African American History and Women

What's included? See note below timeline.

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Women and African American History: 1900-1909

1900

• (September) Nannie Helen Burroughts and others founded the Women's Convention of the National Baptist Convention

1901

• Regina Anderson born (librarian, Harlem Reaissance figure)

1902

• Local white protests of the appointment of Minnie Cos as postmistress of Indianola, Mississippi, led to President Theodore Roosevelt suspending postal services to the town.

• (February 27) Marian Anderson born (singer)

• (October 26) Elizabeth Cady Stanton died (antislavery and women's rights activist)

1903

• Harriet Tubman signed over her home for the elderly to an African Methodist Episcopal Church

• Harriet Marshall founded the Washington (DC) Conservatory, admitting African American students

• Maggie Lena Walker founded St. Luke's Penny Savings Bank in Richmond, Virginia, becoming the first woman bank president

• Sarah Breedlove Walker (Madam C.J. Walker) begins her haircare business

• Ella Baker born (civil rights activist)

• Zora Neale Hurston born (writer, folklorist)

1904

• Virginia Broughton published Women's Work, as Gleaned from the Women of the Bible

• Mary McLeod Bethune founded what is today Bethune-Cookman College

1905

• Niagara Movement founded (out of which the NAACP grew)

• National League for the Protection of Colored Women founded in New York

• Ariel Williams Holloway born (musician, teacher, poet, figure in Harlem Renaissance)

• Constitution of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW, "Wobblies") included a provision that "no working man or woman shall be excluded from membership in unions because of creed or color"

• first outdoor tuberculosis camp in the United States was opened in Indianapolis, Indiana, sponsored by the Women's Improvement Club

1906

• after a riot in Brownsville, Texas, President Theodore Roosevelt delivered dishonorable discharges to three companies of African American soldiers; Mary Church Terrell was among those formally protesting this action

• second meeting of the Niagara Movement met at Harper's Ferry, West Virginia, with about 100 men and women in attendanc

• Josephine Baker born (entertainer)

• Susan B. Anthony died (reformer, abolitionist, women's rights advocate, lecturer)

1907

• Negro Rural School Fund was established by Anna Jeanes, aimed at improving education for rural southern African Americans

• Gladys Bentley, Harlem Renaissance figure, became known for her risque and flamboyant piano playing and singing

• Meta Vaux Warrick Fuller received the first federal art commission awarded to an African American woman -- for figurines of African Americans to be used at the Jamestown Tercentenniel Exposition

1908

• call issued which resulted in 1909 founding of NAACP; women signers included Ida B. Wells-Barnett, Jane Addams, Anna Garlin Spencer, and Harriot Stanton Blatch (daughter of Elizabeth Cady Stanton)

• in Los Angeles, the Woman's Day Nursery Association was formed to provide care for African American children whose mothers worked outside the home

• Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority founded

1909

• Nannie Helen Burroughs founded the National Training School for Women, Washington DC

• Gertrude Stein's novel Three Lives characterizes a black female character, Rose, as having "the simple, promiscuous immorality of Black people."

• (February 12) National Negro Conference

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[1492-1699] [1700-1799] [1800-1829] [1830-1839] [1840-1849] [1850-1859] [1860-1863] [1864-1869] [1870-1879] [1880-1889] [1890-1899] [1900-1909] [1910-1919] [1920-1929] [1930-1939] [1940-1949] [1950-1959] [1960-1969] [1970-1979] [1980-1989] [1990-1999] [2000-]
[Biographies of Notable African American Women]

Events in this timeline include:

• events featuring African American women
• birth and death dates for many notable African American women
• general African American events which had significant impact on African American women and families as well as men
• events involving key women whose work influenced African American history, for instance the involvement of many European American women in anti-slavery work
• birth and death dates for key women whose work was important in African American history, for instance in anti-slavery or civil rights work