Stay Connected
Atlanta Black Star/Editor's Picks
Editor's PicksList

8 Black Women of the Civil Rights Era Who Don’t Get the Praise They Deserve

Posted byBy Yanique Dawkins | Published on: CommentsComments (6)

females

Dr. Anna Pauline ‘Pauli’ Murray (Nov. 20, 1910 – July 1, 1985)
Pauli Murray was an American civil rights and women’s rights activist, lawyer and author. She wrote several important articles highlighting race relations during the Civil Rights era including  Negroes Are Fed Up in 1943. Murray was also a founding member of the National Organization for Women, a group that addressed issues of gender equality and women’s rights.

In 1977, Murray became the first African-American woman to become an Episcopal priest. Since her death in 1985, several books have been written highlighting her work, including Pauli Murray: The Autobiography of a Black Activist, Feminist, Lawyer, Priest and Poet.

females1

Septima Poinsette Clark (May 3, 1898 – Dec. 15, 1987)
Septima Clark was an American educator and civil rights activist. Clark developed the literacy and citizenship workshops that played an important role in the drive for voting rights and civil rights for African-Americans in the American Civil Rights Movement.

Clark, along with future Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall and others, worked on a 1945 case that sought equal pay for Black and white teachers. She described it as her “first effort in a social action challenging the status quo.” Her salary increased threefold when the case was won.

Democracy needs journalism it can trust.

This election season, the stakes are higher than usual — and so is the pressure on newsrooms to soften their coverage, stay quiet, or just disappear. Independent reporting, the kind that answers to readers instead of advertisers or political pressure, matters more in a moment like this, not less.

For over 14 years, Atlanta Black Star has stayed independent and reader-funded. We have no corporate owner and no shareholders telling us what to cover or how to cover it. That independence is also our biggest vulnerability: nothing protects it except readers choosing to fund it directly.

Newspaper ad revenue has fallen more than 80% since 2005, and local newsrooms are closing at a rate of roughly two a week nationwide. When outlets go under in a moment like this, it's rarely the independent, reader-funded ones that get to stick around.

We know a request for support isn't why you came here. But without readers choosing to fund this work directly, the depth of reporting we can do at home and abroad shrinks along with everyone else's. If you're not in a position to give, that doesn't change how much we value you as a reader.

If you are able to, a recurring contribution does more for us than a single one-time gift, because it lets us plan the next investigation instead of just the next invoice. It takes about 30 seconds, no long form, no account. Thank you for continuing to support independent journalism and freedom of the press.

Give once Give monthly Support another way

Related Stories

Back to top