12 Black Women Who Weren’t in Your History Books

Written by Andreia Wardlaw, founder of Mother Wit Blog.

These twelve brave women made important contributions to society in law, activism, education, and culture throughout the 1800s and 1900s, but they’re often left out of historical literature. From founding colleges to the starting the NAACP, their work changed the course of history. These famous black women in history left their mark and deserve every bit of recognition. Read on to hear their stories.

Lena Richard

“Mama Lena” as people called her, was the “Martha Stewart” of New Orleans—a trained chef, acclaimed cookbook author, restaurant and catering business owner, frozen food entrepreneur, TV host and cooking school teacher. With skillful élan, Richard artfully tore down racial and economic barriers in the heart of the Jim Crow South, improving the livelihoods of current and future African Americans in her community. An anthology of her recipes was collected to publish the New Orleans Cook Book—now regarded as the first Creole cookbook written by an African American.

Bessie Coleman

Coleman became the first black woman to earn a pilot’s license and the first black woman to stage a public flight in the United States. Known for performing flying tricks and parachuting stunts, she remains a pioneer for women in aviation.

Audre Lorde

This writer, poet, librarian and activist was a self-described “black, lesbian, mother, warrior and poet.” She dedicated both her life and her poetry to confronting and addressing injustices of racism, sexism, classism, and homophobia. She’s known for her poetry and memoirs such as, From a Land Where Other People Live, The Black Unicorn and A Burst of Light.

Harriet Jacobs

In 1813, Harriet Jacobs was born into slavery. Her owner sexually abused her for seven years before she ran away. She was forced to hide in a tiny crawlspace, where she lived with no light or ventilation for seven years. In 1842, she made her escape to Philadelphia, then relocated to Rochester, where she worked for the famous North Star abolitionist newspaper. She finally gained freedom when her friend arranged for her purchase. Later in her life, she turned her pain into passion by writing an autobiography titled Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. The book gave her celebrity as an author and is still in print today.

Charlotte E. Ray

Not only was Charlotte E. Ray the first female graduate from Howard University’s law department and the first woman admitted to the Washington DC Bar, but she was the first African American lawyer in America. She opened a law office in D.C.; however, racism prevented her from building a clientele big enough to keep her practice open. This forced her to return to New York City to teach in public schools.

Anna Julia Cooper

Anna Cooper was the first African American woman to receive a Ph.D. in history. She founded the Colored Women’s League of Washington and helped open the first YWCA chapter for Black Women. In 1924, she became the fourth Black person in the United States to receive a Ph.D. and the first to receive one from the University of Paris. She retired from education at age 95.

Mary Church Terrell

Mary Church Terrell’s foray into activism began in 1892 when her friend, Thomas Moss, was lynched in Memphis. She joined Ida B. Wells in the anti-lynching campaign and dedicated her life’s work to “lifting as we climb.” This became the motto of the National Association of Colored Women (NACW), which Terrell helped found. She served as president of NACW for five years, and in 1909, became one of the founding members of the NAACP.

Mary McLeod Bethune

After graduating from college, Bethune taught school but felt compelled to provide opportunities for African American girls. In 1904, with only $1.50, Bethune opened the Daytona Literary and Industrial Training School for Negro Girls in Daytona, Florida. In 1923, the school merged with the Cookman Collegiate Institute and eventually become Bethune-Cookman College, which remains a popular historically black college today. In addition to her contributions to education, Bethune served as Special Advisor on Minority Affairs under the Roosevelt administration and founded the National Council for Negro Women. After her death, she became the first woman and the first African-American honored with a statue in a public park in Washington DC.

Jane Matilda Bolin

Jane Bolin was named a Wellesley scholar at Wellesley College before receiving her BA with honors in 1928. She then attended Yale Law School, where she became the first African American woman to graduate in 1931. A year later, she was admitted to the New York Bar and began working with her father and brother at their law firm in Poughkeepsie. In 1937, she was named assistant corporate counsel in NYC’s law department. She worked this job for two years before being appointed justice of the Domestic Relations Court of the City of New York (later named Family Court). This made her the first Black female judge in America, presiding for 40 years.

Hazel Dorothy Scott

Hazel Scott grew up in the heat of the Harlem Renaissance. She was a piano prodigy from age three and at the age of eight attended The Juilliard School of Music, even though the minimum age requirement was 16. Before she was out of her teens, she had performed at the 1939 World’s Fair and become a staple at New York City’s first integrated club, Café Society. At the age of 25, she was earning today’s equivalent of $1 million a year. She regularly challenged racial stereotypes and pay disparities and refused to play for segregated audiences. Hazel went on to become the first Black woman to host her own nationally-syndicated television show.

Cassandra Maxwell

Cassandra Maxwell was the first African American Woman admitted to the SC Bar. During the formative years of the Civil Rights Movement, Maxwell assisted Thurgood Marshall with the legal work of the NAACP. Her contributions as a strategist helped draft the case laws that would lead to the end of segregated facilities in the South. She was later appointed by President Nixon as a member of the Interim Board of Directors of the Student Loan Marketing Association.

Donyale Luna

At the age of 18, Luna, a six-foot-tall young woman, was spotted by photographer David McCabe. A year after being discovered, she moved to New York, where she landed on a cover of Harper’s Bazaar—but the painting whitewashed her race, making it difficult to tell if she was African American. In 1966, she made the cover of British Vogue, making history as the first Black cover model photographed for a Vogue franchise. Luna went on to have an international career, starring in multiple Andy Warhol films, The Rolling Stones’ Rock and Roll Circus, dozens of magazine spreads, and films across Europe.

Written by Andreia Wardlaw, founder of Mother Wit Blog.  Mother Wit is a blog dedicated to documenting the contributions of African American women in history in an effort to change the narrative of American history that has silenced the contributions of Women of Color. Mother Wit promotes education, representation, and empowerment. 

This post was originally published on December 27, 2018, and has since been updated.

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How CRWN Magazine Founder Is Changing the World by Being Herself

Real Queens fix each other's CRWNs.

“Don’t touch my hair! “ Many of us have heard Solange Knowles sing about it, but Lindsey Day co-founder of CRWN magazine is doing something about it.  Lindsey launched CRWN, a hair and lifestyle magazine for black women, with longtime collaborator, Nkrumah. It’s no secret that women of color go to inexplicable lengths to transform their natural hair to Caucasian standards of beauty.  It’s an arguably negative cycle of self-denunciation with a great financial and cultural burden.  However, in this age of information saturation, there has been a surge of natural hair influencers on social media and a boom in Black hair care products.  Both Nkrumah and Day felt compelled to contribute to this movement, finding that the one thing missing was “a premium magazine documenting the phenomenon, or authentically portraying our narrative”(Day). And thus, CRWN magazine was born, a culturally aware art platform that prides itself on showcasing only NATURAL Black hair. 

Day is no stranger to running magazines, uplifting social morale, or being on the cusp of innovation, but the road to her existential success was not direct.  She landed her first full time job at Interscope Records, while also editing a blog called “livelevated.com” with collegiate friend and creative director Nkrumah.  At the time they were working in the corporate music industry and found a little haven in this side project.  During Lindsey’s six years with Interscope, she witnessed the economic crash and the corporate industry flip inside out due to expanding technology.  This uncertainty drove Day to crave ownership.  And in 2009, she co-founded “Made Woman,” “an online magazine that helps young professional women connect and learn from each others’ careers.” 

She quit Interscope, worked full time at MW, and took some freelance gigs along the way.  One of which turned into a full time position with Intern Queen, doing content, business, and project management, honing in on her digital marketing skills.   

As she was approaching 30, the wordsmith needed a change.  She reconnected with Nkrumah on a Brooklyn rooftop in 2014, where they reflected on ownership, career, and voids in the marketplace, but most importantly “what life would look like if we could sustain ourselves by serving our people.” That was the beginning of CRWN.

CRWN is a quarterly print magazine with an e-commerce offering.  It is 100% independent and self-funded, and has built successful advertisement relationships based on its ability and promise to stay true to its core message of authentic Black culture.   This authenticity is what drives the owner. Lindsey says it’s her “love of my people, and the work,” it’s about seeing “a woman or girl flip through CRWN and her eyes light up…or when a sister confides in me about her hairstory and how CRWN is a place where she can finally see herself…These are the reminders that CRWN is so much bigger than Nkrumah and myself.”  A profound feeling that most of us hope to evoke at some point in our life.   

CRWN is culture. It is the Black musicians, painters, photographers, writers, activists, and visionaries of a culture that have never been honestly represented in the media, nor maybe even to it themselves.  It is healing Black people in America by saying ‘it is beautiful to be you.’  The team at CRWN feel a moral obligation to tell their story and document their culture.  In years to come, Lindsey sees CRWN growing into a “true media platform and hub for the culture,” where creatives and business people alike can come and “cut their teeth,” as she says. 

CrwnMag Issue no. 01; CrwnMag Issue no. 02. 

The co-founder's ability to show up, persevere, work hard, and trust her gut instinct, has brought her to a place of ownership, pride, humanitarianism, and cultural revival.  She has created a tangible change in the Black community, and most importantly, an awareness of truth and self-love.  In a world where African Americans have been systematically misrepresented, discredited, and traumatized throughout the course of history, Lindsey Day and CRWN have created a haven of acceptance, beauty, self-love, and open conversation.  The powerhouse tells it like this, “This is the first time in my life I’ve known I’m walking in my true purpose.”     

Arianna Schioldager is Editor-in-Chief at Create & Cultivate. You can follow her @ariannawrotethis. 

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Beauty: Jackie Aina

This article is part of our Create & Cultivate 100 List created in collaboration with Dove, you can view the full Beauty List Here. 

The glow get 'em goddess. 

Beauty Youtube star Jackie Aina’s mission is to encourage those “often overlooked on social media.” As a woman of color, she was invigorated to start her YouTube channel in 2009 after looking for both a creative outlet and online community to “learn about new makeup techniques for darker skin.” 

She says it was challenging to “get people engaged in my content as a darker skin-toned woman.” Explaining that “Most people naturally just assumed I only do makeup tutorials for African American women, not realizing that we come in so many different shades and you don't have to necessarily look exactly like someone to learn a new tip.”

However, her followers and subscribers quickly loved the message she was sharing. Now Jackie’s turned her “hobby and side-hustle” into her “baby and passion,” boasting over a million subscribers. 

“You don't have to look exactly like someone to learn a new tip.”

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The woman is also hilarious (her Twitter bio lists her as "Le Bronze James), unafraid to go barefaced, and often addresses the diversity issue the cosmetic industry faces, calling out brands that are “the worst EVER for POC.” Saying as a beauty vlogger it’s her job to side-eye what’s not working. 

Her fans are constantly championing Jackie to have a line of her own, something that she’s set as a career goal for herself. 

She’s weathered the troll storm on social media a couple of times, recounting a particularly dark time in her life. While in trade school, one of Jackie’s best friends and roommate was killed in a car accident. “Since she lived with me at the time and we shared rent, I had to figure out how I was going to afford rent for the month while being on unemployment and collecting limited earnings from YouTube,” she shares. “I mustered the courage to start a GoFundMe account to get support outside of my closest friends and family and the support my followers was tremendous, but the hate was too.” She says people accused her of using both her friend’s death and her schooling as a way to exploit money from her followers. Both of which were “grossly untrue.” 

“I was used to troll comments, but that was on a different level and it was very hard to not to take it really personal. Not only did I lose my friend, but to also be accused of it for personal gain was really hard to deal with at the same time. I think that was the first and last time I got a real taste of just how ugly people on social media really could be, but it made me tougher and I got through it! Luckily the support and encouragement of my real supporters kept me going and I will never forget the way they all rallied together to help support me.”

Now she advises to use prayer and positive affirmations to hoof it (with the help of God) through the hard times. “Do not go out of your way to read negativity about you,” she says. “Block out negative energy as best you can. The people who truly love you are there to criticize you when need be, not random trolls on the internet.”

“Block out negative energy as best you can."

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That experience likely shaped how she feels about female empowerment: “It means uplifting one another before we assume the worse about each other; having each other’s backs!”

She also says that nine times out of 10 she would support a female-owned business before a male-owned business. “Women are just easier to work with and get the job done!” she says. “And we're so used to being pre-judged we are rarely ever given a chance to prove our worth.”

Adding, “I love and value myself a lot more to ever go back to where I was when I first started my channel. I was so, indecisive, easily triggered by things, and not as confident in my career as I am now!”

Styling provided by Reservoir LA. Hair and makeup provided by Glamsquad. Photography courtesy of Light Lab and Woodnote Photography.

Entertainment: Franchesca Ramsey

This article is part of our Create & Cultivate 100 List created in collaboration with KEDS, you can view the full Entertainment List Here.

Morally resolute, intersectional feminist. 

Franchesca Ramsey had been making her own hilarious YouTube videos, a mixture of song parodies, impersonations, and socially conscious comedy sketches, since 2006, but it wasn’t until she made “Shit White Girls Say…To Black Girls” and went viral, racking up 1.5 million views in just 24 hours, that Ramsey was really put on the map. The video has 11 million views to date, and it gave Ramsey the confidence to pursue entertainment full time. “Quitting my day job took a huge leap of faith, but I knew I wouldn't be able to pursue the opportunities I was most interested in with a 9-5.” We’re all better off for it, as since then the actress, video blogger, and writer has quickly become of the most exciting voices, in both comedy and social activism, of our time.

Ramsey spent time as a writer and contributor to "The Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore," where her recurring segment #HashItOut was a stand out part of the show, and in 2015 landed her current gig as the host of "Decoded," an MTV News web series that speaks to issues of race and culture. She also still creates original content on YouTube, both for her comedy channel Chescaleigh and her lifestyle channel Chescalocs, which focuses more on beauty, natural hair care, and styling (the two channels have over 250k subscribers and 29 million views combined), and does speaking engagements at colleges, inspiring and educating (and cracking up) students around the country with her incisive wit and cutting intellect. In short, she’s killing it. But ‘twas not always so. In fact, just a few short years ago, Ramsey was considering giving up on entertainment altogether. “In 2014 my videos weren't doing very well and I had a hard time booking auditions, so I seriously considered abandoning entertainment and leaving NY,” she recalls. “Instead, I got a remote job writing for Upworthy and used that to supplement the few acting jobs I was able to pick up until things started to take off.”

Even now, as accomplished as she is, Ramsey still encounters more than her fair share of challenging moments. “Being a woman of color on the Internet is challenging, let alone being one that openly talks about racism and feminism. I deal with an intense amount of harassment, which at times can be discouraging, but is also a reminder of why these conversations are so important,” she says of the trolls who follow her every move. Ramsey credits her husband, her parents, and her audience for keeping her going when things get rocky. “I'm really fortunate to have people around the world that enjoy my content and continuously reach out to let me know that it's making an impact on their lives,” she says of her devoted fans. A self-described “gym rat,” Ramsey also works out five days a week at 7 am. “It’s when I really let go of everything and just focus on accomplishing whatever my trainer puts in front of me,” she says of her routine.

"Being a woman of color on the Internet is challenging."

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Aside from her family and fans, Ramsey raves about her friend and mentor, Tracee Ellis Ross, as an ongoing source of influence and inspiration. “I'm incredibly inspired by her talent, work ethic and humility. She's given me tons of great advice over the years and most recently I got the chance to write for her when she hosted Black Girls Rock for BET,” Ramsey says of Ross, whom she met a few years ago through her YouTube channel. “She's incredibly gracious and a firm believer in supporting and uplifting other women which, is something I think is incredibly important.”

Another thing Ramsey (and we) think is incredibly important? Activism, and specifically, a commitment to intersectional feminism. “It's important to acknowledge our privilege and remember that there are all types of women from a variety of walks of life that face challenges that we do not,” Ramsey says. “If you're truly committed to advocating for women you have to be willing to stand up for all women regardless of race, sexuality, physical ability, religion, class or gender identity, not just ladies that look like you.” For her part, Ramsey is already making a big difference in the steering the current cultural conversation. As for her personal goals? “One day I'd like to be in a position to break and foster new talent,” she says. We have zero doubt that will happen, and probably much sooner than she thinks.