I’m not going to hit you over the head with my usual “Black women are the mothers of all humanity” soliloquy (which they are), because we shouldn’t need a rah-rah inspirational message to get us on board with honoring Black women and their transgenerational contributions to humanity.
That said, I did want to share the names of seven sisters, most who did the majority of their work in the U.S. (and in within the past two centuries), whose impact on our people and the world has been so overwhelming that it’s almost criminal that they are rarely mentioned and studied in classrooms, faith congregations, and community gatherings. In so many ways, had it not been for them, we would not be.
Ella Baker
“If one were to make a list of the most famous figures of the Civil Rights Movement, including Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, and the rest of the names that white people know, one humbly modest statement encapsulates the life of Ella Josephine Baker: She is more important than all those guys,” argues Michael Harriot, author of the New York Times best-selling book “Black AF History: The Un-whitewashed Story of America.” Baker had a hand in founding, guiding, and/or influencing nearly every major organization of the Civil Rights and Black Power movements. Her story reads like a comic book superhero. Yet, so few people know her name or her impact on the world. Let’s change that.
Callie Guy House
Callie House is most famous for her efforts to gain reparations for formerly enslaved individuals and is regarded as the early leader of the reparations movement among African American political activists. A washerwoman by trade, House co-chartered the National Ex-Slave Mutual Relief, Bounty and Pension Association in 1898, and was named the secretary of this new organization. Eventually, House became the leader of the organization and traveled across the South, spreading the idea of reparations in every former slave state with relentless zeal. During her 1897-1899 lecture tour the association’s membership grew by 34,000 mainly through her efforts. By 1900, its nationwide membership was estimated to be around 300,000.
Mary Ellen Pleasant
This sister here may be the most “gangsta” human being in the history of human beings. Pleasant became the most powerful Black woman and arguably one of the most powerful individuals (period) in Gold Rush-era San Francisco, helped free countless enslaved Blacks via the Underground Railroad, built a fortune “by any means necessary” that would be worth nearly a billion dollars in 2024 money, and secretly funded John Brown’s efforts to violently overthrow the institution of slavery in America. And that ain’t even half the story.
Josephine Baker
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. But she wasn’t done there, making a difference in the world. Upon returning to the U.S., Baker found herself the target of discrimination and threw herself into fighting racism and injustice at home. Baker was one of two women speakers at the March on Washington in 1963.
Dr. Mae Jemison
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 of 2,000 applicants, she was selected to train at Kennedy Space Center. On Sept. 12, 1992, Jemison boarded the space shuttle “Endeavor” and with six other astronauts, orbited the earth. Her trip to the stars landed Jemison in the history books as the first Black woman in space. Fun fact: nearly every one of my six children did science projects or book reports while in elementary school on Jemison. I had the honor of interviewing one of Jemison’s college running buddies – Houston’s own broadcast news legend Linda Lorelle – but have yet to score an interview with Jemison. One day.
Wangari Maathai
Wangari Maathai was the first African woman to receive a Nobel Peace Prize for her efforts in environmental conservation. In the 1970s, she founded the Green Belt Movement, an environmental non-governmental organization focused on environmental conservation and women’s rights. She was also an elected member of Parliament and served as assistant minister for Environment and Natural Resources between 2003 and 2005.
Shirley Chisholm
Shirley Chisholm became a household name after becoming the first Black woman to be elected to Congress in 1968. A native of Brooklyn, 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 equality and became a founding member of the Congressional Black Caucus. But Chisholm really got the party started in 1972 when she made history again as the first Black candidate to seek the nomination for President of the United States and the first woman to bid for the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination. Though she was ultimately unsuccessful, her history-making accomplishments were acknowledged with a Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2015 by then-President Barack Obama.
This post was originally published on Defender Network By Aswad Walker