throughout her tenure in Congress, Chisholm introduced more than 50 pieces of legislation and championed racial and gender equality, the plight of the poor, and ending the Vietnam War. She was a co-founder of the National Women's Political Caucus and became the first Black woman and second woman ever to serve on the powerful House Rules Committee. She died on January 1, 2005 at the age of 85, and was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2015.
Claudette Colvin
“I knew then and I know now, when it comes to justice, there is no easy way to get it.”
Claudette Colvin is a civil rights activist who at the age of 16 refused to give up her bus seat to a white passenger a few months prior to Rosa Parks.
On March 2, 1955, Colvin was riding home on a city bus after school when a bus driver told her to give up her seat to a white passenger. She refused, saying, "It's my constitutional right to sit here as much as that lady. I paid my fare, it's my constitutional right." Colvin felt compelled to stand her ground. "I felt like Sojourner Truth was pushing down on one shoulder and Harriet Tubman was pushing down on the other—saying, 'Sit down girl!' I was glued to my seat,"
She was arrested and became one of four plaintiffs in Browder v. Gayle, which ruled that Montgomery's segregated bus system was unconstitutional. The NAACP briefly considered using Colvin's case to challenge the segregation laws, but they decided against it because of her age. She also had become pregnant and they thought an unwed mother would attract too much negative attention in a public legal battle.
Colvin later moved to New York City and worked as a nurse's aide at a Manhattan nursing home. She retired in 2004.
BETTY DAVIS
Betty Davis, born Betty Mabry, is an American funk and soul singer who sang bluntly about sex, sexual liberation, Black joy and discrimination. A lover of sound, she considered herself a “projector” as opposed to a singer. Her genre-busting music utilized yowls, rasps and her unique vocals gave her the afro-futuristic sound she is known for today.
Ms. Davis, born Betty Mabry in Durham, North Carolina, in 1945. At age 12, she moved to Pittsburgh with her family. She moved to New York City at 17 and enrolled in the Fashion Institute of Technology. While in New York City, she supported herself as a model and club manager where she would meet figures like Andy Warhol, Sly Stone, Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix and more.
She began writing songs as early as 12 and recorded her first song in the mid-1960s. In 1967, the Chambers Brothers recorded one of her songs, “Uptown to Harlem,” and in 1968, her then-boyfriend Hugh Masekela arranged a single for her, “Live, Love, Learn.”
She met Miles Davis at a concert and went to see him perform at the Village Gate. They would get married in 1968. Her marriage to Miles influenced his music. She introduced him to Jimi Hendrix which personally inspired his classic album ‘Bitches Brew’. But their marriage suffered from Miles’s abuse. She would leave him a year later and threw herself into her music. Her mid-tempo avant-garde genre-busting funk music was raw and revolutionary. Her persona, sound and presence in the male-dominated genre challenged the notions of what women could do and say both on and off the stage.
Frances Ellen Watkins Harper (1825–1911)
“We are all bound up together in one great bundle of humanity, and society cannot
trample on the weakest and feeblest of its members without receiving the curse in its own soul.”
"Frances Ellen Watkins Harper was a household name in the 19th century. Not only was she the first African American woman to publish a short story, but she was also an influential abolitionist, suffragist, and reformer that co-founded the National Association of Colored Women’s Clubs."
Born in Baltimore, Maryland in 1825, poet, fiction writer, journalist, and activist Frances Ellen Watkins Harper was the only child of free African American parents. She was raised by her aunt and uncle after she became an orphan at 3 years old. She attended the Academy for Negro Youth, a school run by her uncle, until the age of 13. She joined the workforce, and it was then her love for books blossomed. By age 21, Harper wrote her first volume of poetry called 'Forest Leaves'."
"When she was 26, Harper left Maryland and taught for 2 years in Ohio and Pennsylvania. Shortly after her home state of Maryland passed a law stating that free African Americans living in the North were no longer allowed to enter the state of Maryland. If found, they would be imprisoned & sold into slavery. Harper was now unable to return to her own home."
"This inspired Harper to travel across the North America as an antislavery lecturer. In 1859, Harper became the first black woman to publish a short story, with “The Two Offers” in the Anglo-African Magazine, the story featured stories with issues of racism, feminism and classism.
"In 1866, Harper spoke at the National Woman’s Rights Convention. Her famous speech, “We Are All Bound Up Together,” urged her peers to include Black women in their fight for suffrage. She emphasized that Black women were facing the double burden of racism and sexism. However, the organization eventually split over the decision to support the 15th amendment, granting Black men the right to vote. Harper supported the amendment and helped to form the American Woman Suffrage Association."
"Harper spent the rest of her career committed to equal rights & opportunities for Black women. Frances Harper died in 1911 in Philadelphia."
Source WomensHistory.org By Kerri Lee Alexander
Andrea Jenkins
“My whole life I've been fighting, trying to improve conditions for black people. That’s what I will continue to do, even if they never stand up for me.”
(born 1961, Chicago, Illinois, US.) Andrea Jenkins first made history in 2017 as the first African American openly trans woman to be elected to office in the United States. Jenkins made *her*story for the second time as the 1st openly transgender city council president in Minneapolis. In addition to representing Ward 8 and serving as the Vice-President of the Minneapolis City Council, She is a poet, oral historian and an activist.
Jenkins lives just a few blocks away from 38th and Chicago, the crossroads in Minneapolis where George Floyd was killed on 25 May last year. She spent two decades of her life working to revitalise the community there, and kicked off her 2017 campaign for the city council’s Eighth ward in an arts centre a few yards away. She sang gospel in front of the nation’s media at a press conference in the days after Floyd’s death and played a central role in re-examining how the city’s long-criticised police force was funded. She insisted that racism be treated as a national public health emergency.
She began her career working as an aide and helping to establish the Transgender Issues Work Group. Jenkin’s curated the University of Minnesota's Transgender Oral History Project. In 2016, she ran for city council and won with over 70% of the vote. Jenkins sets a powerful precedent for the future of politics and LQBTG+ activism.
BARBARA SMITH
“Unlike any other movement, Black feminism provides the theory that clarifies the nature of Black women’s experience, makes possible positive support from other Black women, and encourages political action that will change the very system that has put us down.”
Barbara Smith (Born 1946), is a radical Black lesbian socialist feminist activist icon. Smith laid a formidable blueprint and foundation to intersectional Black feminism. She is accredited with brining Black feminism into the mainstream, it would not be where it is today without the power of Smith’s work, leadership, and commitment to the liberation struggle.
‘From a young age, Smith was encouraged to focus on school by her grandmother, her high achievement led her first to Mount Holyoke College, then to the University of Pittsburgh, where she earned a Master’s degree in Literature. Smith attributes the development of her political consciousness to growing up during segregation, but it was her friendships with other Black feminists that allowed her to come out and be the fully realized lesbian socialist icon she is today.
In the early 1970’s Smith was part of the founding of the Combahee River Collective, one of the most radical and intersectional activist groups of its time. The purpose of the collective was to weave Black feminism into the public consciousness, and by doing so, affirm lesbianism as a valid identity and a crucial element in solidarity work. In multiple interviews, Smith noted that it was Black lesbians who led the fight for reproductive justice and against domestic violence and sexual assault; there would be no women’s liberation movement without lesbian feminists, after all.
Smith continued her liberation work, and in 1980, alongside friend and fellow Black lesbian writer Audre Lorde, founded Kitchen Table: Women of Color Press. Kitchen Table was the first American publisher established by women of color for women of color. Home Girls: A Black Feminist Anthology, edited by Smith was part of their work. This press, though disbanded in 1992 following Lorde’s death, eventually gave way to the rise in prominence of women of color authors like Alice Walker and Toni Morrison, and continues to be an inspiration for cultivating sisterhood among women of color, particularly queer women of color.’
sourced from ‘How Barbara Smith Launched a Black Feminist Revolution’ by ASHIA AJANI for Them.
“There is nothing so beautiful as the free forest. To catch a fish when you are hungry, cut the boughs of a tree, make a fire to roast it, and eat it in the open air, is the greatest of all luxuries. I would not stay a week pent up in cities, if it were not for my passion for art.”
Edmonia Lewis (1844-1907)
Mary Edmonia ‘Wildfire’ Lewis, an Afro-indigenous American trailblazing sculptor in #ArtHerstory. Despite overwhelming odds, Edmonia Lewis found international success as a sculptor in Rome, since in her words, “The land of liberty had no room for a colored sculptor.”
She was the daughter of a Haitian father of African descent and a “full-blooded Chippewa” mother. Her half-brother sent her to Oberlin College in 1859.
Two unfortunate instances led to Lewis' time at Oberlin being cut short. She was accused of poisoning two white classmates. As a result of the charges, she was severely attacked and beaten by a white mob.
After recovering from the attack, she left immediately for Boston. Later the charges against her were dropped. But her troubles were not over, and she was accused of stealing art supplies, which led to her expulsion from the college.
Upon arrival in Boston, she was absorbed in abolitionism. By the 1860s, Lewis had her own studio and began creating sculpted busts of famous abolitionists. These products were widely sold and distributed, earning her income and a growing reputation as an artist.
After receiving great exposure and the funds she needed to leave America, she settled in Florence, Italy, where there was already a thriving scene of women artists.
Her work embodied themes of both Italian neo-classical religion, African-American abolitionism and her Native American heritage.
Lewis was the first African-American sculptor to gain an international reputation. Lewis, was an independent woman and a skilled survivor, succeeding against unprecedented odds. She created about 60 unique pieces, less than half of which have been located. 'Remarkably, Lewis succeeded amid a social milieu deeply stratified according to race, gender and class and within an artistic style exclusively devoted to ideas of Western beauty and history, even while she herself did not conform to any of these standards.' (source: Amsterdam News)
The last words belong to Lewis, who said, “I have a strong sympathy for all women who have struggled and suffered.”
Sister Rosetta Tharpe
(1915–1973)
“Can’t no man play like me.”
Despite not being a household name today, Sister Rosetta Tharpe is one of the most influential artists of the 20th century. Known as the Godmother of Rock ‘n’ Roll, Sister Rosetta Tharpe was a true pioneer. She helped shape modern popular music, was one of the few Black female guitarists to ever find commercial success and the first artist to blend gospel with what was known as ‘secular’ music. Her skill and showmanship on the newly electrified guitar played a vital role in the conception of Rock & Roll as a genre of music. She inspired legends such as Jonny Cash and Little Richard, yet sadly, she seldom receives the recognition she deserves.
Born in Arkansas, the daughter of sharecroppers. Her mother was heavily involved in the Church of God in Christ as a preacher, gospel singer and mandolin player. She encouraged Tharpe’s musical talents and, by the age of six, Rosetta was performing in a travelling evangelical troupe, singing and playing the guitar to audiences all over the American South.
Rosetta moved to Chicago in the 1920s. Chicago exposed her to the sounds of jazz and blues, and she moved to New York in 1938. It wasn’t long before Rosetta began to incorporate these styles into her gospel music.
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