African American History and Women

What's included? See note below timeline.

[Previous] [Next]

Women and African American History: 1970-1979

1970

• Cheryl Adrienne Brown, Miss New York, became the first African American contestant in the Miss America pageant

• (August 7) Angela Davis, radical black activist and philosopher, was arrested as a suspected conspirator in the abortive attempt to free George Jackson from a courtroom in Marin County, California

1971

• (January 11) Mary J. Blige born (singer)

1972

• Mahalia Jackson died (gospel singer)

• Shirley Chisholm became the first African American woman candidate for President, with more than 150 delegate votes at the 1972 Democratic convention

• Barbara Jordan elected to Congress, the first African American woman from a southern state to be elected to the House

1973

1974

1975

• Mary Bush Wilson becomes first African American woman board chair of the NAACP (the first chair, Mary White Ovington, was a white woman)

1976

• Barbara Jordan was the first woman and the first African American to give the keynote addres at a national convention of the Democratic Party

1977

• first African American woman ordained as an Episcopal priest: Pauli Murray

1978

• Faye Wattleton became president of the Planned Parenthood Federation -- the first woman and the first African American to hold that position

• (June 28) in University of California v. Backke, Supreme Court limits federal affirmative action

1979

• Hazel Winifred Johnson became the first African American woman appointed as a general

[Previous] [Next]

[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