African American Women Have A Long History Of Being Political Activists

To this day the women’s suffrage movement ignites women in the present to keep those right burning. Alice Paul and her fellow women suffrages demonstrated through speeches, lobbying and petitioning Congressional Committees, with parades, picketing and demonstrations, and with arrest that lead to imprisonment. These women express courage that women still uphold for years after their legacy has passed on, such as the article “Women’s Strike for Equality,” by Linda Napikoski, in the demonstration that was held on August 26, 1970 on the 50th anniversary of women’s suffrage. As well as an article “Women to Protest For Equality Today,” by United Press that talks about on the eve of the 50th anniversary of the women’s suffrage and “declared war on firms that Damage the Image,” of the fair sex. Alice Paul, set the stage for inspiring women to fight for their rights everywhere across the world.

In 2007, Laurel Ulrich, wrote Well-Behaved Women Seldom Make History, from which there is an essay that speaks on history, and how women have been left out. She wrote this as a result of her newfound fame due to a phrase in her 1976 journal article; this phrase would ultimately give her 2007 article it’s name. In her essay, her goal is to write about the lack of women in history as a whole; she then illustrates the type of women who by a turn of fate make it into history. Her point being that on few occasions women are written in history books, and even when they are, they are not the women who lead ordinary lives; most of the history that include women is tied to some groundbreaking or exotic

Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, an author and professor of history at Harvard University, introduced the phrase in a 1976 journal article about the characterization of women in Puritan funeral sermons. Ulrich more recently wrote a book, based on the phrase, that explores how women in the past have challenged the ways history was written. In her essay “Well Behaved Women Seldom Make History,” Ulrich discusses the history of the phrase, how it was coined, and how it has taken on a life of its own. The phrase is now commonly seen on everything from t-shirts to coffee mugs, and has been featured in magazine articles and even advertising campaigns. She reflects on how her “accidental fame” has given her new insights into her historical studies.

“Well-behaved women seldom make history.” These words were penned by Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, author of half a dozen books and professor of history at Harvard University. She uses her ability to write to help give a voice to those who are overlooked and underappreciated. Ulrich stumbled upon accidental fame when her phrase, “well-behaved women seldom make history” was discovered by Jill Portugal, a student from Oregon. Portugal asked to use Thatcher’s phrase for a feminist campaign she was heading up; many women identified with the emotion the phrase embodied and its popularity spread; before many years it was found emblazoned on mugs, t-shirts, and bumper stickers. Today her words are still a catchphrase among feminists and women who are seeking to be heard. Thatcher explores the truth of her phrase in her article, “Well-Behaved Women Seldom Make History” by exploring the lives of two unique women: Mae West and Rosa Parks.

Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, in a scholarly article written in 1976, wrote that “well-behaved women seldom make history” (Ulrich XIII). Over time, that phrase has became a slogan for feminists around the world. It appears on many products and media, like shirts, jewelry, and even wine glasses. At the time she wrote it, she meant for it to mean that women who are well-behaved do not get their stories told, even if they did something extraordinary or heroic, though now, people interpret it in many different ways.

In her essay she relates the rise of feminist consciousness in the 1960s to numerous changes in American society, especially the rise of other protest movements. Echols said, “On September 7, 1968, the sixties came to that most apple-pie of American institutions, the Miss America Pageant” (Echols, 308). The reason she said this was because one hundred women’s liberation activists descended upon Atlantic City to protest the pageant’s promotion of physical attractiveness as the primary measure of women’s worth. From there, the protestors set up a “Freedom Trash Can” and filled it with high-heeled shoes, bras, girdles, hair curlers, false eyelashes, typing books, and representative copies of Cosmopolitan, Playboy, and Ladies Home Journal. They wanted to burn the contents but couldn’t because of the laws for bonfires on the boardwalk. Also, word had been leaked to the press that there would be a symbolic bra-burning. However, there were no bras burnt that day. But the image of the bra-burning, militant feminists remains part of our popular mythology about the women’s liberation movement. The Miss America demonstration represents an important moment in the history of the sixties as well as the women’s movement (Echols, 309-310).

The decade of the 1850s was a turbulent period for minority groups in the United States of America primarily affecting African-Americans and women. This was an era of rampant slavery, unjust conditions, such as job discrimination and limited access to education, and the severe lack of equal rights. When Sojourner Truth emerged as one of the first African-American women to ascend into the eye of the public, with her delivery of a speech at the National Women’s Convention in 1851, she became a fundamental representation of the struggle for liberation and suffrage for those considered an inferior standard of citizen or not a citizen whatsoever. In her speech, “Ain’t I a Woman?” Truth effectively fires the arrows of anecdotal references, repetition,

In her book Freedom’s Daughters, Lynne Olson acknowledges the bold women who were vital to the success of the Civil Rights Movement. Although they were excluded from a number of noteworthy events such as the March on Washington in 1963, both black and white women played key roles in publicizing the struggle for racial equality in the United States during the mid-1900s. In addition, it is evident through several stories that one of Olson’s main goals was to illustrate how black and white women were divided even though they were fighting for the same cause. In the preface of the novel, Olson describes three ideas that are prevalent in the lives of the women that are documented in the book. Primarily, she argues

The “Standing on My Sister’s Shoulders” opened my eyes to the women who played a vital role in the civil rights movement, but who are not talked about in history books. It is important that when talking about activist who made a change we do not forget to mention the women who made an impact in the African American

The later years of the twentieth century represented a time of tremendous inter-racial social reforms. Its origins dig deep into the struggles represented by the African American population in the United States has always been social injustice and discrimination. It took the nation almost two centuries of its establishment before the fight for civil rights took place. From the 1950s through the 1970s, movements for civil and social rights, justice, and equality swept the nation demanding an end to segregation and equality in education, housing, and employment opportunities. Familiar names such as Malcolm X, W. E. B. Du Bois, Thurgood Marshall, and certainly Martin Luther King, Jr. traveled far in the, predominately, South and their ideas and advocates for equality appeared in headlines, journals, and articles in what seems like in an uncountable number. However, the media did fail to mention the numerous key players that contributed greatly in these social reforms; the women. Although Rosa Parks has been iconized as the woman who refused to give up her seat to a white male, who else, as a female, has been given the spotlight? One great “behind the scenes” female activist during that time period was Ella J. Baker.

Moments within life make us-humanity- come to a different understanding of a part of ourselves. In the oral history transcription entitled “Hidden History: An Illegal Abortion,” relates a story of self-realization. The unnamed women telling the story made an unimaginable choice, and through this choice, she came to understand herself as a woman. She stated “for the first time in my life, I understood that I was a woman…[and] what it met to be a woman in this society- that the lives of women were not of value.” (Doc 11). This reveals not only the understanding of being a woman, but the cost of being a woman in the society of the United States in the late 1960’s. In a sexist society, it robs women of the understanding of being a woman, not simply

Society continues to nurture these depriving situations and demonstrate lack of concern towards black women by not celebrating them for the roles they played in the movements. Taylor (1998) asserted that, “despite the fact that the most celebrated leaders of the modern civil rights movements were men, African American women participated at every stage in the struggle for justice and equality” (239). Although black women were not in public eyes during these movements, it was their vision and organizing roles they played that helped in the progression of many liberation movements.

In September 1955 the uprising protest of the burden of passes for women became a very important concern to the ANCWL and FSAW, but most generally for the black woman across the nation. (Walker, 1991)

Confronting Misogyny: Rich & Plath A wave of feminism hit America, and women across the country stroked a movement of equality both socially and economically, especially after World War II. Women from all types of backgrounds took this plunge and began offering their own opinions on the matter through mediums such as art and writing. Through this they took the gender roles and stereotypes that tied them down and rose above them standing for the statement that women are just as capable of what a man can do.

To be the first American Woman to publicly lecture both men and women, black and white, is a fathomable feat. To be the first African American to speak out against not only slavery but also the disfranchisement of women, is revolutionary. To be the one with whom greats such as Sojourner Truth and Ida B. Wells look up to is downright awe-inspiring. To be all of these things is to be Maria W. Stewart. An African American journalist, lecturer, abolitionist, author, and women’s rights activist who established the backbone to modern black feminist thought.