Profiles of influential Black womenactivists at a historic momentThisvolume offers a panoramic view of Black feminist politics through the storiesof a remarkable cross section of Black women who attended the 1977 NationalWomens Conference. Thesewomen advocated for civil and womens rights but also for accessibility,lesbians, sex workers, welfare recipients, laborers, and children.Thewomen featured in this book include icons Coretta Scott King and MichelleCearcy, a teenager who served as a torchbearer at the conference. Contributorsoffer insights into the lives of Gloria Scott, Dorothy Height, FreddieGroomes-McLendon, and Jeffalyn Johnson. The profiles include activistorganizers Georgia McMurray, Barbara Smith, Johnnie Tillmon, Addie Wyatt, andFlorynce Kennedy. The hard-won achievements of politicians are examined andcelebrated, including those of Barbara Jordan, Shirley Chisholm, Maxine Waters, C.Delores Tucker, thefirst Black female secretary of state for Pennsylvania, and Yvonne Burke, oneof the first Black women elected to Congress and the first representative togive birth while serving. The final profiles cover Clara McClaughlin, reporterMelba Tolliver, and photojournalist Diana Mara Henry, who shared the details ofthe conference and the continual work being done by Black women with othersthrough various media channels. This book places the diversity of Black womensexperiences and their leadership at the center of the history of the womensmovement.Publication of this work made possible by aSustaining the Humanities through the American Rescue Plan grant from theNational Endowment for the Humanities.
