Pleasure of their company
Compiled and edited by Carolyn Bennett
North American Women Leaders of African Descent: 19th-20th centuries
Shadd
 |
| Mary Ann Shadd Cary |
“When Mary Ann Shadd Cary died in 1893, her commitment to
justice remained. Her legacy, however, would not be fully appreciated until
feminist and anti-racist scholars began her overdue recovery at the close of
the 20th century.” Mary Ann Shadd Cary’s “insistence that ‘We should do more,
and talk less’ (Cimbala, 19) [still rings] true, as [does] her hopes for
progressive alliances.” [Canadian historian Veronica Strong-Boag]
Wells
 |
| Ida B. Wells |
This prominent 20th century U.S. rights activist, educator and
journalist is also often absent from history texts. Ida B. Wells (Barnett) investigated,
decried and published material about lynching in the USA; and during the Woman’s
Suffrage Movement, she insisted on being visibly present, daring to march despite
objections among the ranks of Anglo women suffragists, and thus cracking the door
into integrating not only the Woman’s Suffrage Movement but the larger movement
for women’s rights in America. [Mocha Memoirs
Press]
Baker
 |
| Ella Baker |
“I have always felt it was a handicap for oppressed peoples
to depend so largely upon a leader, because unfortunately in our culture, the
charismatic leader usually becomes a leader because he has found a spot in the
public limelight. . . In order for us as
poor and oppressed people to become part of a society that is meaningful, the
system under which we now exist has to be radically changed... It means facing
a system that does not lend its self to your needs and devising means by which
you change that system.” [Ella Baker]
 |
| Shirley Chisholm |
Chisholm
“…Politics as practiced in the United States is a beautiful
fraud that has been imposed on the people for years; its practitioners exchange
gilded promises for the most valuable thing their victims own, their votes; and
the lawyers benefit most.… Political organizations are formed to keep the
powerful in power. Their first rule is ‘don’t rock the boat.’ If someone makes
trouble and you can get him, do it; if you can’t get him, bring him in: Give
him some of the action, let him have a taste of power. Power is all anyone
wants, and if he has a promise of it as a reward for being good, he’ll be good.
Anyone who does not play by those rules is incomprehensible to most
politicians. …Unless we start to fight and defeat the enemies in our own
country, poverty and racism; and make our talk of equality and opportunity ring
true, we are exposed [to] the world as hypocrites when we talk about making
people free.” [Shirley Chisholm: Unbought and Unbossed]
Hamer
“We don’t have anything to be ashamed of. … You can pray
until you faint, but if you don’t get up and try to do something, God is not
going to put it in your lap.… [T]he time now is to stand up. Stand up for your
constitutional right and one day, if we keep on standing up, we won’t have to
take this literacy test—to copy a section of the constitution of Mississippi
that we had never seen, and interpret it too. … One day we won’t have all of
this to do. We’ll keep right on walking, and we’ll keep right on talking, and
we’ll keep right on marching.” [Fannie Lou Hamer “We’re On Our Way”] 
Unquestionable Magnificence
African American women (women of African descent) have contributed
“significantly and magnificently to the survival, liberation and well-being of families,
communities and nations, and to the elevation of the whole of society and
humanity.” [Visions & Victories: Voices from the World Africa Community]
Sources and notes
Ida B.Wells-Barnett née Ida Bell Wells (journalist, educator, women’s/civil rights activist/leader) born July 16, 1862, Holly Springs, Mississippi; died March 25, 1931, Chicago, Illinois
Fannie Lou Hamer née Townsend (voting rights/civil rights activist/leader/campaigner) born October 6, 1917, Ruleville, Mississippi; died March 14, 1977, Mound Bayou, Mississippi
Shirley Chisholm née Shirley Anita St. Hill (pioneering politician) born November 30, 1924, Brooklyn, New York, U.S.; died January 1, 2005, Ormond Beach, Florida
Mary Ann Shadd Cary (American-Canadian anti-slavery activist, journalist, publisher, teacher and lawyer) born October 9, 1823, Wilmington, Delaware; died June 5, 1893, Washington, D.C.
Ella Josephine Baker (community organizer, political activist/civil rights leader) born December 13, 1903, Norfolk, Virginia; died December 13, 1986, New York City
Biographical briefs, Wikipedia and Encyclopedia Britannica
“For Racial and Women’s Equality: the Politics of Mary Ann
Shadd Cary (1823-1893), January 24, 2014, posted by Strong-Boag, Veronica in
Biographical, North America, http://womensuffrage.org/?p=22346
Dr. Veronica Strong-Boag is Women’s History Professor
Emerita at the University of British Columbia
“Ida B. Wells-Barnett – Feminist Threat,” April 15, 2013,
http://mochamemoirspress.blogspot.com/2013/04/ida-b-wells-barnett-feminist-threat.html
“Truth, Beauty, Wisdom & Courage in Women of African
Descent,” posted on March 7, 2011
http://hcvoice.wordpress.com/2011/03/07/405/
Visions & Victories: Voices from the World Africa
Community, http://hcvoice.wordpress.com
A roll call of sorts: Queen Tiye, Ahmose-Nefertari, Queen
Hatshepsut, Queen Istnofret, Queen Nefertari, Makeda (Queen of Sheba), Queen
Nzingha, Lucy Terry, Phyllis Wheatley, Sally Hemings, Sojourner Truth, Harriet
Tubman, Mary Ann Shadd Cary, Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, Edmonia Lewis, Queen
Mother Moore, Fannie Lou Hamer, Barbara Jordan, Marian Anderson, Jane Matilda
Bolin, Lorraine Hansberry
Rebecca Cole, Hallie Quinn Brown,
Harriet Jacobs, Mary Jane Patterson, Ida B. Wells-Barnett, Susie King Taylor,
Mary Church Terrell, Mary Murray Washington, Madam C.J. Walker, Elizabeth
Keckley, Susan McKinney Stewart, Mary Eliza Mahoney, A’Lelia Walker, Sarah
Goode, Emma Frances Grayson Merritt, Octavia Albert, Janie Porter Barrett,
Shirley Chisholm, Mary McLeod Bethune
Mary Jane Patterson, Sadie M. Alexander, Eva B. Dykes, Georgianna R.
Simpson, Charlotte E. Ray
Zora Neale Hurston, Ariel Williams
Holloway, Meta Vaux Warrick Fuller, Nannie Helen Burroughs, Ella Baker, Susan
McKinney, Rebecca Lee, Merlie
Evers-Williams, Rosa Parks, Amy Jacques Garvey, Daisy Bates, Gwendolyn
Brooks, Lena Horne, Frances Elliot Davis, Pearl Bailey, Bessie Coleman,
Josephine St. Pierre Ruffin, Coretta Scott King, Althea Gibson, Annie Minerva
Turnbo Malone, Augusta Savage, Nina Simone, Barbara Jordan, Eleanor Holmes
Norton, Patricia R. Harris, Hazel Johnson
http://hcvoice.wordpress.com/2011/03/07/405/
Ella Baker quotes, http://www.quote-coyote.com/quotes/authors/b/ella-baker/
Shirley Chisholm quotes from Unbought and Unbossed, http://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/1255337-unbought-and-unbossed
“We’re On Our Way,” Fannie Lou Hamer Speech Text: Speech before
a Mass Meeting held at the Negro Baptist School in Indianola, Mississippi
(September 1964)
Bennett's books are available in New York State independent bookstores: Lift Bridge Bookshop: www.liftbridgebooks.com [Brockport, NY]; Sundance Books: http://www.sundancebooks.com/main.html [Geneseo, NY]; Mood Makers Books: www.moodmakersbooks.com [City of Rochester, NY]; Dog Ears Bookstore and Literary Arts Center: www.enlightenthedog.org/ [Buffalo, NY]; Burlingham Books – ‘Your Local Chapter’: http://burlinghambooks.com/ [Perry, NY 14530]; The Bookworm: http://www.eabookworm.com/ [East Aurora, NY] • See also: World Pulse: Global Issues through the eyes of Women: http://www.worldpulse.com/ http://www.worldpulse.com/pulsewire http://www.facebook.com/#!/bennetts2ndstudy
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