Honoring Black Women in History and Their Contributions

Key Takeaways:

• Black women in history have inspired change in the fight for women’s rights and equality.
• Leaders like Rosa Park and Ida B. Wells fought for racial and gender equity throughout their lives.
• Today, inspirational Black women like Misty Copeland continue to break down barriers for young women, especially for those from underrepresented communities.

Last week, I discussed some of the women who have changed the course of history for women’s rights and have driven the conversation for equality in new directions. Since March is Women’s History Month, it’s an important time to look back on influential female leaders and, certainly, a time to look forward and consider the challenges ahead.

While all women deserve to be celebrated this month, and throughout the year, Women’s History Month is an ideal time to reflect on how women of color have faced oppression on behalf of both their gender and race while continuing to forge a path forward for future generations of women and Black Americans in the United States.

A Celebration of Influential Black Women in History

Black women have always been at the forefront of the battle for racial and gender equity. Despite their unwavering commitment and courage, the contributions of these women were often disregarded throughout the women’s and civil rights movements.

Yet, the bravery and courage of women like Claudette Colvin, Rosa Parks and Ida B. Wells helped change the course of history for the Black community and women across the country. Women’s History Month is both an opportunity to reflect on their legacies and share their stories.

Rosa Parks

Rosa Parks, known as the “Mother of the Civil Rights Movement,” is most remembered as the woman who stood up for herself by refusing to give up her seat for a white person on a public bus in Montgomery, Alabama. Parks knew that she’d likely get arrested for her actions, but she courageously stood her ground. Before this event, Parks was already an established Civil Rights Movement organizer, but she became an icon and pioneer in the movement following the Montgomery Bus Boycott. Parks and her husband later moved to Detroit and became active participants in the Civil Rights Movement there.

Claudette Colvin

Many don’t realize that nine months before Parks made her stand on that Montgomery bus, 15-year-old Claudette Colvin did the same. In 1955, Colvin refused to give up her seat on a public bus to a white person while she was on her way home from school. Still today, Claudette Colvin is fighting for justice and considers herself a “survivor of the Civil Rights Movement.” It wasn’t until 2022, 66 years after being arrested for not giving up her seat on the bus, that a Montgomery judge expunged her record after Colvin appealed the charges from 1955.

Ida B. Wells

Many brave women have told their stories of how they stood up against injustice, but some influential Black women made a mark on history through journalism and storytelling that has helped to shape conversations around women’s rights and raise awareness for women’s equity.

Ida B. Wells, activist, journalist and one of the founding members of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), fought injustice through investigative reports that brought the violence against Black Americans to the doorsteps of people across the U.S.

Black Women Continue to Break Down Barriers

Rosa Parks, Ida B. Wells and Claudette Colvin are certainly not the only important Black women in history to be remembered and honored. Poet and activist Maya Angelou helped communicate the struggle of Black Americans and women through literature, and on the front lines, women like Katherine Johnson, who became a NASA mathematician, were also breaking down barriers of racial and gender injustice.

Today, new leaders are rising in underrepresented communities as role models, setting examples for girls of color that they too can accomplish any goals they set out to. Misty Copeland, for example, is the first Black American female principal dancer for the American Ballet Theatre.

To think that it has taken nearly 60 years since the Civil Rights Act of 1964 for a Black woman to achieve this position is simply astounding. Misty shows the same courage and tenacity as women leaders before her, and I hope many young Black women look up to Copeland and see her accomplishments as an inspiration.

Persistence, Courage and Unwavering Commitment to Equity

Maya Angelou puts her perspective on courage into words that I believe still ring true, “Courage is the most important of all virtues because, without courage, we cannot practice any other virtue with consistency.”

These women showcase incredible strength, challenging the moral guidance of a society with long-standing inequities. Without their courage, compassion and tenacity, our community and women across the U.S. would not have the rights we have today.

As we continue to celebrate the women who inspire us this March, consider following me on LinkedIn as I share more stories about the women who have changed, and continue to change, the world for the better.