Black women are routinely erased from public memory and historical narratives of resistance.
Black women powered the civil rights movement, but rarely became its stars. Women like Fannie Lou Hamer, Diane Nash, Myrlie Evers played a critical role.
A THREAD
By the early 70s, women made up the majority of members in the US Black Panther Party
Mae Mallory was an activist during the Civil Rights Movement and a leader in the Black Power movement. Mallory was most-known as an advocate of following desegregation and Black armed self-defense.
Claudia Jones; Journalist and activist. Author of the seminal piece 'Ending the Neglect of Black Women' and original founder of Notting Hill Carnival. Founder of Britain's first major newsletter, the West Indian Gazette.
Sojourner Truth was an evangelist, abolitionist, women’s rights activist and author who was born into slavery before escaping to freedom in 1826. After gaining her freedom, Truth preached about abolitionism and equal rights for all
Daisy Bates, civil rights activist and newspaper publisher. Through her newspaper, Bates documented the battle to end segregation in Arkansas.
Aunt Polly Jackson, was an escaped slave who worked as an agent on the Underground Railroad helping others escape.
She was known for fighting off slave catchers with a butcher knife and a kettle of boiling water.
Althea Jones-Lecointe, scientist, one of the leaders of the British Black Panther movement and advocate for black women and girls. She was referred to as the heart of The Movement.
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In 1969, the Black Panthers launched free breakfast programs across the US, feeding thousands of kids before school. The FBI called it a threat. In some cities, police raided kitchens, smashed food, and urinated on supplies to shut them down.
A THREAD
In January 1969, the Black Panther Party launched their Free Breakfast for Children Program, their first and most notable community effort, to feed kids who went to school hungry due to poverty. It was radical care in action. But the FBI called it a threat.
The Black Panthers, founded in 1966, built programs to tackle systemic issues like poverty and hunger. The Free Breakfast Program was a direct response to families unable to feed their kids before school. It aimed to nourish bodies and minds for learning.
Did you know Cornrows were used to help enslaved people escape slavery? They used cornrows to create maps to leave plantations. It’s most documented in Colombia where Benkos Bioho, came up with the idea to have women create maps & deliver messages through cornrows.
A THREAD.
Cornrows are ancient art. Found in 3000 B.C. Sahara paintings & on Ethiopian warriors like Tewodros II, braids showed community, age & status in African societies. In the Caribbean, “cane rows” linked to slaves planting sugar cane, tying style to survival.
During the slave trade, captors shaved enslaved Africans’ hair to strip identity. But many defied this by braiding cornrows tightly to stay neat & preserve culture. These braids became secret tools, hiding maps to escape plantations across South America.
62 years ago today, The Great March on Washington, was held in Washington, D.C.
A THREAD
The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom was one of the largest political rallies for human rights in United States history and called for civil and economic rights for African Americans. It took place in Washington, D.C.
Martin Luther King, Jr., standing in front of the Lincoln Memorial, delivered his historic "I Have a Dream" speech advocating racial harmony during the march.
On this day we celebrate #WomensEqualityDay to mark the day the U.S. Senate adopted the 19th Amendment, granting women the right to vote.
Black women would wait nearly 50 years later to vote.
Some black women suffrages who paved the Path to the Ballot Box.
A THREAD
Racist policies often kept black women out of the suffragist movement led by white women. The headquarters of Colored Women Voters, located in Georgia, was one of many early 20th-century organizations that fought for African-American suffrage.
The National Association of Colored Women‘s Clubs Inc was established in 1896 as a merger between the National League of Colored Women and the National Federation of Afro-American Women. Thus functioning as a umbrella group for local and regional black women’s organizations.
To combat the high rate of death among slaves, plantation owners demanded females start having children at 13.
By 20, the enslaved women would be expected to have about five children.
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An enslaved woman was a sex tool beneath the level of moral considerations.
She was an economic good, useful, in addition to her menial labor, for breeding more slaves. To attain that purpose, the master mated her promiscuously according to his breeding plans.
The Master ,his son(s) and other members of his family took turns with her to increase the family's fortune & to satisfy his extramarital sexual desires. Guests and neighbors were also invited to this luxury.