African American Women: 1950-1999

Willie B. Barrow biography - about Willie Barrow, woman minister, civil rights activist, and Operation PUSH leader.

Marjorie Lee Browne was one of the first black women to receive a doctorate in mathematics

The Combahee River Collective began in 1974. Black feminists organized the Combahee River Collective to clarify the politics of women of color.

Biography of the first black tennis player (of either sex) to compete at or win at Wimbleton.

Althea Gibson picture gallery, showing the tennis great in photos from newspapers and by the photographer Carl Van Vechten.

Anna Arnold Hedgeman was an important activist for civil rights, education, feminism and other important causes. Read about Anna Arnold Hedgeman, who was there for pivotal moments of 1960s U.S. history, including the founding of NOW and the March on Washington.

Quotes by Florynce Kennedy - part of an extensive collection of quotations by notable women.

Quotes by Ntozake Shange - part of an extensive collection of quotations by notable women.

Read about Nina Simone, singer and activist who lived outside the United States in reaction to the racism of her native land.

Nina Simone was a classically trained pianist whose singing mixed genres of classical music, jazz, blues and soul -- and her music and outspoken ideas on American racism reflected and became part of civil rights and black power history. Several of her songs, including her cover of Sinatra's "My Way," became feminist classics as well.

A biography, book list and lots of web resources on this writer, poet and womanist/activist. From your About Guide to Women's History.

A profile of Faye Wattleton of the Planned Parenthood Federation and Center for the Advancement of Women.

From Ebony 1999: a list of 100 Black American women from Oprah Winfrey and Mary McLeod Bethune to Faye Wattleton and Vanessa Williams.

With some understandable overlap with their March 99 list of the 100 most fascinating Black women, Ebony lists another 100 Blacks, men and women. Women on the list include Madame C.J. Walker, Rosa Parks, Katherine Dunham and many more.

Ebony article, 1999, by Lynn Norment, on the changing sense of style among African Americans, both men and women. Afros and flappers, the Supremes, Lena Horne, cornrowed hair and a history of Black models.

Author Scott Macphail, in this 1999 article from African American Review,, analyzes the role of June Jordan in 1960s/1970s politics and intellectual life through several standard theories, and finds she doesn't quite fit the mold.

Kimberly Chabot Davis in Twentieth Century Literature looks at Toni Morrison's Beloved through the concept of history of Francis Fukuyama and others.