Powerful Words From 11 Black Women Who Shaped History
In 1822, Harriet Tubman was born into slavery. In the decades since, the United States has undergone a marked and hard-worn shift in civil rights and the opportunities available to Black women. In 1992, Mae Jemison became the first Black woman to go into space, and in 2021, about 200 years after Tubman’s birth, Kamala Harris became the first woman and first Black American to serve as Vice President of the United States.
The journey for Black women has been long and difficult, but progress continues to be made thanks to the countless inspirational women who have fought for equality as activists and politicians, and empowered generations through their writing, music, and art. Here are some of those voices, spanning two centuries of resilience, courage, and achievement.
Following Harriet Tubman’s escape from slavery, she made more than a dozen missions with the Underground Railroad, rescuing some 70 enslaved people, including her immediate family. Later, she became an activist in the women’s suffrage movement.
When Rosa Parks refused an order to vacate her bus seat for a white passenger, she became a pivotal figure in the Montgomery bus boycott of the civil rights movement, and in turn, an international icon of resistance to racial segregation.
Aviator Bessie Coleman grew up working in cotton fields but always dreamed of flying. So, she saved some money and went to flight school in France, becoming the first African American woman and Native American to obtain a pilot license. She went on to become a high-profile pilot in dangerous air shows — she would perform only if the crowd was desegregated and permitted to enter through the same gates.
Ella Fitzgerald was painfully shy in social situations, but on stage she let her songs speak for her in dazzling fashion. During her career, the Queen of Jazz won 14 Grammy Awards and was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
In 1968, Shirley Chisholm became the first Black woman elected to the United States Congress, and in 1972 she became the first Black candidate to run for a major party’s nomination for President of the United States. She was a woman who, in her own words, “dared to be a catalyst of change.”
Katherine Johnson was a mathematician whose calculations of orbital mechanics were critical to NASA’s first and subsequent crewed spaceflights. Her sheer talent and ceaseless enthusiasm made her indispensable, despite the racial and gender barriers she faced.
Writer, feminist, and civil rights activist Audre Lorde was known for her passionate writings on lesbian feminism and racial issues. She often introduced herself as “a Black, lesbian, mother, warrior, poet.”
Octavia Butler paved the way for African American women in science fiction, a genre traditionally dominated by white males. Her unsentimental and frank examinations of race, sex and power earned her multiple Hugo and Nebula awards, and her work helped to develop the genre of Afrofuturism.
Poet, memoirist, actress, director, lecturer, civil rights activist — Maya Angelou was a multifaceted woman of many talents. She is best known for her series of autobiographies, starting with 1969’s I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings.
In 1982, Alice Walker became the first Black American woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for fiction, for her novel The Color Purple.
In 1992, NASA astronaut Mae Jemison became the first Black woman to travel into space. She served as a mission specialist aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavour, orbiting Earth 127 times during her eight-day mission. 
