15 Women of Color You Should Know
“I hope the future history textbooks are written by us. It’s almost like a patriarchal legacy that women’s triumphs, sacrifices and tremendous hard work get written out of the story. So many history-making women’s names are forgotten, none more so than women of color, because we’re not the ones holding the pens. I think we’re writing our own history right now. We will make them remember our names.” — Amani Al-Khatahtbeh, founder and editor of muslimgirl.com
Amani Al-Khatahtbeh created MuslimGirl to fight back against Islamophobia and misconceptions about Islam. She was frustrated and angered by the negative way her religion and identity were depicted by western media. So she created a website to normalize the words “Muslim” and “Islam”, authentically depict Muslim women, and show how beautiful and uplifting Islam is. Through her platform, she created the first ever Muslim Women’s Day.
However, the efforts of women of color like Amani Al-khatahtbeh historically have often gone unnoticed. Their names and contributions have been left out of history books, or credit taken away from their inventions, their work stolen and stories silenced. March 2019 will mark the 32nd Annual Celebration of Women’s History Month. This month we want to recognize women of color trailblazers who fought to create opportunities for all and their contemporaries who are continuing their legacy of advancing equality.
1. Alicia Garza, Opal Tometi, and Patrisse Cullors
Together, these amazing women co-founded the Black Lives Matter Movement in 2013 after the murder of Trayvon Martin.
2. Wilma Mankiller
The first woman to serve as chief of the Cherokee Nation. During her time as chief she fought for the rights of women and Native Americans. In 1998 she received the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
3. Sylvia Rivera
Rivera took part in initiating the Stonewall uprising and is a founding member of the Gay Liberation Front. The famous quote, “Hell Hath No Fury like a Drag Queen Scorned” was her battle cry while fighting for inclusive gay rights legislation. She refused to take a seat and let others forget about those who had been othered by the mainstream gay rights movement.
4. Mary Kenner
A brilliant inventor who had five patents in her name. Kenner created the sanitary belt, commonly known as the maxi pad, the bathroom tissue holder, and carrier attachments for walkers. Kenner often said that she wanted to invent things that would make life easier on people, not for the money.
5. Alice Parker
The creator of the gas heating furnace, which was the blueprint to modern central heating systems.
6. Ida B. Wells
Led an anti-lynching campaign through her journalism, which led her to publishing two of her own magazines. She advocated for legal reform to stop the lynching of black people, while creating a number of civil rights organizations that helped people of color.
7. Dolores Huerta
The co-founder of the United Farm Workers. Huerta advocates for immigrant and Latino rights and fair labor conditions in the United States. She aided in the creation of the Agricultural Labor Relations Act, the first law recognizing the rights of California farmworkers to bargain collectively. She has received the Presidential Medal of Freedom and was inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame.
8. Claudette Colvin
On March 2nd, 1955 Claudette Colvin refused to give up her seat on a bus in Montgomery, Alabama, months before Rosa Parks made her famous protest. Colvin was 15 years old when she was arrested for that protest, and later became a plaintiff in the Browder v Gayle case, which helped end segregation on Montgomery transportation.
9. Monifa Bandele
A food justice advocate, Bandele is the Senior Vice President of MomsRising. She has successfully increased children’s access to healthy food, stem junk food marketing, and advocate for an end to the school-to-prison pipeline. Through maternal justice, she is working to end the rising tide of maternal mortality in the United States.
10. Octavia E. Butler
The first science-fiction author to receive a MacArthur Fellowship. She broke ground by featuring African-American and people of color as her protagonists and often addressed social inequalities and past oppression through her work. The term afro-futurism is often credited to Butler and her work.
11. Bell Hooks
Gloria Jean Watkins uses the pen name “Bell Hooks”. Watkins brought intersectionality to the forefront of literature through her extensive body of work on race, gender, capitalism, sexuality, and the perpetration of oppression and class domination.
12. Ellen Ochoa
The world’s first Hispanic female astronaut. Ochoa has been recognized with NASA’s highest award, the Distinguished Service Medal, and the Presidential Distinguished Rank Award for senior executives in the federal government.
13. Rana Abdelhamid
The founder of the Women’s Initiative for Self-Empowerment (WISE). Abdelhamid created WISE once seeing the rise in Islamophobia and intolerance of Muslim Americans. WISE is helping Muslim women fight Islamophobia and protect themselves from violence in the US.
14. Grace Lee Boggs
The daughter of Chinese immigrants who used her exceptional writing skills to further the Civil Rights Movement. Boggs is an acclaimed author who focused on psychological approaches to racial injustices and the revolution. She was an instrumental part of the Fight for Tenants’ Rights, and was inducted into both the National Women’s Hall of Fame and Michigan Women’s Hall of Fame for her work in social justice.
15. Shirley Chisholm
The first black woman elected to the U.S. Congress in 1968, who later became the first black candidate to be nominated for president as a Democrat. Of her legacy, Chisholm said, “I want to be remembered as a woman … who dared to be a catalyst of change.”
