#dope queens

[dopequeensofblackhistory-blog]

Today’s Dope Queen is Abolitionist and Civil War Hero Harriet Tubman. Tubman was a former slave turned conductor on the Underground Railroad who led escaped slaves to safety up north. During the Civil War she acted as a scout and spy for the Union Army, and became the first woman to lead an armed raid. In 2020 Harriet Tubman will become the first African American woman on American currency, replacing Andrew Jackson on the 20-dollar bill.

Harriet Tubman was born Araminta Ross on a plantation in Dorchester County, MD between 1819 and 1823. As a teenager, she was seriously injured after being hit in the head with a heavy weight an overseer threw at an escaping slave. Her brain injury caused her to suffer from Hypersomnia spells, visions and strange dreams, which she believed were signs from God.

In 1844, she married a free black man named John Tubman and changed her name to Harriet to honor her mother. In 1849 Tubman and two of her brothers escaped their plantation to head to Pennsylvania. The brothers turned back, but Harriet successfully made it to Philadelphia. She returned to Maryland in 1850 to free family members, and made the trip 18 more times.

Tubman utilized the Underground Railroad and led over 300 people to freedom. She became known as “Moses” for her heroism. In 1861, the American Civil War began, and Tubman found work as a nurse. After the Emancipation Proclamation went into effect she became a scout under Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton. In June 1865, she led a raid on plantations along the Combahee River and liberated 750 slaves. Tubman never received a regular salary despite her service and was denied proper compensation until 1899 when she was awarded a pension.

After the war Tubman went to Auburn, NY to take care of her elderly parents. She married a farmer named Nelson Davis, and the two adopted a baby girl. She became a philanthropist and 1908 opened the Harriet Tubman Home for the elderly. Harriet Tubman died on March 10th, 1913 while surrounded by friends and family. She received semi-military honors during her funeral at Fort Hill Cemetery in Auburn, NY.

[dopequeensofblackhistory-blog]

Happy International Women’s Day from Dope Queens of Black History! 

[afrosandknives]

Dope Queens Series

The Dope Queens Series celebrates the black women who inspired and created American cooking. The first set of designs focuses on Edna Lewis.

“Ms. Lewis was born in 1916 in Freetown, Orange County, Virginia, one of eight children. Her grandfather, an emancipated slave, helped found the community, hence its name. The family lived on a farm that had been granted to her grandfather and central to the family’s life was food in all its phases: growing, foraging, harvesting, and cooking. Without any modern cooking conveniences—everything was cooked over wood and, lacking measuring spoons, baking powder was measured on coins—food preparation called on creativity, resourcefulness, and ingenuity. “

https://ednalewisfoundation.org/chef-edna-lewis/

[an0001-blog1]

“My driver is white. He go fight with another white driver and say the ‘n’ word.”

- 2 Dope Queens “Dad Bods”

[dopequeensofblackhistory-blog]

Black Girl Magic is real!

[dopequeensofblackhistory-blog]

Posing is hard!

[nprbooks]

Image: Mindy Tucker/Penguin Random House

You know who's not worried about Resting Bitch Face? Vladimir Putin.

"He's, like, not concerned with that, which is so freeing," Phoebe Robinson tells NPR's Rachel Martin.

As a black woman, Robinson doesn't have the same luxury.

"There's this whole notion of 'black women are angry' or 'black women are sassy' or, like, 'have bad attitudes,'" she says. "And so you always want to be in space where — at least I was for a while — where I was like: I want to be likable. I don't want people to think that I have resting bitch face or whatever."

Robinson's new book — about being black and female in America — is called You Can't Touch My Hair: And Other Things I Still Have to Explain.

No, 'You Can't Touch My Hair' And Other Lessons From Comic Phoebe Robinson