“What gets remembered is determined by who is doing the remembering.”
— Betty Reid Soskin, 103, retired National Park Service ranger
History is defined as the study of past events, analyzing and interpreting evidence from various sources to understand how societies and people have changed over time, ultimately aiming to examine and explain the past and its impact on the present.
Simply stated, history studies the past and how it impacts the present.
Arguably, no one’s history has affected the present like the history of Black women. From NASA mathematician Katherine Johnson, the “human computer” whose calculations made the 1969 moon landing possible, to Shirley Chisholm, the first Black person ever to seek a presidential nomination from a major political party, to Dr. Rebecca Lee Crumpler, the first Black woman in the U.S. to become a Doctor of Medicine in 1883. Black women’s herstory matters.
To celebrate this legacy, here are a few brief biographies of early 20th-century Black women—some renowned and some lesser known—whose contributions have reverberated over time and made a profound impact on current female trailblazers.
The arts
“Art is not a luxury as many people think—it is a necessity. It documents history – it helps educate people and stores knowledge for generations to come.”
— Dr. Samella Lewis
Samella Lewis (Feb. 27, 1923–May 27, 2022)—called the “Godmother of African American Art,” Dr. Lewis was an artist, art historian, curator, editor, and teacher. She is renowned for her figurative works on paper, including many series of lithographs and screen prints that depict the civil rights movement and Black liberation. In 1976 she founded the Museum of African American Art in Los Angeles. Lewis co-founded Contemporary Crafts Gallery, the first African American–owned art publishing house. Her documentary interviews with prominent African American artists were eventually published in the seminal text “Art: African American” (1978).
Betye Saar (July 30, 1926)—A pioneer of second-wave feminist and postwar Black nationalist aesthetics—whose lasting influence was secured by her iconic reclamation of the Aunt Jemima figure in works such as The Liberation of Aunt Jemima (1972). Saar was a part of the Black Arts Movement in the 1970s and is known for her work in the medium of assemblage. She is a visual storyteller and an accomplished printmaker.
Mamie Smith (May 26, 1883–Oct. 30, 1946)— As a vaudeville singer, Smith performed in multiple styles, including jazz and blues. She was the first Black artist to make a vocal blues recording and earned her biggest hit in “It’s Right Here for You (If You Don’t Get It, ‘Tain’t No Fault of Mine),” which sold a million copies in under a year. Her success opened the door for other Black female blues singers to be sought after by record labels.
Civil Rights
“I knew then, and I know now that, when it comes to justice, there is no easy way to get it. You can’t sugarcoat it. You have to take a stand and say, ‘That is not right.”
— Claudette Colvin
Claudette Colvin (Sept. 5, 1939)—Claudette Colvin is an American pioneer of the 1950s civil rights movement and retired nurse aide. On March 2, 1955, she was arrested at the age of 15 in Montgomery, Alabama, for refusing to give up her seat to a white woman on a crowded, segregated bus. Colvin’s arrest preceded Rosa Parks’s arrest for the same act by nine months. She was an unmarried teenager at the time and was reportedly raped by a married man soon after the incident, from which she became pregnant. Montgomery’s Black leaders did not publicize Colvin’s pioneering effort for many years.
Daisy Gatson Bates (Nov. 11, 1914–Nov. 4, 1999)—Daisy Bates was an American civil rights activist, publisher, journalist, and lecturer who played a leading role in the successful desegregation of Arkansas schools. As the NAACP President of the Arkansas chapter, she took the reins and selected nine students to integrate Central High School in Little Rock in 1957. She regularly drove the students to school and worked tirelessly to ensure they were protected from violent crowds. She was posthumously awarded the Medal of Freedom in 1999. In 2024, a statue of Bates was added to the U.S. Capitol.
Diane Nash (May 15, 1938)—Nash played a key role in the civil rights movement, organizing campaigns that were central to the cause. Her efforts helped raise national awareness about segregation in the South and contributed to the passage of two landmark pieces of legislation: the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
The Environment
“We have to go back and see the past for what it was so we can see how far we’ve come.”
— Betty Reid Soskin, Park Ranger
Betty Reid Soskin (Sept. 22, 1921)—Soskin became a park ranger at 85 after working as a writer, singer, and civil rights activist. Working at the Rosie the Riveter WWII Home Front park, Betty helped educate visitors on the history of Black Americans in the Bay Area of California during WWII. At 100 years of age, not only was Betty the oldest full-time National Parks Service ranger, but also one of the few Black women in the field—a part of Black American environmental history.
Dr. Wangari Maathai, The Tree Mother of Africa (April 1, 1940–Sept. 25, 2011)—Born in Kenya, Dr. Wangari Maathai was a visionary leader who believed that the power of people—and trees—could transform the world. In 1977, Dr. Maathai founded the Green Belt Movement, an organization that has since planted over 50 million trees, helping to restore the environment and empowering Kenyan women through conservation. Her impact reached global recognition in 2004 when she became the first African woman to receive the Nobel Peace Prize for her groundbreaking work in sustainable development, democracy, and peace.
Hazel M. Johnson (Jan. 25, 1934–Jan. 12, 2011)—Johnson fought for clean air and water in addition to raising awareness about the health impacts that affected her community in Chicago, which was located on top of a toxic waste site. Through her advocacy and discovery that many Black communities were disproportionately surrounded by environmental hazards, Johnson changed the history of the environmental movement and sparked new research that analyzed the relationship between identity and environmental hazards.
The law
“Those gains we have made were never graciously and generously granted. We have had to fight every inch of the way.”
— Jane Bolin, first Black woman judge
Jane Bolin (Apr. 11, 1908–Jan. 8, 2007)—Jane Bolin was the first African American woman to graduate from Yale Law School, the first to join the New York City Bar Association, and the first to join the New York City Law Department. She became the first Black woman to serve as a judge in the United States when she was sworn into the bench in 1939. She served on the Family Court bench for four decades, advocating for children and families via outside institutions as well.
Constance Baker Motley (Sept. 14, 1921–Sept. 28, 2005)—Motley grew up near Yale University and did not personally experience overt racism until late in high school. As a young person, she was almost totally unaware of Black history. But from the late 1940s through the early 1960s, Motley played a pivotal role in the fight to end racial segregation. She was the first African American woman to argue a case before the Supreme Court and the first to serve as a federal judge. Motley’s work was foundational to Thurgood Marshall, whom she served as a key lieutenant, and Martin Luther King, Jr., whom Motley represented at critical moments.
Eunice Hunton Carter (Jul. 16, 1899 – Jan. 25, 1970)—Eunice Hunton Carter was the first African American woman to work as a prosecutor in the New York County (Manhattan) District Attorney’s Office. As a key assistant to special prosecutor Thomas Dewey, she is credited with establishing key facts in the prosecution of mobster Charlie “Lucky” Luciano.
Math and patent holders.
“Do not allow your mind to be imprisoned by majority thinking. Remember that the limits of science are not the limits of imagination.”
— Patricia Bath, Ophthalmologist
Patricia Bath (Nov. 4, 1942–May 30, 2019)— Bath was the first Black person to train in ophthalmology at Columbia University in 1969. Bath developed innovative ways to expand eye care access to poor communities, including co-founding the American Institute for the Prevention of Blindness in 1976, which established that “eyesight is a basic human right.” A decade later, she invented the Laserphaco Probe to better treat cataracts. Bath patented the device in 1988, becoming the first African American female doctor to receive a medical patent. In 2022, she became one of the first Black women inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame.
Dr. Gladys Mae West (Oct. 27, 1930)—Dr. Gladys Mae West is an American mathematician. She is known for her contributions to the mathematical modeling of the shape of the Earth and her work on the development of satellite geodesy models, which was foundational to the development of the Global Positioning System (GPS). After recovering from a stroke at the age of 68, West finished her dissertation and earned her PhD in public administration and policy affairs in 2000 at the age of 70.
Marie Van Brittan Brown (Oct. 30, 1922–Feb. 2, 1999)—Marie Van Brittan Brown was the inventor of the first home security system. She is also credited with the invention of the first closed-circuit television. Brown’s invention laid the foundation for later security systems that made use of its features, such as video monitoring, remote-controlled door locks, push-button alarm triggers, instant messaging to security providers and police, as well as two-way voice communication. Her invention is still used by small businesses, small offices, single-family homes, and multi-unit dwellings such as apartments and condominiums.
In light of the current movement to erase and rewrite American history, it is more important than ever to acknowledge the contribution of Black women to the foundation of this country. We must pass the torch of history to future generations, keeping in mind that we are a part of a continuous relay, each doing our part to remember on whose shoulders we stand.