An ever-expanding list of resources for learning about famous African American women and other women of Black History. You'll find women who are famous and women who should be better-known, from early America and slavery to the 21st century, including the Harlem Renaissance and the civil rights movement. See also:
- Black History and Women
- African American History and Women: Timeline 1492-present
- More Biographies of Women
Famous African American Women: A - Z
Marian Anderson: singer
Regina Anderson: librarian, playwright
Maya Angelou: singer, actress, activist, writer, poet
Lil Hardin Armstrong: jazz musician
Pearl Bailey: singer, performer, stage, film, special ambassador
Josephine Baker: entertainer
Willie B. Barrow: minister, civil rights activist
Daisy Bates: journalist, civil rights activist
Mary McLeod Bethune: educator, racial justice activist, New Deal government official
- Mary McLeod Bethune Profile
- Full Biography of Mary McLeod Bethune
- Mary McLeod Bethune Quotes
- Mary McLeod Bethune Index
Marita Bonner: writer, educator
Gwendolyn Brooks: poet, winner of a Pulitzer Prize in 1950, poet laureate of Illinois
- Gwendolyn Brooks Biography
- Gwendolyn Brooks Quotes
- Gwendolyn Brooks Index
- Gwendolyn Brooks Poems Online
Hallie Quinn Brown: educator, lecturer, clubwoman, reformer
Marjorie Lee Browne: educator, mathematician
Shirley Chisholm: politician
Bessie Coleman: politician
Angela Davis: radical black activist, educator, philosopher
Ruby Dee: actress, activist
Henriette Delille: founded religious order
Alice Dunbar-Nelson: writer, teacher; Harlem Renaissance figure
Marian Wright Edelman: lawyer, educator, activist, reformer, children's advocate, administrator
- Marian Wright Edelman Biography
- Marian Wright Edelman Quotes
- Books by and About Marian Wright Edelman
- Marian Wright Edelman Index
Elizabeth ("Old Elizabeth"): preacher, emancipated slave, autobiographer
Myrlie Evers: activist
Jessie Redmon Fauset: poet; Harlem Renaissance figure
Althea Gibson: tennis player
Angelina Weld Grimke: writer
Fannie Lou Hamer: activist, sharecropper
Lorraine Hansberry: playwright
Lil Hardin: jazz musician
Frances Ellen Watkins Harper: writer, abolitionist
Dorothy Height: activist, reformer, organizer
Sally Hemings: slave, likely mistress of Thomas Jefferson and mother of several of his children
Billie Holiday: singer
Ariel Williams Holloway: musician, pianist, educator, poet
bell hooks: writer, theologian, philosopher
Lena Horne: singer, actress
Zora Neale Hurston: writer, folklorist, anthropologist
Mae Jemison: astronaut, physician
Georgia Douglas Johnson: poet; Harlem Renaissance figure
Barbara Jordan: politician
Florynce Kennedy: lawyer, activist
Jackie Joyner-Kersee: athlete
- Jackie Joyner-Kersee Biography
- Jackie Joyner-Kersee Picture Gallery
- Jackie Joyner-Kersee Quotes
- Jackie Joyner-Kersee Index
Nella Larsen: writer, nurse
Edmonia Lewis: sculptor
Audre Lorde: writer, poet, activist, librarian
Wangari Maathai: educator, activist, Nobel Peace Prize winner
Toni Morrison: writer; winner, Nobel Prize for Literature, 1993
Eleanor Holmes Norton: lawyer, educator, politician
Odetta: singer
Rosa Parks: civil rights activist, social reformer, racial justice advocate
Lucy Parsons: anarchist, writer
Leontyne Price: opera singer
Charlotte Ray: lawyer, teacher
Bernice Johnson Reagon: singer, activist
Wilma Rudolph: athlete, runner (track and field)
Augusta Savage: sculptor, teacher
Ntozake Shange: playwright, writer
Nina Simone: singer
- Nina Simone Biography
- Nina Simone Albums (top picks)
Maria W. Stewart: lecturer, abolitionist, writer
Mary Church Terrell: activist, reformer
- Mary Church Terrell Biography
- Mary Church Terrell Quotes
- Mary Church Terrell Index
- Photograph of Mary Church Terrell
- another Photograph of Mary Church Terrell
Sojourner Truth: lecturer, escaped slave, abolitionist, women's rights activist
- Sojourner Truth Biography
- Sojourner Truth Quotes
- Books About Sojourner Truth
- Sojourner Truth Speech
- Sojourner Truth Picture Gallery
- Sojourner Truth Index
Harriet Tubman: escaped slave, Underground Railroad conductor, abolitionist, women's rights activist, spy, soldier
- Harriet Tubman Facts
- Harriet Tubman Biography
- Harriet Tubman Quotes
- Harriet Tubman Picture Gallery
- Harriet Tubman Bibliography
- Harriet Tubman Index
Cicely Tyson: actress
Wyomia Tyus: athlete
A'Lelia Walker: business executive, arts patron
Alice Walker: writer, activist
Maggie Lena Walker: business executive, bank president
Madam C J Walker (Sarah Breedlove Walker): business executive, inventor
Faye Wattleton: nurse, activist, Planned Parenthood president
Ida B Wells-Barnett: journalist, activist
Phillis Wheatley: poet, slave
Oprah Winfrey: reporter, talk show host, business executive
More women's history biographies, by name::
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