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. #InternationalWomensDay
A THREAD!
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
Harriet Tubman, the woman who escaped slavery then fought and freed hundreds of slaves.
She reminded us that bravery and refusal to accept injustice can change history.
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
A statue of La Mûlatresse Solitude, who in 1802, helpled lead a slave revolt while EIGHT Months pregnant in Guadeloupe.
She became a martyr and symbol for all women and mothers who against all odds defended the ideals of freedom and equality.
Queen Nanny Of The Maroons: Ashanti Woman who Fought And Freed Over 1,000 Enslaved Africans In Jamaica.
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
Daisy Bates, civil rights activist and newspaper publisher. Through her newspaper, Bates documented the battle to end segregation in Arkansas
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Sarah Breedlove known as Madam C.J Walker was the first black woman to become a self-made millionaire. She developed a successful line of beauty and hair products for black women.
Sister Rosetta Tharpe is credited as the Godmother of Rock ‘N’ Roll. Before Elvis, Johnny Cash or Little Richard, there was Sister Tharpe- A Black woman who forged her own sound in a male dominated industry.
She does not get the credit she deserves.
A Boston monument to Phyllis Wheatley. In 1773 she became the first black woman to publish a book.
Her poems captured the realities of slavery for the enslaved, before covering themes such as rebellion and revolution.
On this day in 1959, 69 black boys were padlocked in their dormitory at school and it was then set on fire.
21 burnt to death while 48 managed to escape.
A THREAD.
On March 5th, 1959, 69 African American boys, ages 13 to 17, were padlocked in their dormitory for the night at the Negro Boys Industrial School in Wrightsville. Around 4 a.m., a fire mysteriously ignited, forcing the boys to fight and claw their way out of the burning building.
The old, run-down, & low-funded facility, just 15 minutes south of Little Rock, housed 69 teens from ages 13-17. Most were either homeless or incarcerated for petty crimes such as doing pranks. 48 boys managed to escape the fire.
Sarah became a multi-millionare oil baron and the richest black child at just 12 years old.
She was so rich that Oklahoma legislature legally declared her to be a white person.
A THREAD!
Sarah Rector was born in 1902 in Oklahoma to Joseph Rector & Rose McQueen. They were African descendants of the Creek Nation Creek Indians before the Civil war which became part of the Creek Nation after the Treaty of 1866.
As such, they and their descendants were listed as freedmen thus entitled to land allotments under the Treaty of 1866 made by the United States with the Five Civilized Tribes.
Sally Hemings, the woman Thomas Jefferson enslaved.
She was called his "mistress," but how can you be a mistress when you were enslaved, a child, and could not consent? Had absolutely no choice?
A THREAD
Sally Hemings was born into slavery in Virginia. After the death of their master, Hemings family was inherited by the daughter of their master, Martha, who had married Thomas Jefferson and lived in Monticello.
When Jefferson’s went to Paris, France on diplomatic service in 1784, Sally also went there 3 years later as a companion and maid to Jefferson’s eight-year-old daughter Maria.
Cathay had to pose as a MALE to be enlisted as a union soldier during her time. She was part of the 38 Regiment Infantry Division and was called a Buffalo Soldier!
A THREAD
Cathay was born and enslaved in 1850 in Jackson County, Missouri. In September 1861 Union troops impressed Cathay and she joined the Army to work as a cook and washerwoman for Union Army officers.
On November 15th, 1866 Williams disguised herself as a man and enlisted as William Cathey, serving in Company A of the 38th Infantry, a newly-formed all-black U.S. Army Regiment, one of its earliest recruits.
100 years ago, in 1923, a lie by a white woman that she’d been sexually assaulted by a black man, led to the destruction of the predominantly African American town of Rosewood, Florida, thus the Rosewood Massacre. #BlackHistoryMonth
A THREAD
Rosewood was a quiet, self-sufficient town in Florida. By 1900 the population in Rosewood had become predominantly African-American. Some people farmed or worked in local businesses, including a sawmill in nearby predominantly white town.
A rumour spread by a white woman, Fanny Taylor, sparked a massacre in the predominantly black town. Taylor claimed she was sexually assaulted in her house by a Black man. A group of white men believed her claims that she was raped by Jesse Hunter, a recently escaped convict.