Black women have always been at the forefront of movements for social change, from abolition to suffrage to civil rights to feminism. Learn more about their leadership, creative expressions, and critiques of white supremacy and patriarchy.
Movements of Resistance
Two Women of the African Slave Resistance
August 25, 2017
African women, always a minority in the slave trade, often had to find their own ways of rebellion against slavery if they could.
A Formerly Enslaved Woman Successfully Won a Case for Reparations in 1783
February 9, 2016
In one of the earliest examples of reparations, an ex-slave named Belinda petitioned the government and was granted an annuity.
The Alpha Suffrage Club and Black Women’s Fight for the Vote
September 8, 2020
Black women's experiences in the suffrage movement show that the Nineteenth Amendment marked one event in the fight for the vote, not an endpoint.
Why Black Women Joined the Communist Party
March 22, 2020
During the Great Depression, Communists took to the streets to fight racism, poverty, and injustice. Among them were Black women.
The Woman Who Refused to Leave a Whites-Only Streetcar
August 15, 2018
In 1854, Elizabeth Jennings rode the streetcar of her choice, in an early civil rights protest that led to desegregating public transportation in NYC.
Women’s Clubs and the “Lost Cause”
August 24, 2020
Women's clubs were popular after the Civil War among white and Black women. But white clubwomen used their influence to ingrain racist curriculum in schools.
How St. Louis Domestic Workers Fought Exploitation
January 26, 2021
Without many legal protections under the New Deal, Black women organized through the local Urban League.
Icons from History
Marian Anderson Photo Archives
October 6, 2020
The African American opera singer made history with a stirring concert at the Lincoln Memorial. But there was much more to Marian Anderson.
The Poem That Inspired Radical Black Women to Organize
November 5, 2020
Beah Richards is best known as an actor, but in 1951 she wrote a sweeping poem that influenced the Civil Rights Movement.
15 Black Women Who Should Be (More) Famous
June 19, 2020
Honoring the scientists, poets, activists, doctors, and librarians--those we know and those we don't.
Henrietta Lacks, Immortalized
May 17, 2018
Henrietta Lacks's "immortal" cell line, called "HeLa," is used in everything from cancer treatments to vaccines. A new portrait memorializes her.
In Their Own Words
Morgan Jerkins: Exploring the Multitudes within American Blackness
August 8, 2020
In her new book, Wandering in Strange Lands, Morgan Jerkins takes a deeply personal look at the effects of the Great Migration.
Shirley Chisholm: Sisterhood Is Complicated
July 2, 2020
A 1974 interview on feminism and politics with the first Black major-party candidate for president.
Toni Morrison
February 3, 2017
Toni Morrison, the first African American writer to win the Nobel Prize for Literature, was born to working-class ...
Interview with Alondra Nelson: Race + Gender + Technology + Medicine
February 18, 2015
Alondra Nelson studies gender and black studies at the intersection of science and technology.
Support JSTOR Daily! Join our new membership program on Patreon today.
