black woman in history

7/28/2019 Black Woman in History

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BLACK WOMAN IN HISTORY


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Bessie Coleman

Every Thursday in the month of February, well be honoring the accomplishments of African -American women throughout history as part of Black History Month. First up: ChicagoanBessieQueen Bess Coleman, the first American woman to receive an international pilots license.

Too poor to stay in college, Bessie took a job as a manicurist in a barber shop, where sheoverhead stories about the adventures of pilots returning from WWI. She also met someinfluential men at the barber shop, including founder and publisher of the influentialChicagoDefender, who encouraged Bessie to take up aviation and helped her get to France to study,knowing that no American flight schools would accept her.
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Because of Bessie Coleman, wrote LieutenantWilliam J. PowellinBlack Wings 1934,dedicated to Coleman, we have overcome that which was worse than racial barriers. We haveovercome the barriers within ourselves and dared to dream.

I was so happy to stumble upon Bessies story because I find her courage and passion so

inspirational. I can only imagine the doubts and fear she must have experienced boarding thatfirst boat to France to embark on her own adventure. I like to think that I would have the guts todo that too.

Madam C. J. Walker became the first AfricanAmerican millionaire

0yardrockFebruary 16, 2012BLACK HISTORY

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Celebrating Black History Month!!!!

Black History Fact:In 1910, Madam C. J. Walker became the first AfricanAmerican millionaire. Walker was best known for developing and marketing asuccessful line of beauty and hair products for black women.
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Shirley Chisholm, who was known for many things, especially for being the first African

American woman elected to the House in 1968 from New York. In addition to her historic

election to Congress, it was also fifty years ago that Shirley Chisholm ran for President of

the United States, becoming the first woman and first African American to ever be

considered a serious candidate for the office when she ran in 1972. Join us as we take a

closer look at the life of the one and only Shirley Chisholm.

Photo of Shirley Chisholm (Library of Congress)

Shirley Anita St. Hill (Chisholm was her married name) was born on

November 20, 1924 in Brooklyn, New York. Her parents were immigrants

her father a factory laborer from Guyana, her mother a seamstress from

Barbadosand Shirley would actually spend part of her childhood in

Barbados with her grandmother while her parents worked during the Great

Depression to make enough money to finally settle the whole family (Shirley

had three younger sisters, as well) in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood

of Brooklyn. Shirley was a very bright student and attended Brooklyn

College on a scholarship (she was admitted to Oberlin and Vassar, too),
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graduating cum laude in 1946 with a degree in Sociology. Following her

graduation, Shirley worked as a nursery school teacher from 1946-1953

while she also went to Columbia University, earning her M.A. in early

childhood education in 1952 (she would marry her first husband, Conrad

Chisholm in 1949). In 1953, she became the director of the Hamilton-

Madison Child Care Center in New York, a job she held until 1959 when she

began to work as an educational consultant for New York Citys Division of

Daycare until 1964, which is when her political career took off.

Sojourner Truthdedicated her life to equal rights and womens rights. Sojourner Truth died

on November 26, 1883 in Battle Creek, Michigan. She had a profound impact on all of our

lives.
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Marie Van Brittan Brown

Born in 1922, Marie Van Brittan Brown was the first person to develop the patent

for closed circuit television security. Her mechanism consisted of a motorizedcamera and four peepholes. The camera could be moved from one peephole to thenext, and the cameras images were displayed on a monitor. The door could also be

unlocked remotely using an electrical switch. Browns invention was patented in

1969, and became the framework for the modern closed circuit television systemthat is widely used for surveillance, crime prevention, and traffic monitoring.

Dr. Shirley Jackson

Dr. Shirley Jackson was the first black female to receive a doctorate from the MassachusettsInstitute of Technology (MIT), and is the first black female president of a major technologicalinstitute (Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute). However, she also has a staggering list of inventionsto her credit. Her experiments with theoretical physics are responsible for manytelecommunications developments including the touch tone telephone, the portable fax, caller ID,call waiting, and the fiber optic cables that make overseas phone calls crystal clear
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Dr. Patricia Bath

In 1981, Dr. Patricia Bath invented the Laserphaco Probe, which is used to remove cataracts. By1988, she perfected the invention and received the first of four patents pertaining to the device.Cataracts are an eye disease that can lead to blindness, but previous surgical procedures hadmany negative side effects. Dr. Baths laser probe made cataracts surgery faster and more

accurate, and has been credited with saving thousands from losing their sight.

Dr. Betty Harris

After earning her Ph.D. from the University of New Mexico, Dr. Betty Harris became a researchchemist at Los Alamos National Laboratory. She worked extensively in the area of explosives,

and in 1986, she obtained a patent for identifying and determining the sensitivity level ofexplosives. Her contributions were so significant that in1996, Dr. Harris was one of only eightpeople selected for inclusion in the National Science Foundations Women in Science profile.
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Mary Kenner

Born in 1912, Mary Kenners creativity and ingenuity was evidenced by the five differentpatents she received during a 21-year time frame. In 1956, Kenner received a patent forinventing the Sanitary Belt. Three years later, she received another patent for inventing a sanitarybelt with a moisture-resistant pocket. In 1976, Kenner invented an attachment for an invalidwalker. In 1982, she invented the toilet-tissue holder, and in 1987, she received a patent for abackwash that was mounted on a bathtub and shower wall. While these inventions did not makeher rich, Kenner stated that she enjoyed the idea of making life more convenient for otherpeople.

Image: Comstock

On February 23, 1993, Joanna Hardin invented the CompUrest keyboard stand. As with manyinventions, necessity led the way. A computer activist, Hardin suffered from numerouscomputer-related injuries, leading her to seek a remedy. The keyboard she invented with herfriend, Bernard Hirschenson, proved to be that remedy, ridding her of the injuries as well aspreventing other typists from suffering joint and nerve wear and tear.
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Natalie R. Love

In 1992, Natalie R. Love created a removable cover for T-topconvertible cars . The cover hasremovable male and female fasteners to attach and detach it from the vehicle, and seals on eachside provide a secure, interlocked barrier to wind, rain and other environmental concerns. Thisinvention replaced glass roof panels that were heavy and inconvenient to maneuver, allowingowners of convertible T-top automobiles to quickly attach or remove and store their covers.

Ella Baker

While were constantly reminded of the civil rights leaders who worked in front, those who werebehind the scenes often go unrecognized. Ella Baker is one of those people. An active civil rightsleader in the 1930s, Ms. Baker fought for civil rights for five decades, working alongside W.E.B
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Dubois, Thurgood Marshall, and Martin Luther King, Jr. She even mentored well-known civilrights activist, Rosa Parks.

Ella Baker is quoted as saying, You didnt see me on television; you didnt see news stories

about me. The kind of role that I tried to play was to pick up pieces or put together pieces out of

which I hoped organization might come. My theory is, strong people dont need strong leaders.

Photo Courtesy of commondreams.org

Diane Nash

A leader and strategist of thestudent wing of the Civil Rights Movement, Diane Nash was amember of the infamous Freedom Riders. She also helped found the Student NonviolentCoordinating Committee (SNCC) and the Selma Voting Rights Committee campaign, whichhelped blacks in the South get to vote and have political power.

Raised in Chicago, Nash initially wanted to become a nun as a result of her Catholic upbringing.Also known for her beauty, she would later become runner-up for Miss Illinois. But Nashs pathchanged direction when she attended FiskUniversity after transferring from Howard

University. It was there that she would witness segregation first hand, since coming from adesegregated northern city. Her experiences in the South resulted in her ambition to fight againstsegregation.

Historian David Halberstam considered Nash, bright, focused, utterly fearless, with an unerringinstinct for the correct tactical move at each increment of the crisis; as a leader, her instincts hadbeen flawless, and she was the kind of person who pushed those around her to be at their bestthat, or be gone from the movement.
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Septima Poinsette Clark

Known as the Grandmother of the American Civil Rights Movement, Septima Poinsette Clark

was an educator and civil rights activist who played a major role in the voting rights of African-Americans.

In 1920, while serving as an educator in Charleston, Clark worked with the NAACP to gatherpetitions allowing blacks to serve as principals in Charlestonschools . Their signed petitionsresulted in the first black principal in Charleston. Clark also worked tirelessly to teach literacy toblack adults. In 1979, President Jimmy Carter awarded her a Living Legacy Award in 1979. Hersecond autobiography,Ready from Within: Septima Clark and the Civil Rights Movement, wonthe American Book Award.
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Photo Courtesy of American Radio Works

Fannie Lou Hamer

Coining the phrase, Im sick and tired of being sick and tired, Fannie Lou Hamerwas a votingrights activist and civil rights leader. She was instrumental in organizing Mississippi FreedomSummer for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), and later became theVice-Chair of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party.

Hamer stood firm in her religious beliefs, often quoting them in her fight for civil rights. She ranfor Congress in 1964 and 1965, and was then seated as a member of Mississippis legitimate

delegation to the Democratic National Committee of 1968, where she was an outspoken critic of

the Vietnam War.

Hamer died of breast cancer in 1977 at the age of 59. Buried in her hometown of Ruleville,Miss., her tombstone reads I am sick and tired of being sick and tired.
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Photo Courtesy of libinfo.uark.edu

Daisy Bates

Daisy Bates was an American civil rights activist, publisher and writer who played a leading rolein the Little Rock integration crisis in 1957. Before that, Bates and her husband started their ownnewspaper in 1941 called theArkansas State Press. The paper became a voice for civil rightseven before the nationally recognized movement.

Bates worked tirelessly until her death in 1999. After moving to Washington, D.C. in the 1960s,she served on the Democratic National Committee and also served in the administration ofPresident Lyndon B. Johnson, working her magic on anti-poverty programs. In her home state ofArkansas, it has been established that the third Monday in February is George WashingtonsBirthday and Daisy Gatson Bates Day, an official state holiday.
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Anna Arnold Hedgemen

A civil rights leader, politician, and writer, Anna Arnold Hedgemen was also the first African-American student at Hamline University, a Methodist college in Minnesota. After college shebecame a teacher. During her tenure as a teacher, Hedgemen witnessed segregation and decidedto fight for its end.

After holding a position as assistant dean of women at Howard University in 1946, Hedgemenlater moved to New York and became the first African-American woman to hold a mayoralcabinet position in the history of the state.

Hedgemen, who died in 1990, is the author ofThe Trumpet Sounds (1964), The Gift of Chaos(1977) and many more articles for numerous organizations.
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Dorothy Height

While the name Dorothy Height is recognizable, many of her accomplishments are not. Height,who died recently in 2010 at the age of 98, was a social rights activist, administrator, andeducator. After earning her bachelors and masters degrees at New York University, Height

later became active in fighting for social injustices. She was the president of the NationalCouncil of Negro Women for 40 years, and was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in1994, and the Congressional Gold Medal in 2004.

Also during the height of the Civil Rights Movement, Height organized Wednesdays in

Mississippi which brought together blackand white women from the North and South to engagein dialogue about relevant social issues.

Dorothy Height is quoted as saying I want to be remembered as someone who used herself and

anything she could touch to work for justice and freedomI want to be remembered as one whotried,a motto she lived by until her death.
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Queen Mother Moore (pictured) was a die-hard civil right activist and Black nationalistwho stood side-by-side with Jamaican-born scholar and Pan-Africanist leader MarcusGarvey, supporting his Back to Africa Movement. Moore was also a hero to countlessfolks in her beloved Harlem community, where she fought for tenant rights and moresolid education for its residents. Although her birth name was Audley Moore, she was

renamed Queen Mother Moore by the Ashanti tribe in Ghana who gave her thehonorary title on one of her many trips to the Motherland.

She had a powerful voice that she used for speaking against the injustices that Blackpeople suffered at the hands of this country that had literally turned its back on them.Moore was once quoted as saying, They not only called us Negroes, they made usNegroes, things that dont know where they came from and dont even care that theydont know. Negro is a state of mind, and they massacred our minds.

Queen Tiye was a queen of the 18th Dynasty, married to Amenhotep III. Thedaughter of Yuya, high official under Thutmose IV. Her mother was Thuya. QueenTiye was of Nubian extraction.
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Nefertiti: A small fragment of relief from the Amana period. Housed at the LouvreMuseum

Nefertiti was the Great Royal Wife of the Egyptian Pharaoh Akhenaten. Nefertiti and herhusband were known for a religious revolution, in which they worshiped one god only,

Aten, or the sun disc.

Jemison, Mae C.Mae C. Jemison (October 17, 1956 - ) was the first African-American

woman in space. Dr. Jemison is a medical doctor and a surgeon, with

engineering experience. She flew on the space shuttle Endeavor

(STS-47, Spacelab-J) as the Mission Specialist; the mission lifted off

on September 12, 1992 and landed on September 20, 1992.


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Harriet Tubman

black woman in history

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