Women’s History

Dr Frances Cress Welsing

“The Isis Papers: The Keys to the Colors.” (1935-2016)

Dr. Frances Cress Welsing was a notable psychiatrist known for her essay collection, “The Isis Papers: The Keys to the Colors”, published in 1991. In it, Welsing provided an in depth discussion on the concepts of white supremacy and racism within the U.S. She dove deeply into her theories on melanin deficiency, believing it to be the driving force behind segregation, white supremacy, and racism; arguing that, ultimately, racism was caused by a deep-seated jealousy of people with color in their skin. Welsing based her premise on her expertise in general and child psychiatry after nearly twenty-five years

Carla Hayden

Meet America’s Librarian (b. 1952)

Carla Hayden is the 14th Librarian of Congress. After distinguished service as CEO of the Enoch Pratt Free Library in Baltimore, Maryland, president of the American Library Association, assistant professor for Library and Information Science at the University of Pittsburgh, library services coordinator at Chicago’s Museum of Science and Industry, and librarian for the Chicago Public Library, President Barack Obama nominated Hayden to be the next Librarian of Congress. She was nominated on February 24, 2016. On July 13, 2016, she received confirmation by the U.S. Senate, and was sworn in on September working for D.C.’s Department of Human Services as a staff physician, her private practice, and her earlier publication, “The Cress Theory of Color-Confrontation,” published in 1974. She aimed to aid the Black community in finding a solution to mental problems that stemmed from racism, by understanding racism itself.

Pauli Murray

First Ordained Female Episcopal Priest (1910-1985)

Anna Pauli Murray was an accomplished author, lawyer, civil rights and women’s rights activist, and the first woman and first African-American anointed to the Episcopal priesthood. After graduating from Hunter College in NYC, she decided to shorten her name to Pauli, embracing an androgynous identity. In 1945 she earned her Masters of Law degree from the University of California, Berkeley. Shortly thereafter, her research into segregation laws in the South led to States’ Laws on Race and a seminal work successfully used by Thurgood Marshall in the Brown vs. the Board of Education Supreme Court decision in 1954.

Illiams

The Only Known Female Buffalo Soldier

She was the first African American to receive a Doctor of the Science of Law (J.S.D.) from Yale Law School. In 1977, Murray became the first woman and first African American priest ordained in the Episcopal Church. She served at Church of the Atonement in Washington D.C. from 1979 to 1981 and at Holy Nativity Church in Baltimore until her death in 1985.

Photo credit: Associated Press

Lorraine Hansberry

(1930-1965)

Lorraine Hansberry was the first Black woman to have her play, A Raisin In the Sun, produced on Broadway in 1959. She was also the first Black playwright and youngest American to win a New York Critics Circle award. Her most famous work is the play The Crystal Stair, later named A Raisin In the Sun, based on a line in a Langston Hughes poem. The play ran 530 times and turned into a movie in 1961 starring Sidney Poiter. Hansberry was also active in the civil rights movement.

14, 2016. Not only did this make Hayden the first woman to lead the national library but the first African American as well. Hayden received a B.A. from Roosevelt University and an M.A. and Ph.D. from the Graduate Library School of the University of Chicago.

Dorothy Height

(1912-2010)

Most known for being a speaker at the March on Washington, Dorothy Heights was one of the first civil rights activists to focus on the inequality women experienced in America. She worked closely with Eleanor Roosevelt, Dwight D. Eisenhower, and Lyndon B. Johnson to give them political counsel. She served as the fourth president of National Council of Negro Women (NCNW) and served as that position for 40 years.

Cathay Williams knew that she couldn’t volunteer to serve as a regular soldier in the U.S. military. But knowing didn’t stop her. On Nov. 15, 1866, 17-yearold Cathay Williams, born to an enslaved mother and a free father in Independence, Missouri in 1844, enlisted for a three-year engagement, passing herself off as a man. At the time, the army did not require full medical examinations. After passing the physical tests, Williams was assigned to the 38th U.S. Infantry Regiment, one of four allBlack units newly formed that year.

Shirley

(1924-2005)

Shirley Chrisholm was the first African American woman elected to Congress in 1968 and the first woman and African American to seek nomination for president of the United States. Chrisholm was a pioneer for all women and African American people who want to run for positions in America. Also known as “Fighting Shirley,‘’ Chisholm introduced 50 pieces of legislation about racial and gender equality, plight of the poor, and ending the Vietnam War.

The regiment would later be known as the Buffalo Soldiers. After being discovered, Williams was discharged honorably by her commanding officer, Captain Charles E. Clarke, on Oct. 14, 1868.

Constance BakerMotley

(1921-2005)

In 1966, Constance Baker Motley was the first African American appointed to the federal judiciary. In 1982, Baker Motley became the first woman Chief Judge and the first African American woman to serve as such for the Southern District of New York, the largest federal trial bench in the country. She also wrote the brief for the Landmark Case Brown v Board of Education and participated in many other supreme court cases.

Mae

C Jemison

(b. 1956)

Mae C. Jemison is a doctor and NASA engineer, but she is most known as the first Black woman to go into space. In 1987, Jemison also worked as a mission specialist in STS-47, Spacelab-J, a cooperative mission between the United States and Japan to conduct experiments in life sciences and material processing. During her time in the Peace Corps, she founded the Jemison Group, a research company that seeks to develop and market advanced technologies.