Educator

Stalwart of the civil rights movement.

Andrews (1901-1993) was a Harlem It Girl, Librarian, Hostess, and Cultural Icon. She helped organize the Civic Club Dinner of 1924 - the purported birthplace of the Harlem Renaissance - and she became the first Black librarian appointed to lead a New York Public Library branch (115th St. Branch, 1938).

Librarian, Challenged and improved upon the Dewey Decimal system

Born Betty Dean Sanders....

Verrett (1931-2010) was an operatic mezzo-soprano who established herself as a soprano sfogato, mastering both vocal ranges with extraordinary power and flexibility throughout her celebrated career. She rose to international prominence from the late 1960s through the 1990s, earning particular acclaim for her commanding interpretations of Verdi and Donizetti heroines, along with definitive portrayals of roles like Carmen, Tosca, and Lady Macbeth.

Educator, Palmer Memorial Institute

In 2001, Simmons became the first Black woman to lead an Ivy League Institution when she was sworn in as the 18th President of Brown University.

Slowe's legacy is deeply woven into the fabric of African American history. As one of the nine original founders of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Incorporated at Howard University in 1908, she helped lay the foundation for an organization that would empower generations of Black women. Slowe became the first African American to win a major athletic title when she won the American Tennis Association championship in 1917, and she served as the first Dean of Women at Howard University (the first African American to serve in such a position at any university in the US), dedicating her career to supporting young Black women in higher education.

Referred to as the First Lady of Negro America, Bethune (1875-1955) was an impassioned Educator and founder of Bethune-Cookman College and the The National Council of Negro Women, Inc.

Founded the Harlem Institute of Fashion in 1966 and established the Black Fashion Museum in Harlem, NY in in 1979.

On July 24, 1903, Maggie L. Walker became the first Black woman to serve as president of a U.S. bank, as well as the first woman founder of a U.S. bank, when she rallied members of the Independent Order of St. Luke to charter and capitalize the St. Luke Penny Savings Bank in Richmond, Virginia.

Legendary

Ball (1892 - 1916) was a brilliant chemist who, at 23, discovered the first treatment for Leprosy (Hansen’s Disease), known as the Ball Method.

Attorney, educator, and author, Hill (1956) is most well known for her public testimony during the 1991 Senate confirmation hearings for U.S. Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas. Hill, who had worked under Thomas at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), accused him of sexual harassment.

On August 7, 1920 the New York Age published a story about four Black women who had been accepted by the New York Public Library for training. Catherine Latimer was one of the four. She became New York Public Library's first Black librarian.

International Criminal Law Attorney

Modernly, Cooper has been referred to as the Mother of Black Feminism after her book A Voice from the South: By a Black Woman of the South sparked a new era of Black feminist thought, challenging the prevailing narratives of race, gender, and class.

Artist, Educator

Grimke (1837-1914) hailed from a triumvirate of intellectual and abolitionist families: born into the prestigious Forten family, she later married into the equally renowned Grimke family, and shared familial ties with the influential Purvis family. She was an activist, educator, and a diarist whose published works gave rare insight into the life and perspective of a free Black woman in the North, pre-civil war.

Maynor (1910-1996) was an international concert soprano, the first African American to sing at a US President’s Inauguration (Harry Truman, 1949), and the Founder of the Harlem School of Arts.

Entomologist nicknamed “the termite lady” for her pioneering work in termite biology, behavior, and control methods. Her groundbreaking work revolutionized the pest control industry.

Clubwoman

Mamie (1885-1977), was an Educator and Photography studio manager.

Hutson (1914-1998) was an educator, archivist, and curator at the New York Public library - the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture.

Physician, OBGYN

Activist and Educator

Board Certified Obstetrician-Gynecologist

Educator, Author

"A white woman has only one handicap to overcome - that of sex. I have two - both sex and race. ... Colored men have only one - that of race. Colored women are the only group in this country who have two heavy handicaps to overcome, that of race as well as that of sex."

Smith (1930) is a retired Librarian, Archivist, and Author of over 50 publications including Notable Black American Women. In 1964, Smith became the first African American to earn a Ph.D. degree in library science from the University of Illinois.

Florence (1897-1991) was the first Black woman to graduate from a professional library program in the United States.