Gallery of Authentically Magnificent Women

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)

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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

“Bad ole days” super courageous women politicians: Chisholm, Schroeder

Flashback 1960s, 70s, 80s
By Carolyn Bennett including editing re-reporting

The year was 1973 and Colorado had elected its first woman to the U.S. House of Representatives but the old guard was hanging on to the past when newly elected Congresswoman Patricia (Pat) Schroeder took her seat and accepted membership on the House Armed Services Committee. The committee chairman Louisiana Democrat reportedly went ballistic.

In interviews for a 2008 piece, former Congresswoman Schroeder said Representative F. Edward Hebert (Felix Edward HÉBERT, 1901 – 1979, D-LA, January 3, 1941-January 3, 1977) “went into a rage about how awful it was and how the only thing he still had control over was the number of chairs at the table. And since, in the Congressman’s eyes, African-Americans and women were only worth half a House member, he made us share a chair.”

Partners in tough woman’s world Congress

At the time Colorado Representative Schroeder was being insulted by a Democratic colleague, U.S. Representative Shirley Chisholm had served two terms in the Congress and had sought the Democratic nomination for the U.S. presidency. So, according to the ole boy’s calculation, the interviewer comments, if women are worth one-half; then Congresswoman Chisholm was “one-quarter of a congressperson.”

Ah, those Good Ole Days

That is the air and attitude Chisholm and Schroeder endured in the 1960s, 70s and 80s. Taking her seat in Congress four years after Chisholm, Schroeder said, “We had no women anywhere:

[n]o women pages,
[n]o women at the doorkeeper’s office, in the parliamentarian’s office,
[n]o women Capitol Police.

“You couldn’t go into the gym, where a lot of deals were cut—couldn’t even go out on the balcony, which is off the Speaker’s office. ...

Schroeder said, “The attitude of a lot of women when I got there was, ‘Aren’t we lucky they let us in here?’”

Chisholm, however, took the opportunity to teach another generation of women entering the Congress. She “had this very high profile with people across the country — and women in particular,” Schroeder said. “She understood women’s issues. It came from her being a teacher and from her presidential campaign. Chisholm “was always working for people who didn’t have political action committees; [she] “worked as diligently for them as if they were General Motors ….”

One of her fondest moments with Shirley Chisholm, Schroeder said, was a night during the presidential campaign when her (Schroeder’s) five-year-old daughter asked Chisholm ‘If you got elected, would you keep the White House white?’And Shirley Chisholm responded—

‘I think I’d put polka dots on it of all different colors because that’s how Americans come: in all different colors.’

In her first Congressional term Shirley Chisholm was one of ten women members of the House of Representatives.  In her final term before retirement in 1983, there were 21 women in Congress of which three were African American women.

Chisholm speaks for herself

In her autobiographical work, she reflected, “I was the first American citizen to be elected to Congress in spite of the double drawbacks of being female and having skin darkened by melanin.

“When you put it that way, it sounds like a foolish reason for fame. In a just and free society, it would be foolish. That I am a national figure because I was the first person in 192 years to be at once a member of the U.S. Congress, black and a woman proves, I would think, that our society is not either just or free.”

The nostalgists on the political left, center and right are wrong. Those were not “good days.” They were tough. But some of the most courageous women rose in those bad ole days. They took the baton and led ably, and with unparalleled humanity.

Two outstanding American women

Shirley Anita St. Hill Chisholm

Patricia Nell Scott Schroeder

Shirley Chisholm ran for the office of U.S. President in 1972.

Shirley Anita St. Hill Chisholm was elected as a Democrat to the Ninety-first Congress and to six succeeding Congresses (January 3, 1969-January 3, 1983). She served on the Veterans Affairs Committee and the Education and Labor Committee. At retirement, she was the third highest-ranking member of this committee.

Before her election to the U.S. Congress in 1968, Chisholm was a member of the New York State Legislature (1964). In the 1950s she was an educator: director of the Hamilton-Madison Child Care Center (1953-1959); educational consultant for the Division of Day Care (1959-1964).

Born in Brooklyn, New York, of immigrant British Guyanese [of Guyana in the northeastern corner of South America inhabited by indigenous people who named it Guiana (‘land of water’), the only English-speaking country of South America] and Barbadian (British Commonwealth island country in the southeastern Caribbean Sea) parents; raised from primary school age 3 to 7 in Barbados, and from 1934 on in New York City, Chisholm took her academic credentials at Brooklyn College (B.A., 1946) and Columbia University (M.A., 1952). Smith College in 1975 awarded her an Honorary Doctor of Laws degree.

This outstanding American former politician, educator and author (b. November 30, 1924 – d. January 1, 2005) represented New York for seven congressional terms in the U.S. House of Representatives. She was the first African American woman elected to Congress, the first major-party black candidate for President of the United States and the first woman to run for the Democratic presidential nomination (Margaret Chase Smith of Maine, well known for anti-McCarthyism “Declaration of Conscience,” had previously run for the Republican presidential nomination).

Shirley Chisholm is author of Unbought and Unbossed (1970) and The Good Fight (1973). In 2004, the documentary film chronicling Chisholm’s 1972 bid for the Democratic presidential nomination, “Shirley Chisholm ‘72: Unbought and Unbossed,” was featured at the Sundance Film Festival; on April 9, 2006, the film won a Peabody Award. Its director/producer: independent, African American filmmaker Shola Lynch. It 2005, the film aired on U.S. public television.

Pat Schroeder ran for the office of U.S. President in 1987.

Patricia Nell Scott Schroeder was elected as a Democrat to the Ninety-third Congress and to eleven succeeding Congresses (January 3, 1973-January 3, 1997); and chaired the Select Committee on Children, Youth and Families (One Hundred Second and One Hundred Third Congresses). She was the first congresswoman to serve on the House Armed Services Committee and was known for advocacy on work-family issues: a prime mover behind the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 and the 1985 Military Family Act.

Schroeder was also involved in reform of Congress and worked to weaken entrenchment, the long-standing control of committees by their chairs. She challenged the congressional ‘hideaway” (exclusive resort known to handful of the United States’ highest-ranking officials) and Members’ living in their offices tax free.

Born in Portland, Oregon (July 30, 1940), raised in Des Moines, Iowa, Patricia Nell Scott Schroeder took her academic credentials at the University of Minnesota (B.A., history, 1961) and Harvard Law School (J.D. 1964). In the mid 1960s, she worked for the National Labor Relations Board. In the 60s and 70s, before entering Congress, she was a lawyer in private practice and a teacher.

This outstanding American former politician represented Colorado in the United States House of Representatives from 1973–1997, was a member of the Democratic Party, and the first woman elected to Congress from Colorado. Pat Schroeder is author of 24 Years of House Work . . . And the Place is Still a Mess: My Life in Politics.

Though it is clearly not enough, today’s 112th Congress (2011–2013, House and Senate) seats close to one hundred women.

78 women in the U.S. House of Representatives and
17 women in the U.S. Senate

Sources and notes

“Chisholm Forged A Place for [not only] Black Congresswomen” (Brian Reed), November 4, 2008 [comment, emphasis added],

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=96516491&ft=1&f=1014

Biographical sketches

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patricia_Schroeder

http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=S000142

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shirley_Chisholm

http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=C000371

112th Congress, 2011–2013

Women in 112th Congress, 2011–2013, according to the website Women in Congress http://womenincongress.house.gov/historical-data/representatives-senators-by-congress.html?congress=112

Women in U.S. House of Representatives

1. •Sandra (Sandy) Adams (Republican, FL)
2. •Michele Bachmann (Republican, MN)
3. •Tammy Baldwin (Democrat, WI)
4. •Karen Bass (Democrat, CA)
5. •Shelley Berkley (Democrat, NV)
6. •Judy Borg Biggert (Republican, IL)
7. •Diane Black (Republican, TN)
8. •Marsha Blackburn (Republican, TN)
9. •Suzanne Bonamici (Democrat, OR)1
10. •Mary Bono Mack (Republican, CA)
11. •Madeleine Z. Bordallo (Democrat, GU)
12. •Corrine Brown (Democrat, FL)
13. •Ann Marie Buerkle (Republican, NY)
14. •Shelley Moore Capito (Republican, WV)
15. •Lois Capps (Democrat, CA)
16. •Kathy Castor (Democrat, FL)
17. •Donna M. Christensen (Democrat, VI)
18. •Judy Chu (Democrat, CA)
19. •Yvette D. Clarke (Democrat, NY)
20. •Susan A. Davis (Democrat, CA)
21. •Diana L. DeGette (Democrat, CO)
22. •Rosa DeLauro (Democrat, CT)
23. •Donna F. Edwards (Democrat, MD)
24. •Renee Ellmers (Republican, NC)
25. •Jo Ann Emerson (Republican, MO)
26. •Anna Georges Eshoo (Democrat, CA)
27. •Virginia Foxx (Republican, NC)
28. •Marcia L. Fudge (Democrat, OH)
29. •Gabrielle Giffords (Democrat, AZ)2
30. •Kay Granger (Republican, TX)
31. •Janice Hahn (Democrat, CA)
32. •Colleen Hanabusa (Democrat, HI)
33. •Jane F. Harman (Democrat, CA)3
34. •Vicky Hartzler (Republican, MO)
35. •Nan Hayworth (Republican, NY)
36. •Jaime Herrera Beutler (Republican, WA)
37. •Mazie Hirono (Democrat, HI)
38. •Kathleen C. Hochul (Democrat, NY)4
39. •Sheila Jackson Lee (Democrat, TX)
40. •Lynn Jenkins (Republican, KS)
41. •Eddie Bernice Johnson (Democrat, TX)
42. •Marcia C. (Marcy) Kaptur (Democrat, OH)
43. •Barbara Lee (Democrat, CA)
44. •Zoe Lofgren (Democrat, CA)
45. •Nita M. Lowey (Democrat, NY)
46. •Cynthia M. Lummis (Republican, WY)
47. •Carolyn B. Maloney (Democrat, NY)
48. •Doris Matsui (Democrat, CA)
49. •Carolyn McCarthy (Democrat, NY)
50. •Betty McCollum (Democrat, MN)
51. •Cathy McMorris Rodgers (Republican, WA)
52. •Candice Miller (Republican, MI)
53. •Gwen Moore (Democrat, WI)
54. •Sue Myrick (Republican, NC)
55. •Grace Flores Napolitano (Democrat, CA)
56. •Kristi Noem (Republican, SD)
57. •Eleanor Holmes Norton (Democrat, DC)
58. •Nancy Pelosi (Democrat, CA)
59. •Chellie Pingree (Democrat, ME)
60. •Laura Richardson (Democrat, CA)
61. •Martha Roby (Republican, AL)
62. •Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (Republican, FL)
63. •Lucille Roybal-Allard (Democrat, CA)
64. •Linda T. Sánchez (Democrat, CA)
65. •Loretta Sanchez (Democrat, CA)
66. •Janice Schakowsky (Democrat, IL)
67. •Jean Schmidt (Republican, OH)
68. •Allyson Schwartz (Democrat, PA)
69. •Terri Sewell (Democrat, AL)
70. •Louise M. Slaughter (Democrat, NY)
71. •Jackie Speier (Democrat, CA)
72. •Betty Sutton (Democrat, OH)
73. •Nicola S. (Niki) Tsongas (Democrat, MA)
74. •Nydia M. Velázquez (Democrat, NY)
75. •Debbie Wasserman Schultz (Democrat, FL)
76. •Maxine Waters (Democrat, CA)
77. •Frederica Wilson (Democrat, FL)
78. •Lynn C. Woolsey (Democrat, CA)

Women in U.S. Senate

1. •Kelly Ayotte (Republican, NH)
2. •Barbara Boxer (Democrat, CA)
3. •Maria E. Cantwell (Democrat, WA)
4. •Susan Margaret Collins (Republican, ME)
5. •Dianne Feinstein (Democrat, CA)
6. •Kirsten Gillibrand (Democrat, NY)
7. •Kay Hagan (Democrat, NC)
8. •Kathryn Ann Bailey Hutchison (Republican, TX)
9. •Amy Klobuchar (Democrat, MN)
10. •Mary Landrieu (Democrat, LA)
11. •Claire McCaskill (Democrat, MO)
12. •Barbara Ann Mikulski (Democrat, MD)
13. •Lisa Murkowski (Republican, AK)
14. •Patty Murray (Democrat, WA)
15. •Jeanne Shaheen (Democrat, NH)
16. •Olympia Jean Snowe (Republican, ME)
17. •Deborah A. Stabenow (Democrat, MI)

WIC Footnotes

1. Suzanne Bonamici was elected in a special election on January 31, 2012, to succeed David Wu.

2. Gabrielle Giffords resigned on January 25, 2012.

3. Jane Harman resigned on February 28, 2011, and was succeeded in a special election by Janice Hahn on July 19, 2011.

4. Kathleen C. Hochul was elected by special election on May 24, 2011, to succeed Christopher Lee.

112th Congress, 2011–2013, http://womenincongress.house.gov/historical-data/representatives-senators-by-congress.html?congress=112

Images: http://www.jofreeman.com/politics/womprez03.htm
http://www.watcha-want.com/Good-Ole-Days.html

http://www.chariweb.com/2012_05_24_archive.html

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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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