As Black History Month comes to an end and Women’s History Month is set to begin, it is essential that we recognize the significant contributions made by Black women over the course of history.
While learning Black history in school, we are predominantly educated on male civil rights leaders such as Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. Most students learn about Harriet Tubman, Rosa Parks and Ruby Bridges, the first African American child to integrate an all-white elementary school in Louisiana, but not all students are taught about significant Black female leaders.
However, Black women were also a big part of Black history. Coretta Scott King, MLK’s wife, was also a prominent civil rights activist and her story is often not told. Scott King met MLK while studying at the New England Conservatory of Music. After their marriage, she moved down to the South where her husband’s church became an epicenter for the Civil Rights Movement. While her husband faced multiple death threats, as well as their home becoming a target for white nationalists, she stood beside him and even argued for the inclusion of women in the movement. She maintained a household of four children while her husband was away and advocated for nonviolent causes up until her death in 2006. She is now laid to rest alongside her husband in Georgia.
Another movement where Black women are often excluded is the women’s suffrage movement. While women were given the right to vote as a result of the Nineteenth Amendment in 1920, women of color still faced challenges reaching the polls. What most people don’t know is that Black women were not fully given the right to vote until 1965, over 30 years later as a result of the Voting Rights Act. Prior to that, Black women still faced voting barriers at the local level.
Prominent journalist of the time Ida B. Wells played an important role in the women’s suffrage movement. She advocated for Black women to be included in the fight for women’s suffrage. Many white female leaders of time did not want Black women to have influential positions within the movement. Wells was very outspoken about this issue, even confronting Susan B. Anthony who declined helping Black women begin their own suffrage organization. She even appeared at a women’s march organized by the National American Woman Suffrage Association. Many participants did not want the march to be integrated and asked for Wells and other Black advocates to march in the back. Wells refused and joined her peers within the crowd.
This issue is displayed in multiple aspects of our history and culture, and the stories of Black women are ignored and forgotten during the teaching of Black history, music, fashion and culture. It is important that we celebrate history in an inclusive and intersectional manner so everyone’s story can be heard.
Chistmaelle Vernet can be reached at [email protected].
