Tarana Burke is an activist who is best known for creating the Me Too movement which raises awareness about sexual harassment, assault, and abuse. Burke was born on September 12, 1973, in The Bronx, New York. She had many troubling experiences growing up in a low-income, working-class family. She was … Read MoreTarana Burke (1973- )
“Image Ownership: Chris93” Born in Paris, France in April 1978, from Senegalese parents, Rokhaya Diallo most famous as a French feminist and antiracist activist. She is also a journalist for radio and TV. First educated in the public schools of Paris, she moved at 11 with … Read MoreRokhaya Diallo (1978- )
Epsy Campbell Barr is a black Costa Rican politician and trained economist. In 2000 she became one of the founders of the Citizen’s Action Party (CAP), a group of leftist politicians who challenged the then ruling political party. She later ran for President of Costa … Read MoreEpsy Campbell Barr (1963- )
“Image Ownership: EneasMx” Politician, social and peace activist Piedad Córdoba was born in Medellin, Colombia, on January 25, 1955. She was the second of ten children of Zabulón Córdoba, an Afro-Colombian who rose from humble origins to become a sociology professor and university dean. … Read MorePiedad Esneda Córdoba Ruiz (1955- )
Beginning in the 1970s, Barbara Smith broke new ground as a black feminist, lesbian, activist, author, and book publisher of women of color. She and her twin sister, Beverly Smith, were born on December 16, 1946 in Cleveland, Ohio. Their mother, Hilda Smith, maternal grandmother, … Read MoreBarbara Smith (1946- )
The Combahee River Collective, founded by black feminists and lesbians in Boston, Massachusetts in 1974, was best known for its Combahee River Collective Statement. This document was one of the earliest explorations of the intersection of multiple oppressions, including racism and heterosexism. For the first … Read MoreCombahee River Collective (1974-1980)
Sarah Massey Overton was a leading black freedom fighter and women’s rights activist in post-Gold Rush San Jose, California. Massey was born in Lennox, Massachusetts and came to California with her parent in the 1880s while she was still a young girl. The Masseys moved … Read MoreSarah Massey Overton (1850-1914)
Mabel Keaton Staupers, R.N., was instrumental in ending the United States Army’s policy of excluding African American nurses from its ranks in World War II. In 1948 Staupers also successfully lobbied for full integration of the American Nurses Association. Mabel Keaton Staupers (née Doyle) was … Read MoreMabel Keaton Staupers (1890-1989)
Angela Davis, activist, educator, and scholar, was born on January 26, 1944, in the “Dynamite Hill” area of Birmingham, Alabama. The area received that name because so many African American homes in this middle class neighborhood had been bombed over the years by the Ku … Read MoreAngela Davis (1944-)
Journalist and nurse Ruth Carol Taylor became the first African American airline flight attendant in the United States when she joined Mohawk Airlines in 1958. While she is most commonly known for her achievement in the airline industry, she spent much of her career as … Read MoreRuth Carol Taylor (1931- )
