Dr. Margaret Abigail Walker Alexander’s contributions to American letters—four volumes of poetry, a novel, a biography, and numerous critical essays—mark her as one of this country’s most gifted black intellectuals. These accomplishments are even more remarkable given that she achieved most of them after 1943 … Read MoreMargaret Walker (1915-1998)
Born September 18, 1905 in Oakland, California, Eddie Anderson’s career as an entertainer began at the age of 14 when he teamed up with his brother Cornelius in a song-and-dance act. Anderson’s career continued onto the silver screen where he had parts in movies such … Read MoreEddie “Rochester” Anderson (1905-1977)
Anna Julia Haywood Cooper was a writer, teacher, and activist who championed education for African Americans and women. Born into bondage in 1858 in Raleigh, North Carolina, she was the daughter of an enslaved woman, Hannah Stanley, and her owner, George Washington Haywood. In 1867, … Read MoreAnna Julia Haywood Cooper (1858-1964)
Margaret Murray Washington, the third wife of Booker T. Washington was a well-known educator and women’s activist in her own right before she married the founder of Tuskegee. She continued that activism during their marriage. The Washingtons gave twin lectures at Old Bethel A.M.E. Church … Read More(1898) Margaret Murray Washington, “We Must Have a Cleaner Social Morality,”
Lucy Craft Laney was born in Macon, Georgia, in 1854, into a family of ten children. Taught to read and write by her mother, a domestic worker, she graduated from Macon’s Lewis High School and entered Atlanta University at the age of fifteen and graduated … Read More(1899) Lucy Craft Laney, “The Burden of the Educated Colored Woman”
In 1894 Josephine St. Pierre Ruffin founded the Women’s New Era Club, a charitable organization of sixty prominent black women in Boston. Soon afterwards she began editing its monthly publication, the Women’s Era. Encouraged by the success of the New Era Club and heartened by … Read More(1895) Josephine St. Pierre Ruffin, “Address to the First National Conference of Colored Women”
Sojourner Truth (c. 1797-1883) was arguably the most famous of the 19th Century black women orators. Born into slavery in New York and freed in 1827 under the state’s gradual emancipation law, she dedicated her life to abolition and equal rights for women and men. … Read More(1851) Sojourner Truth “Ar’nt I a Woman?“
Texas Congresswoman Barbara Jordan was selected to give the Opening Statement to the House Judiciary Committee on July 25, 1974, as it began its momentous proceedings on the Impeachment of President Richard Nixon. Her statement appears below: Mr. Chairman, I join my colleague Mr. Rangel … Read More(1974) Congresswoman Barbara Jordan’s Statement: The Richard Nixon Impeachment Hearings
After World War II organized labor began to penetrate into some industrialized areas of the South where it inevitably confronted the issue of race. Unions such as the Food and Tobacco Workers affiliated with The Congress of Industrial Organizations, promoted racial integration and helped develop … Read More(1947) Moranda Smith Addresses The Congress Of Industrial Organizations Annual Convention, Boston
