PAVING THE WAY: BLACK WOMEN WHO INSPIRE ACROSS THE GENERATIONS
We hold a special place in our hearts for women whose work has changed our lives, who inspire us to action—whose very existence challenges us to do more and be better. Black women of achievement who have broken racial and sexual barriers in their lives have naturally had a pivotal role to play in inspiring women of color of later generations. This multimedia presentation will focus on some of these amazing women and on the younger women they have inspired.
The specific experiences of Black women growing up in racist, sexist, homophobic America have changed over the decades, but the toxic atmosphere of this triple jeopardy persists. The dominant culture continues to try to stifle change by ignoring, minimizing, and erasing the work and even the very memory of extraordinary Black women who have triumphed despite society’s strictures. We will explore the accomplishments and the precious legacies of Black women who have inspired generations of activists, artists, scientists, musicians, writers, and women in other fields.
Among the women and movements, we will focus on Shirley Chisholm and Barbara Jordan and how their political legacies have inspired so many other women of color now entering politics. We will look at Black women writers and musicians of earlier generations who fought male dominance in the arts and paved the way for today’s artists, including Raven Wilkinson, the pioneering Black ballerina of the 1950s who mentored Misty Copeland; science fiction writer Octavia Butler, an inspiration for the modern Afrofuturism movement, and more. We’ll also explore the origin and purpose of radical Black women’s groups like the Combahee River Collective and Kitchen Table Press, and the contemporary organizations they have inspired.