Black AF History: The Un-Whitewashed Story of America

Chapter 11 covers the Black women who “formed the foundation of the modern civil rights movement” (260). The chapter covers seven Black women and their contributions to Black resistance to white supremacy.

Mary Church Terrell was one of the first Black women to be accepted to Oberlin College. After the lynching that inspired Ida B. Wells to step up her advocacy, Terrell joined her in the fight. Arguing against the myth that lynching was the only thing stopping Black men from becoming rapists, she pointed out that Black men regularly protected their masters’ wives and children from harm when the white men left to fight to preserve slavery.

Mary Ellen Pleasant married a wealthy Cuban business owner in Massachusetts, and after he died, she put his fortune to use in helping enslaved people self-emancipate. Her second husband worked on a whaling ship, which allowed her to smuggle enslaved people to Nova Scotia. After moving to San Francisco, Pleasant became known as “the Harriet Tubman of California” (265), staking her considerable wealth behind civil rights cases and helping Black people escape oppression.

Callie Guy House is most well known for her efforts to win compensation for formerly enslaved people. A skilled organizer, she talked to newspapers, politicians, and church leaders to gain support for the cause.