The trial lasted for a year and was one of the most sensational French trials for two centuries, rivaling the Dreyfus affair in public interest. Cadiére wrote a book about her experience, which was quickly translated for an eager English audience. Continue reading →

The founder of the Negro History Society and the Great Plains Black History Museum, Calloway won awards from several organizations for her activism in the community and Nebraska. Continue reading →

Meta Vaux Warrick Fuller was an African-American artist notable for celebrating Afrocentric themes Continue reading →

Tracy K. Smith (born April 16, 1972) is an American poet and educator. She served as the 22nd Poet Laureate of the United States from 2017 to 2019. In April 2018, she was nominated for a second term as United … Continue reading →

Mary Violet Leontyne Price is an American soprano. Born and raised in Laurel, Mississippi, she rose to international acclaim in the 1950s and 1960s, and was one of the first African Americans to become a leading artist at the Metropolitan Opera. Continue reading →

An American author. She was a popular writer in her time, and her work has received increased attention from literary critics in recent years. She influenced Neil Gaiman, Stephen King, Nigel Kneale, and Richard Matheson. Continue reading →

The post Remember the Ladies: Shirley Jackson first appeared on Stumbling Toward Enlightenment.

An African-American civil rights and human rights activist. She was a largely behind-the-scenes organizer whose career spanned over five decades. She worked alongside some of the most famous civil rights leaders of the 20th century, including W. E. B. Du Bois, Thurgood Marshall, A. Philip Randolph, and Martin Luther King, Jr. Continue reading →

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After being overshadowed by the Civil War, the novel was rediscovered in the late 20th century, when there was new interest in minority and women writers. One scholar researched the novel, identifying Harriet Jacobs as the author and documenting many events and people in her life that corresponded to this fictionalized, autobiographical account. The novel has been the subject of many academic studies, as Jacobs challenged prevailing ideas about slavery and womanhood in her work. Continue reading →

The post Remember the Ladies: Linda Brent first appeared on Stumbling Toward Enlightenment.

Born Marie Dionne Warrick on December 12, 1940, in East Orange, New Jersey, Dionne Warwick has enjoyed a tremendously long career as a singer. She comes from a gospel musical background as the daughter of a record promoter and a gospel group manager and performer. As a teenager, Warwick started up her group, the Gospelaires, with her sister, Dee Dee, and aunt Cissy Houston. Continue reading →

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Feminist scholars such as Maureen Mahon often praise Thornton for subverting traditional roles of African American women. She added a female voice to a field that was dominated by white males, and her strong personality transgressed patriarchal and white supremacist stereotypes of what an African American woman should be. This transgression was an integral part of her performance and stage persona. Continue reading →

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An American astronomer whose cataloging work was instrumental in the development of contemporary stellar classification. With Edward C. Pickering, she is credited with the creation of the Harvard Classification Scheme, which was the first serious attempt to organize and classify stars based on their temperatures. She was nearly deaf throughout her career. Continue reading →

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Dickinson's poems are unique for the era in which she wrote; they contain short lines, typically lack titles, and often use slant rhyme as well as unconventional capitalization and punctuation. Many of her poems deal with themes of death and immortality, two recurring topics in letters to her friends. Continue reading →

The post Remember the Ladies: Emily Dickinson first appeared on Stumbling Toward Enlightenment.

A young black man wakes up with joy but gets a shock to his system that builds throughout the day, leaving him drained. Continue reading →

The post Black Joy is sometimes hard to come by first appeared on Stumbling Toward Enlightenment.

She is also credited with popularizing the term "debugging" for fixing computer glitches (motivated by an actual moth removed from the computer). Because of the breadth of her accomplishments and her naval rank, she is sometimes referred to as "Amazing Grace". Continue reading →

The post Remember the Ladies: Grace Hopper first appeared on Stumbling Toward Enlightenment.

Isidora Dolores Ibárruri Gómez, known as "La Pasionaria" (Spanish, "the Passionflower"), was a Spanish Republican leader of the Spanish Civil War and communist politician of Basque origin. She is perhaps best known for her defense of the Second Spanish Republic and the famous slogan ¡No Pasarán! ("They shall not pass") during the Battle for Madrid in November 1936. Continue reading →

The post Remember the Ladies: Dolores Ibárruri first appeared on Stumbling Toward Enlightenment.

Sarah Williamson was born on this date in 1899. She was an African American teacher, administrator, and missionary. Continue reading →

The post Remember the Ladies: Sarah Williamson first appeared on Stumbling Toward Enlightenment.

Willa Cather told her readers "there are only two or three human stories and they go on repeating themselves as fiercely as if they had never happened before." Cather herself spent her life acting out one of the oldest stores of them all—the tale of the proud, imaginative, strong, intelligent woman who is expected to subject herself to domesticity and a man's power. She couldn't do it. Continue reading →

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Phillis Wheatley was the first published African-American female poet. Born in West Africa, she was sold into slavery at the age of seven and transported to North America. She was purchased by the Wheatley family of Boston, who taught her to read and write, and encouraged her poetry when they saw her talent. Continue reading →

The post Remember the Ladies: Phillis Wheatley first appeared on Stumbling Toward Enlightenment.

Tyra Lynne Banks is an American model, television personality, talk show host, producer, author, actress, singer and business woman. Continue reading →

The post Remember the Ladies: Tyra Banks first appeared on Stumbling Toward Enlightenment.

Terrified of competition from within, Eddy excommunicated anyone who seemed to threaten her power. She permitted no sermons, commentary, or discussion and made her books the only source of church authority, allowing no changes in church procedure but those she made personally. Continue reading →

The post Remember the Ladies: Mary Baker Eddy first appeared on Stumbling Toward Enlightenment.