Cynthia Jacobs Carter, Dorothy Height (Introduction)

ISBN: 0792261658
Format: Hardcover, 256pp
Pub. Date: November 2003
Publisher: National Geographic Society

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This unique, profusely illustrated, inspiring tribute sweeps through world history to celebrate the courage, commitment, and accomplishments that link the daughters of Africa in a 3,500-year heritage, from ancient queens to the modern Black women who command respect and renown in every field of human endeavor. Now, in the first collection of its kind, Dr. Cynthia Jacobs Carter of Howard University gathers these stories in a book that is at once an unprecedented group portrait of Africana Woman and a stirring chronicle of Black women's impact and influence.

In these pages, meet magnificent figures from ages past: Hatshepsut, the female Pharaoh who built some of Egypt's greatest monuments; Makeda, the fabled Queen of Sheba, whose royal dynasty ruled Ethiopia until the 20th century; and Nanny, Queen of the Maroons, who led escaped slaves in forging a realm in Jamaica's wild mountains in the 1700s. Learn also about the courageous women who escaped from centuries of slavery, such as Coincoin, who amassed a 2,000-acre estate in 18th-century Louisiana, and Mary Prince, author of an autobiography that created a sensation in England in the 1830s. Trace the rise of abolitionism and the unforgettable figures who fought for Black freedom -- Sojourner Truth, Harriet Tubman, and others -- along with the groundbreaking leaders who struggled to turn emancipation into true equality, a battle that lasted over a century, from Reconstruction to the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and beyond. These women -- dedicated educators like Mary Church Terrell, business pioneers like Madam C. J. Walker, daring journalists like Ida B. Wells-Barnett, and determined activists like Rosa Parks and Fannie Lou Hamer -- devoted their lives to social justice. Finally, meet those who have made modern history, from politicians like Shirley Chisholm to media stars like Oprah Winfrey.