Dr. Bethune is one of the 20 African American women in history identified by Dr. Collier-Thomas in 1983. By Dr. Paula McKenzie
This collection of portraits was originally titled Black Women in America: Contributors to Our Heritage. The collection examined the role of black women in American life and culture. Creator Bettye Collier-Thomas, Ph.D., focused on 20 African American women whose lives spanned over 200 years of American history. It first appeared as a series of 16 x 20 posters in 1983. Dr. Thomas was the former director of the National Archives for Black Women s History and The Mary McLeod Bethune Memorial Museum.
Phyllis Wheatley was brought to Boston from Africa as a slave in 1761. She learned to read and write and at 17 could read Latin. She published her first collection of poems in 1772. She was the first black woman in the U.S. to be published. She became the foremost black poet of the Colonial period. In 1773, she was granted freedom. 1753-1784
Isabella Baumfree was born a slave in Ulster County, New York. In 1827, the New York Emancipation Act changed her status to legally free. In 1843, she changed her name to Sojourner Truth and joined the abolitionist to fight against slavery. She attended the second National Woman s Suffrage convention in 1852. After the Civil War, she moved to Washington, DC to help the relief effort for wounded soldiers and emancipated slaves. 1795-1883
Araminta Ross was born a slave on a plantation in Maryland. She escaped to the North and changed her name to Harriet Tubman. From 1850 to 1857, she guided more than 300 to freedom and became known as the Conductor of the Underground Railroad. She established a refugee home for elderly black people after the Civil War in Auburn, New York. 1823-1913
Born to free parents, Mary Ann Shad Cary began her career as an educator. Later, she became the first black woman to edit and publish a weekly newspaper in North America. Founded in 1863, the Provincial Freeman explored topics from anti-slavery to the role and status of women. After the Civil War, she earned a law degree from Howard University. 1823-1893
Born to free parents, Frances Ellen Watkins Harper was an activist, author, clubwoman, and abolitionist. She wrote about fugitive slaves escaping on the underground railroad and became a lecturer for the Anti-Slavery Society of Maine. She spoke on the evils of slavery from 1854 to 1860. After the Civil War, she worked for women s rights and continued her fight for civil rights. In 1892, she was one of the first black women to publish a novel, Iola Leroy: or Shadow Uplifted. 1825-1911
Amanda Berry Smith was born in Maryland to a slave family. She had little formal education and taught herself to read and write. In 1856, she became an evangelist and spoke at churches and revival meetings throughout the northeast. In 1878, she attended English Holiness Conferences in England. In 1879, she conducted missionary and evangelical work in India. Through her international work as an evangelist and social reformer, she established a role for women in the A.M.E. church. 1837-1915
Josephine St. Pierre Ruffin was born to free parents in Boston. She was a suffragist who worked for women s rights, civil rights, and social welfare reform. In 1894, she founded the Women s Era Club and offered educational opportunities for black women. She edited the newsletter, Woman s Era. In 1895, she organized black women s clubs into the National Federation of Afro-American Women. 1842-1924
Born near Albany, New York, Mary Edmonia Lewis became an internationally known sculptor. She attended Oberlin College and moved to Boston in 1862. Themes of her sculpture came from history. Photo from the National Archives for Black Women s History 1845-1911
Born in Philadelphia, Gertrude Bustill Mossell began a career as an educator and later became a journalist. Her first article was published in the A.M.E. Christian Recorder. She also wrote for the Standard Echo. In 1880, she served as editor of the Women s Department for New York Age. Published in 1894, her book The Work of the Afro-American Woman received praise. She was an activist and organizer for women s rights. 1857-1948
Born free, she began her career as a teacher and later debuted as an actress in Washington, DC in 1883. 1860-1941
Mary Church Terrell was born into privilege in Memphis, Tennessee to a former slave who became wealthy after the Civil War. She graduated from Oberlin College in 1884 and became one of the first black women to hold a college degree. In 1885, she started her career in education at Wilberforce College in Ohio. She was the first African American woman to serve on a school board in 1895 for the District of Columbia. She fought for equal rights for women and African Americans. 1863-1954
Mary Burnett Talbert was born in Oberlin, Ohio. She attended Oberlin College and began teaching at Bethel University. In 1891, she moved to Buffalo, New York with her husband. She founded the Christian Culture Congress and served on the Board of Directors for several women s clubs. In 1916, she was elected President of the National Association of Colored Women. She lectured across the country and Europe. She organized black women to fight issues such as lynching and education. 1865-1923
Madame Sissieretta Jones was the daughter of an Episcopal minister in Portsmouth, Virginia. She began singing in church and became a professional vocalist who toured Europe, South America, and the West Indies from 1898-1891. She was the principal performer at the Madison Square Garden Jubilee in 1892 and sang for President McKinley. 1869-1933
Born 15 th of 17 children, Bethune worked for civil rights and was known as mother of the struggle. She founded the Daytona Normal School for Negro Girls in 1904 and merged the school with Cookman College in 1923 becoming Bethune- Cookman College. She served four U.S. Presidents and created the National Council of Negro Women. Her life embodied the mission enter to learn, depart to serve and exemplified civic engagement and social responsibility. 1875-1955
Dancing in her famous banana costume, Josephine Baker was the Queen of the Paris Dance Halls. During World War II, she worked with underground intelligence. 1906-1975
The Reverend Dr. Pauli Murray was an advocate for women s rights. In the 1950 s, she earned three law degrees. She authored the brief that required Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to include women and developed the strategy for employing nonviolent civil actions in the civil rights movement. She rediscovered the 1953 Supreme Court case in which Mary Church Terrell used Washington, DC s city ordinance prohibiting discrimination in public accomodations. Photo from the National Archives for Black Women s History 1910-1985
Dr. Dorothy Height was born into a middle class family in Richmond, Virginia. She earned her BS and MS degree from New York University. She was the hand picked successor of Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune to lead the National Council of Negro Women, which she served until her death in 2010. She was a leader of civil and women s rights for almost 60 years. 1912-2010
The granddaughter of a slave, Fannie Lou Hamer grew up on a Southern Plantation as a sharecropper. In 1962, she joined the Civil Rights movement staging sit ins and freedom rides. She gained national recognition when she challenged the Mississippi delegation as a member of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party to be seated and credentialed at the 1962 Democratic National Convention. 1917-1977
Althea Gibson was the first black woman to win the Women s Singles Tennis Championship at Wimbledon, England in 1957. She wrote her autobiography, I Always Wanted to Be Somebody, in 1958. 1927-2003
Wilma Golden Rudolph was born 20 th of 22 children in Tennessee. Due to illness, she did not walk until she was eight years old. She grew up to be known as the fastest female runner after winning three Olympic gold medals, the first U. S. woman to do so. The Associated Press [AP] named her America s Female Athlete of the Year. She later became a lecturer, teacher, coached basketball and track. 1940-1994
Bethune-Democracy Institute in honor of our founder, Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune, who had the vision to create a school that would provide educational opportunities to students of the future.
Dr. Paula McKenzie, Associate Professor, Bethune-Cookman University, transformed the Collier-Thomas collection into a slide show for her students. McKenzie was given a set of the original 1983 poster collection, Black Women in America: Contributions to Our Heritage, when she served as a Commissioner for the DC Commission for Women and Vice President of the National Woman s Party [NWP]. In 1992, she created an exhibit titled African American Suffragists which featured a number of the posters and was displayed at the Sewall Belmont House, NWP headquarters located at the corner of Second and Constitution, NE, in Washington, DC. The exhibit was co-sponsored by the DC Commission for Women and the NWP.