-
Harriet Tubman
Tubman made her first journey through the Underground Railroad, taking detailed notes along the way for her return. -
Public Eating Rights
At 80 years old, Terrell challenged segregation in public eating spaces. -
Period: to
Nineteen Trips
Over the span of 10 years Tubman successfully conducted 19 trips through the Underground Railroad. Freeing approximately 70 individuals. -
Sojourner Truth
Truth gave widely received "Ain't I a woman?" speech. Challenging beliefs of racial and gender inferiority and inequality. -
Care Home
Tubman opened a house to care for people with paralysis, epilepsy, vision impairment and blindness. Receiving a traumatic brain injury in her teens, resulted in chronic seizures and other neurological issues. Tubman opened a place for people with similar experiences to feel safe and cared for. -
Petition Attempt
Truth Collected thousands of signatures for a petition that aimed to provide formerly enslaved people with land. Congress denied this petition. -
Ida B. Wells
Wells wrote an expose on lynching, sparking anger in locals while fueling her activism. -
Mary Church Terrell
Terrell's activism journey begins, after a friend was lynched for having a business that competed with their white neighbor's. Mary joined Ida B. Wells anti-lynching campaign the same year. -
Period: to
Years of activism
Ida B. Wells went on to travel the world, bringing awareness to the unjust lynchings happening in the U.S. She was a part of the NAACP and inspired several Womanists including Mary Church Terrell. -
National Association of Colored Women (NACW)
Terrell founded and became president of the NACW. -
Madam CJ Walker
Walker invented a Black hair care product. Her pomade was the first hair product made specifically for Black hair, which had a very positive impact on the Black community. Walker was one of the first Women in the U.S. to become a millionaire. She used her wealth to uplift the community and was a big part of the Harlem Renaissance. "I am not satisfied in making money for myself. I endeavor to provide employment for hundreds of the women of my race." - Sarah Breedlove (AKA Madam CJ Walker) -
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)
Terrell was one of the founders of the NAACP (Ida B. Wells was too, however her name is not mentioned as one of the founders). -
Irene M. Blackstone
Blackstone joined the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA). She became a well known speaker in the Suffrage Movement. Blackstone's views and arguments were fundamental to the feminist movement that emerged in the 1960's and 1970's. -
Rosa Parks
Rosa Parks joined the NAACP and became the secretary at 30 years old. However, she had been active in several social justice organizations since she was 19. -
Supreme Court Ruling
Terrell was victorious in her challenge. The Supreme Court ruled in favor of her suggestion that segregating eating facilities was unconstitutional. This was a major breakthrough at the start of the Civil Rights Movement. -
Kept her seat
Rosa Parks boarded a bus and refused to give up her seat for a white person to take. Her resistance put in motion one of the largest social movements in history, the Montgomery Bus Boycott. -
Nina Simone
Simone helped Hansberry write and compose "A Raisin in the Sun", a play exploring the difficulties of Black life in the 20th century, a theme mirroring the activism Simone took part in off stage. -
Lorraine Hansberry
Hansberry became the first Black American woman to have a playwright performed on Broadway. "A Raisin in the Sun" became a hit and she went on to successfully write more plays on the Black experience. She befriended activists like James Baldwin, Langston Hughes and Nina Simone. -
Bombing in Birmingham
White extremists bombed a baptist church in Birmingham, Alabama, galvanizing Nina Simone into activism. She used her anger and grief as fuel to create music for the masses. "Mississippi Goddamn" was written that same year, in memory of a Medgar Evers, a civil rights activist who was murdered in Mississippi. That song would become one of her most famous pieces, with lyrics attacking the slow pace of racial justice in the U.S. Simone would go back and edit that song over the years. -
Black Voter Registration Drive
Simone's song brought recognition to Mississippi. Black and white people flooded to Mississippi to lead a Black voter registration drive. It was known as the "Mississippi Freed Summer". -
Kathleen Cleaver
Cleaver became the first woman in the Black Panther Party central committee. She became the communication secretary, making her the first woman of the party's decision making cabinet. Cleaver's views on natural Black hair had a big impact in the 70's, encouraging Black women to wear the afro's proudly. -
An Artists Duty
"An artists duty, as far as I'm concerned, is to reflect the times. That to me is my duty. And at this crucial time in our lives when everything is so desperate, when every day is a matter of survival, I don't think you can help but be involved." -Nina Simone. -
The Combahee River Collective Statement
A collective of Black lesbian feminists wrote a statement detailing their experiences, not just as Black people, but as Black lesbians. The Combahee River Collective did work with progressive organizations and movements, with a commitment to "Struggling against racial, sexual, heterosexual, and class oppression, and see as our particular task the development of integrated analysis and practice based upon the fact that the major systems of oppression are interlocking." -Combahee River Collective -
Kimberlee Crenshaw
Crenshaw coins the term "Intersectionality". A lawyer and college professor, Crenshaw spent over 30 years studying civil rights and created this term, which is now used in the legal system. Intersectionality displays people as multifaceted and cannot be explained by any one identity and/or experience. The interconnected nature of social catergorizations such as race, class, gender, ability, etc, create overlapping and interdependent systems of discrimination or disadvantage.