“Hidden Figures” of the Civil Rights Movement — black women’s voices, power, and history

That a black woman would begin #MeToo was not a surprise to me. In addition to their civil rights activities, African American women have fought against sexual assault and rape since slavery. Tarana Burke continues the courageous tradition of people like journalist Ida B. Wells-Barnett and Rosa Parks, who were anti-lynching and anti-rape leaders. Burke's origination of #MeToo was almost forgotten and obscured, until the white women who adopted its use acknowledged her contribution and her inspiration. Burke modestly accepts the accolades but, more important, continues to use her recognition as a means to help others, not only to fight against the historic invisibility of black women, but also to address the issues that affect our lives. 

The women of Black Lives Matter — a movement started by women (Patrisse Cullors, Alicia Garza, and Opal Tometi) — have sometimes had their leadership and contributions overshadowed by attention being focused on the men. Journalist Carol Jenkins calls this phenomenon the “erasure” of African American women, whether intentional or accidental. It was heartening to see the courageous ll-year-old Naomi Wadler state at the March for Our Lives that she was there “to represent the African American girls who don't make the front page” or “don't play on the evening news.” Naomi urged us “to tell the stories that are not told.”

We must be intentional about including and listening to the voices of the many “hidden figures,” at all levels to our society, whether a woman like Georgia Gilmore, the cook who put her livelihood and life at risk to raise money for the Montgomery bus boycott, or the “colored computers,” the African American scientists and technicians of NASA, including Katherine Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan, and Mary Jackson, who were integral to the United States space program. This is what inspired me to write Lighting the Fires of Freedom: African American Women in the Civil Rights Movement, which shines a light on women's all-too-often overlooked achievements in the Movement. These wide-ranging oral histories of nine women tell what ignited their passion and activism.   

African American women were leaders across a range of fields, including law, education, and journalism. Through their activities in churches, schools, organizations, nonprofits, and the black women’s club movement, African American women were integral to their communities’ survival and advancement. They helped create the cultural architecture for change and continue to do so.

I'm often asked how long I've been writing Lighting the Fires of Freedom. I always have to stop and think for a moment. The answer is either two years or all my life. I've been involved in the struggle for social justice from an early age. I was president of my local youth chapter of the NAACP at age 12. My approach to telling the stories of black women is very personal. Decades ago, I had the blessing to have my first national feature article accepted by Ms. Magazine and edited by Gloria Steinem. It was an “as told to” interview with Josephine Hulett, field director of the National Committee on Household Employment, an organization that led the fight to include household workers under federal minimum wage laws. My first draft came back with no edits, but with a broader perspective. Gloria told me that my writing was literate, but it lacked passion. She wanted me to try it again. Ouch! Although a painful reality at the time, that experience in my 20s has stayed with me throughout my life, my doctoral studies, and writing this book. Gloria helped me forge a commitment to trusting that people can tell their own stories passionately and eloquently. We just have to listen. 

The heart and soul of Lighting the Fires of Freedom are the voices and perspectives of nine wonderful women, representing diversity among African American women, specifically their leadership during the Civil Rights Movement. The women of Fires are: Leah Chase, Dr. June Jackson Christmas, Kathleen Cleaver, Myrlie Evers, Aileen Hernandez, Gay McDougall, Diane Nash, Gloria Richardson (Dandridge), and Judy Richardson. I am grateful that they allowed me to keep their voices intact — with their lyricism, cadences, and colloquialisms. While these women are iconic and sometimes intimidating because of the magnitude of their sacrifices and contributions, their words remind us that these are real people, living real lives. Positive change comes from real people who have deep passion about their communities, their culture, our shared humanity.  

Why African American women? I quote Elaine R. Jones, a native of Norfolk, Virginia, who in 1970 became the first African American woman to graduate from the University of Virginia School of Law and later became the first woman president and director-counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund (LDF). She says of black women in the Civil Rights Movement, “The point is that no one did what we do. Black women believe in fundamental fairness. We know the difference between right and wrong; that is a way of finding our way and inspiring others.”  

Lighting the Fires of Freedom is unabashedly a love letter to women in the Movement and the Movement itself. I want to acknowledge that there are a number of books by and about black women specifically on or including the Civil Rights Movement by an impressive group of writers and scholars, including Bettye Collier-Thomas, Johnnetta B. Cole, Beverly Guy-Sheftall, Barbara Clark Hine, Charlayne Hunter-Gault, and Paula Giddings. The rich history of women involved in the Civil Rights Movement indicates that there are many stories that remain to be told and to be told from different perspectives. Reclaiming that history is a portal to recognizing the vibrancy and authenticity of African American women’s ongoing leadership. As Rashad Robinson of Color of Change writes about the women of Lighting the Fires of Freedom: “These stories of perseverance, love, loss, inspiration, and strategy add to the songbook of the civil rights era, allowing us to hear and model our newly revived movement for justice on the sharp, passionate, and unforgettable voices of the women whose ideas were so transformative.”