african american women social reformers

Discussion of the life and work of Rochester area philanthropist, Midge Thomas, who continues the work of her husband, the late Freddie Thomas, in whose honor she created the Freddie Thomas Foundation. Midge still follows the advice of her mother, who told Midge, "Be somebody," and Freddie who told her to continue "making connections." She follows that advice every day with her civic leadership and community building, "a one-woman show acompishing so much from her kitchen table.".

"An intimate and searching account of the life and legacy of one of America's towering educators, a woman who dared to center the progress of Black women and girls in the larger struggle for political and social liberation When Mary MacLeod Bethune died, many of the tributes in newspapers around the country said the same thing: she should be on the "Mount Rushmore" of Black American achievement. Indeed, Bethune is the only Black American whose statue stands in the rotunda of the U.S. Capital, and yet for most Americans, she remains a marble figure from the dim past. Now, seventy years later, Noliwe Rooks turns Bethune from stone to flesh, showing her to have been a visionary leader with lessons to still teach us as we continue on our journey towards a freer and more just nation. Any serious effort to understand how the Black Civil Rights generation found role models, vision, and inspiration during their midcentury struggle for political power must place Bethune at its heart. Her success was unlikely: the 15th of 17 children and the first born into freedom, Bethune survived brutal poverty and caste subordination to become the first in her family to learn to read and to attend college. She gave that same gift to others when in 1904, at age 29, Bethune welcomed her first class of five girls to the Daytona, Florida school she herself had founded. In short order, the school enrolled hundreds of children and eventually would become the university that bears her name to this day. Bethune saw education as an essential dimension of the larger struggle for freedom, vitally connected to the vote and to economic self-sufficiency. She played a big game, and a long game, enrolling Eleanor Roosevelt, Harry Truman, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and many other powerful leaders in her cause. Rooks grew up in Florida, in Bethune's shadow: her grandparents trained to be teachers at Bethune-Cookman University, and her family vacationed at the all-Black beach that Bethune helped found in one of her many entrepreneurial projects for the community. The story of how-in a state with some of the highest lynching rates in the country-Bethune carved out so much space, and how she catapulted from there onto the national stage, is, in Rooks' hands, a moving and astonishing example of the power of a will and a vision that had few equals. Now, when the gains and losses in the long struggle for full Black equality in this country feel particularly near-and centered on the state of Florida-, it is an enormous gift to have this brilliant and lyrical reckoning with Bethune's journey from one of our own great educators and scholars of that same struggle"--.

"Written by her great-granddaughter, a historical portrait of the boundary-breaking civil rights pioneer covers Wells' early years as a slave, her famous acts of resistance, and her achievements as a journalist and anti-lynching activist"--OCLC.

"A breakdown of the economic and social injustices facing Black people and other marginalized citizens inspired by political activist Kimberly Jones' viral video, 'How Can We Win'"--Provided by publisher.

"According to conventional wisdom, American women's campaign for the vote began with the Seneca Falls convention of 1848 and ended with the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment in 1920. The movement was led by storied figures such as Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony. But this women's movement was an overwhelmingly white one , and it secured the constitutional right to vote for white women, not for all women. In Vanguard, acclaimed historian Martha Jones offers a sweeping history of African American women's political lives in America, recounting how they fought for, won, and used the right to the ballot and how they fought against both racism and sexism"--Provided by publisher.

Provides an overview of the history of African-American women engaged in social activism; features alphabetically-arranged profiles of individuals and organizations that have contributed to the areas of civil rights, feminism, labor and community organization, and social welfare; and includes photographs, and a chronology of events.

Traces the life and achievements of the black educator who fought bigotry and sought equality for blacks in the areas of education and political rights.

Looks at the life of Coretta Scott King, an American civil rights activist, and the wife of civil rights leader, Martin Luther King, Jr.

Profiles the life of educator, government adviser, and civil rights activist Mary McLeod Bethune.

Profiles the life of educator and civil rights activist Mary McLeod Bethune.