Profiles of influential Black women
activists at a historic moment
This
volume offers a panoramic view of Black feminist politics through the stories
of a remarkable cross section of Black women who attended the 1977 National
Women’s Conference. These
women advocated for civil and women’s rights but also for accessibility,
lesbians, sex workers, welfare recipients, laborers, and children.
The
women featured in this book include icons Coretta Scott King and Michelle
Cearcy, a teenager who served as a torchbearer at the conference. Contributors
offer insights into the lives of Gloria Scott, Dorothy Height, Freddie
Groomes-McLendon, and Jeffalyn Johnson. The profiles include activist
organizers Georgia McMurray, Barbara Smith, Johnnie Tillmon, Addie Wyatt, and
Florynce Kennedy. The hard-won achievements of politicians are examined and
celebrated, including those of Barbara Jordan, Shirley Chisholm, Maxine Waters, C.
Delores Tucker, the
first Black female secretary of state for Pennsylvania, and Yvonne Burke, one
of the first Black women elected to Congress and the first representative to
give birth while serving. The final profiles cover Clara McClaughlin, reporter
Melba Tolliver, and photojournalist Diana Mara Henry, who shared the details of
the conference and the continual work being done by Black women with others
through various media channels. This book places the diversity of Black women’s
experiences and their leadership at the center of the history of the women’s
movement.
Publication of this work made possible by a
Sustaining the Humanities through the American Rescue Plan grant from the
National Endowment for the Humanities. This volume offers a panoramic view of Black feminist
politics through the stories of Black women who attended the 1977 National
Women’s Conference, placing the diversity of Black women’s experiences and
their leadership at the center of the history of the women’s movement.
