The Herstory Buff

Sharing the stories and facts of womxn throughout history.

[theherstorybuff]

Anna Julia Cooper

Anna Julia Cooper (1858 - 1964) was an author, educator, activist, and scholar. Born into enslavement in North Carolina, she was the daughter of an enslaved woman and her captor. Two years after the end of the civil war, when she was 9, Anna began her education after earning a scholarship to attend Saint Augustine's Normal School and Collegiate Institute, a coeducational facility designed for former enslaved people. While studying there, she discovered an interest for math and science. She also began teaching math part time at age 10.

In 1877, she married her classmate, George Cooper. When her husband died a couple later, Anna chose to pursue a career as a teacher yet again. She attended Oberlin College in Ohio on a tuition scholarship, earning her BA and later a Masters in Mathematics. The school had a particular course of study designed for women, but Anna elected to take 'the Gentleman's course.' After graduation, Anna worked at Wilberforce University and Saint Augustine's before moving to Washington DC. There she taught at the Washington Colored High School. She and another teacher boarded at the home of a prominent clergyman.

In 1892, Anna published her first book, 'A Voice from the South by a Black Woman of the South.' It was a book of essays, calling for equal education for women and asserting that educated Black women were integral to lifting up the whole Black race. It gained national attention, and Anna began lecturing across the country on related topics.

In 1902, Anna J. Cooper began a controversial stint as Principal of M Street High School (formerly Washington Colored High School). The white school board disagreed with her educational approach toward Black students, which focused on college preparation. Under her tenure, many students were accepted to Ivy League schools. Based on trumped up charges, the Board of Education would not renew her teaching contract for the 1905-1906 year. Undeterred, she moved to Missouri to teach at Lincoln University for four years. In 1910, she was rehired by a new superintendent and would teach Latin there until 1930.

Anna also helped establish several Black civil rights organizations over the course of her life. She helped found the Colored Women's League in 1892, as well as joined the executive committee of the first Pan-African conference in 1900. Since the YWCA and YMCA did not accept Black members, Anna also established branches to support young Black migrants moving from the South to Washington DC.

She entered the doctoral program at Columbia University while still teaching full time, but postponed pursuing her degree after the death of her brother. She took the time to instead raise his five grandchildren. With the children safely in boarding school, she finally returned to her own education in 1924, when she enrolled at the University of France in Paris. She completed her dissertation, 'The Attitude of France Toward Slavery in the Revolution,' in French and at 67, Anna became the fourth African American woman to obtain a Doctorate of Philosophy.

In 1930, she retired as a teacher and accepted the presidency at Frelinghuysen University, a school for Black adults. She served as the school's registrar when it was reorganized the Frelinghuysen Group of Schools for Colored People, and would remain in that position until the school closed in the 1950s.

Anna continued writing up until her death in Washington DC at the age of 105. Her first book is considered to be one of the first pieces of Black feminist writing and is still considered pivotal to this day. In 2010, the state of North Carolina erected a historical marker near her gravesite

[theherstorybuff]

Margaret Garner

Margaret Garner (c. 1856) was an enslaved woman, appearing of mixed race and believed to be the child of an enslaver. She was born in Kentucky. In 1849, she was married to another enslaved person, Robert Garner. That same year, the plantation was sold along with all of the enslaved people to another family member. Margaret had her first child in early 1850.

Three of Margaret's later children were described also as appearing of mixed race, and each were born seven months after a child born to her enslaver, suggesting these children were the results of rape.

On January 28th, 1856, Robert and a pregnant Margaret attempted an escape with many other enslaved families. Robert had stolen his master's sleigh and gun. It was said to be the coldest winter in 60 years, and the Ohio River had frozen. The families crossed the ice just west of Covington, Kentucky at daybreak and escaped to Cincinnati. While many families reached safehouses along the way, the Garner group was pressed to continue further west of the city, where many freed Blacks lived. Unfortunately, mercenaries and U.S. marshals found the Garners in the home they were awaiting nightfall in. They surrounded the property and stormed the house.

During the struggle, Margaret killed her two-year-old daughter with a butcher knife. She was preparing to do the same to the others and herself, rather than see her children returned to enslavement, but was subdued before she could carry this out. The group was taken to jail, and the trial lasted two weeks. The judge deliberated for another two weeks.

The core issue was whether to try the Garners as persons with the murder of their daughter or as property under the Fugitive Slave Law. Over a thousand people turned out each day to watch the proceedings. Abolitionists spoke at the trial, suggesting the mixed race of her children were evidence of the violence enslaved women undergo. Mixed race enslaved people were often treated with even greater violence and abuse as they were 'proof' of the adultery of the enslaver, and Margaret was merely trying to protect her children from the violent life she had known. The judge eventually ruled that the Fugitive Slave Act superseded other charges.

Margaret, her husband, and their youngest daughter were forced back into enslavement. When Ohio authorities finally obtained an extradition warrant to try Margaret for her daughter's murder, she could not be located, as her captor kept moving her between cities in Kentucky.

In 1856, the Garners were being transported on a steamboat when it collided with another boat. Margaret and her baby daughter were thrown overboard and the child drowned. Margaret expressed her happiness at this, saying she had tried to drown herself as well. She and her husband remained in Arkansas for a time, before being sent to another captor in New Orleans.

After this, the Garners disappear from history. It is said Margaret died of typhoid fever in 1858.

[theherstorybuff]

Clara Brown

Clara Brown (c. 1800 - 1885) was a community leader and philanthropist. She was born into enslavement in Missouri. At a young age, she and her mother were sold to a tobacco farm in Virginia. She was forced to marry another enslaved person around the age of 18 and they had four children together. In 1835, her family was torn apart when they were sold to different enslavers. Clara ended up on a plantation in Kentucky.

When she was in her 50s, she was granted her freedom and was required by law to leave the state. She worked her way west to Colorado, working as a domestic helper to people traveling westward. Clara settled in the Denver area, then later a mining town, perhaps the first African American woman of the Colorado gold rush. She worked at a bakery, as a midwife and a cook.

As miners continued to move into Colorado, Clara set up the first laundry in the area. Her income grew even more when she expanded her business after taking on a partner. She invested her earnings in mine claims and land. Within several years, she accumulated thousands of dollars in savings and owned much property throughout Colorado.

Lovingly called 'aunt Clara,' she helped anyone in need and her house was seen as a refuge. Clara also began a search for her family. She heard her husband and several children had died, but she was determined to find her living daughter.

At the end of the Civil War, she liquidated her holdings to travel back to Kentucky. While she did not find her daughter, she helped at least 16 relatives and other former enslaved people travel to Colorado and find work once they were settled. In her later life, Clara's funds were greatly depleted from her charitable causes, her search for her family, and crooked real estate agents.

She returned to Denver when she could no longer handle the high altitudes and lived in the home of a friend. In her 80s, she found her daughter living in Illinois and traveled there to see her. She spent much time with her daughter and granddaughter leading up to her death in 1885. She was voted into the Society of Colorado Pioneers the same year she died. Clara was buried in Colorado and many state dignitaries were present at her funeral.

[theherstorybuff]

Elizabeth Freeman

Elizabeth Freeman (c. 1744 - 1829), also known as Mum Bett, was the first enslaved African American to file and win a freedom suit in Massachusetts. This case marked the beginning of 'freedom suits' that would ultimately lead the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court to outlaw enslavement in the state. She was born in Claverack, New York on a plantation alongside her sister.

When her captor's daughter married, she and her sister were 'given as a gift' to the new couple. During this time, Mum Bett gave birth to a daughter whose father is lost to history. Her captors were violent toward the enslaved people they held, and Mum Bett was once permanently scarred from defending her sister from an attack. Instead of covering her wound, she purposely left it visible as evidence of her mistreatment.

Evidence suggests Bett overheard her enslaver discussing ideas of freedom as well as the Sheffield Declaration with his constituents when he held events in the home. Bett took this basis and turned to a prominent attorney who helped draft the very Declaration her enslaver had been discussing. She, along with an enslaved man named Brom, began the process of fighting for their freedom. In May of 1781, the attorney and his team filed a document with the Berkeshire Court of Common Pleas that ordered Bett and Brom's captor to release them. Their captor refused. By August 1781, the case went to the County Court of Common Appeals of Great Barrington. The attorney argued that the Massachusetts Constitution outlawed enslavement. The jury agreed with the attorney, and it was decided Bett and Brom were not property of their enslaver. Their captor filed an appeal, but dropped the case a few months later.

Once her freedom was acquired, she changed her name to Elizabeth Freeman. Her former enslaver asked her several times to return to his home as a paid servant, but she declined. Instead, she became a paid domestic worker in the home of her former attorney. Elizabeth was also a prominent healer, midwife, and nurse. After 20 years, she was able to buy her own house, where she lived with her children. She passed away in 1829, buried in the cemetery plot of her former employer and attorney. She was the only non-immediate family member to be buried in the “inner circle” of the family cemetery.

[theherstorybuff]

Fanny Jackson Coppin

Fanny Jackson Coppin (1837 - 1913) was an educator, missionary, and lifetime advocate for higher education for women. Born into enslavement, her freedom was purchased by an aunt when she was still a small girl. While employed as a domestic servant, she was determined to get an education, also studying to enter the Rhode Island State Normal School.

In 1860, Fanny attended Oberlin College. While attending college, she also taught a free reading and writing evening course for African Americans. When she graduated, she was one of only three Black women in the United States to hold a bachelor's degree.

After her graduation, she began teaching Latin, Greek, and mathematics at the Institute for Colored Youth. She eventually also served as the principal for the girls' high school department there, making her the first American American woman to hold such a position. She quickly began to adeptly direct the course of the school. In 1871, she introduced a teaching school department, and soon, teacher training enrollment far exceeded enrollment in other courses. She also introduced a practice-teaching system in 1878.

In 1881, she married a local reverend. In 1889, after ten years of hard work, Fanny realized her dream to introduce a vocational department that offered instruction in 10 trades. To her, this sort of schooling was essential in the struggle to end racial discrimination.

In 1893, she was one of five African American women to be invited to speak at the World's Congress of Representative Women. Fanny would finally resign from her post at the Institute in 1902.

That same year, Fanny sailed to Cape Town, South Africa. She spent the next decade working alongside the native women, organizing mission societies, encouraging temperance, and even founding the Bethel Institute. Eventually when her health began to decline, she returned to Philadelphia, where she remained for the rest of her life.  

[theherstorybuff]

Mary Fields

Mary Fields (c. 1832 - 1914) was the first African American woman and second woman to become a U.S. postal service contract mail carrier. Though little is known about her early life, she was born into enslavement in the Tennessee area. She was enslaved by a family in West Virginia leading up to the Civil War. She was most likely emancipated shortly after the war.

In the late 1870s, Mary worked as a housekeeper at the Ursuline Convent in Toledo, Ohio. She was known for being capable of doing what was considered 'men's work' at the time.

After the convent's Mother Superior was transferred, Mary eventually relocated to Montana to care for her after she had taken ill. She worked for St. Peter's Mission just outside of Cascade, Montana, where her companion resided, doing maintenance and repair work, laundry, gardening, and ferrying supplies from nearby towns to the mission. She also drank in saloons with men, was known for having a hot temper, and may have even once gotten into a gunfight with a man. Because of this behavior, the Montana diocese ordered the convent to dismiss Mary.

She was then said to have attempted to open a few eateries in Cascade, but these failed due to her generosity in allowing those unable to pay to eat for free.

In 1895, in her early sixties, Mary obtained the postal service contract for mail between Cascade and St. Peter's Mission. This was a difficult and dangerous route, and she earned the name 'Stagecoach Mary.' Standing at six feet tall, bandits quickly learned to steer clear of Stagecoach Mary, known for carrying both a rifle and revolver. She worked for the postal service of eight years.

Mary spent the latter half of her life running a laundry service and babysitting children. She continued drinking in saloons and was a staple of Cascade during her lifetime. After her death in 1914, the townspeople raised money to have her buried in a cemetery on a road that linked Cascade to the Mission. Her funeral was said to be one of the largest the town had seen.

[theherstorybuff]

Anna Murray Douglass

Anna Murray Douglass (c. 1813 - 1882) was an abolitionist, member of the Underground Railroad, and first wife of Frederick Douglass. Born the daughter of enslaved parents in rural Maryland, Anna was the first of her siblings to be born free after her parents were manumitted.

She lived with her parents until 17, when she moved to Baltimore and began working as a domestic helper. She began to save money, and eventually met Frederick. Although history is not clear on how they met, Anna facilitated Frederick's escape from enslavement by providing money for a train ticket and a disguise. The two married in New York City and together they adopted the surname Douglass.

They moved to a Quaker community in New Bedford, Massachusetts. Anna would pay for nearly everything the couple needed to start their lives together from the money she had earned. They both continued working in domestic service until their family started to grow. Soon Frederick began traveling to speak more widely as an abolitionist.

In the 1840s the family moved to Lynn, Massachusetts, where Anna worked as a laundress and shoe binder.  She supported the family while Fredrick lectured for two years. Anna herself became active in the Female Anti Slavery Society.

The family eventually moved to Rochester, NY. It was after this move that Anna established her home as a part of the Underground Railroad, providing food, board, and clean linen to thousands of enslaved people. Frederick’s business kept him away from the family for long periods of time, and so Anna was often alone to care for her children and household.

After her youngest daughter died in 1860, Anna was often in poor health.  In 1872, their home was destroyed in a fire and they moved to Washington DC. In 1877, the family purchased a new home with money that Anna had saved during her time as a shoe mender and they would live there for the rest of their lives.

A few years later, Anna was stricken with paralysis and died soon after. Her daughter would eventually memorialize her mother in a biography, writing that Anna’s courage and sympathy supported Frederick’s career and like many wives, her identity had been lost within his.

[theherstorybuff]

Phillis Wheatley

Phillis Wheatley (c. 1753 - 1784) was the first African to publish poetry in the United States. Kidnapped from the Senegal/Gambia area when she was about 7 years old, she was transported to the Boston docks with a shipment of 'refugee slaves,' enslaved people deemed not physically capable of the strenuous captivity of the West Indies and Southern colonies. She was purchased by the Wheatleys to be a personal servant to the wife, Susanna. While the child was still expected to carry out her domestic duties, the Wheatleys saw her intelligence and chose to educate her. She learned to read and write, she quickly mastered Latin and Greek and became immersed in a passion for literature. She wrote her first poem around the age of 13 and it was published in the Newport Mercury. Soon after, she gained international acclaim for an elegy she wrote.

By the time she was 18, Phillis had gathered a collection of 28 poems for which she, with Susanna's assistance, ran advertisements for in Boston newspapers. When the racist colonists would not show interest in her work, Phillis and the Wheatleys looked to London for a chance at publication. Her poem was forwarded to the Countess of Huntington, a wealthy supporter of abolitionist causes, who became her patron.

Phillis traveled to London for a time and in 1773, her book, 'Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral,' was published. She was also hosted by many influential people while in England.

Once she returned to Boston, she also became a strong supporter of America's fight for independence, penning several poems in honor of George Washington. After one was sent to him, she was invited to meet him at his headquarters in Cambridge.

Around this time, her life began to change. Though she was freed from enslavement, she was saddened by the loss of many Wheatley family members. In 1778, she married a freed African American with whom she had 3 children; all of them died in infancy. Phillis worked as a maid in a boarding house, and the couple battled poverty. She continued to write, but the changing political climate weakened interest in her poetry. She contacted many publishers, but was never able to publish again.

Struggling with chronic asthma her entire life, Phillis died in Boston in her early 30s in 1784.

[theherstorybuff]

Dr. Rebecca Crumpler

Dr. Rebecca Lee Crumpler (1831 - 1895) was the first African American woman to earn a medical degree in the United States. Born in Delaware, she was raised by an aunt who often helped care for sick neighbors. As a girl, she attended the prestigious West Newton English and Classical School in Massachusetts as a 'special student.'

In 1852, she began an eight year nursing apprenticeship, as there were no nursing schools at the time. In 1860, Rebecca earned a place at the New England Female Medical College, the first school in the country to train female doctors. Her first marriage took place around this time, and ended in the death of her husband in 1863. At the time of her enrollment, there were 300 female doctors in the country, and none of them were Black. This changed when Rebecca graduated in 1864 and began practicing medicine.

She married again in 1864, when she also began a medical practice in Boston. As the Civil War ended, though, she and her husband moved to Richmond, Virginia to collaborate directly with the Freedman's Bureau and other charity groups that assisted formerly enslaved people. Many of her patients were very poor people who otherwise would not have been able to afford medical care.

Rebecca eventually returned to Boston and continued her work as a doctor. She treated patients in and around her home in a predominantly Black neighborhood in Beacon Hill, regardless of what they could pay. Eventually she and her second husband moved to Hyde Park. In 1883, she published 'A Book of Medical Discourses,' featuring advice on treating illness in children, infants, and women of child-bearing age, the first book of its kind written by a woman.

She passed away in 1895, and was buried in an unmarked grave near her final home. In February 2020, a charity donation began to raise funds for a tombstone, but one has yet to be placed.

[theherstorybuff]

Lorraine Hansberry

Lorraine Hansberry (1930 - 1965) was a writer and playwright. The granddaughter of a freed enslaved person, she was the youngest of her siblings born in Chicago, Illinois. Her father founded one of the first black banks in Chicago and ran a successful real estate business; her mother was a school teacher. Because of her family's prominence, many well-known African-American figures of the time visited her childhood home, including W.E.B. Dubois, Langston Hughes, and Duke Ellington.

In 1938, Lorraine's family attempted to move into a white neighborhood. They were met with angry white mobs and the Illinois Supreme Court upheld the exclusionary covenant that barred them from living there. Lorraine's family was forced to move again. The U.S. Supreme Court reversed the decision on a legal technicality and this opened up 30 blocks of the South Side of Chicago to Black families.

While in high school, Lorraine first found an interest in theatre. After graduation, she enrolled at the University of Wisconsin, switching her major from Painting to Writing before dropping out entirely. Lorraine then went on to New York in 1950 to pursue her writing career.

She held a variety of jobs and began studying at the New School for Social Research. Soon she began writing for Paul Robeson's progressive newspaper 'Freedom'. Around this time, she also met a Jewish writer similarly passionate about politics and the two were soon married.

In 1956, she and her husband wrote the hit song 'Cindy, Oh Cindy.' The profits allowed Lorraine to take up writing full time. The following year, she joined the Daughters of Bilitis and contributed letters to their magazine about feminism and homophobia. Though she admitted her lesbian identity in the articles, she wrote under the initials 'L.H.' for fear of discrimination. 

Lorraine began a play inspired by a Langston Hughes poem she called 'The Crystal Stair.' Eventually she would rename it 'A Raisin in the Sun.' She drew upon the stories of her family as well as the working class Black people that her father rented to and whom she had attended school with. In 1958, she raised the funds to make 'A Raisin in the Sun' the first play produced on Broadway written by an African American woman. She also become the first Black playwright and the youngest American to win a New York Critics' Circle Award. A film adaptation was made in 1961 and received a special award at the Cannes Film Festival.

Her second play, 'The Sign in Sidney Brustein's Window,' had a more modest run, and the same year, Lorraine was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. Her promising career fell short when she passed away in 1964. Though she and her husband divorced prior to her death, he collected and adapted a selection of her writings for Broadway in 1969 with a publication following the next year.

[theherstorybuff]

Ethel Waters

Ethel Waters (c. 1900 - 1977) was an American blues and jazz singer and actress. The daughter of a teen mother who had been raped, Ethel grew up in extreme poverty. Her mother rejected her, and so she was raised by grandmother. Ethel's grandmother was a domestic servant and often travelled for work, and so Ethel found herself often alone with her maternal aunts. Her aunts often ignored her, and when they didn't, they physically abused her. She began cleaning houses for money at the age of 8. By 12, she was married to an abusive man, dropped out of elementary school, and divorced him one year later. She then became a chambermaid in a Philadelphia hotel.

She began performing at local talent shows and won first prize and a steady gig at the age of 15. In another contest in 1917, she was discovered by two vaudeville producers. At 17, billing herself as 'Sweet Mama Stringbean,' she was singing on the vaudeville circuit for two years before her success found her moving to New York City. There, she appeared at the Cotton Club and her performances sent her to Broadway.

Though she had many husbands in her life, Ethel ran with the circle of queer blues and jazz singers that flourished in the Harlem Renaissaince. For a time, Ethel even had a relationship with a dance partner, Ethel Williams, and the two lived together as lovers. However, once she achieved success in Hollywood, Ethel ceased acknowledging her lesbianism. 

In 1927, Ethel Waters appeared in all-Black revue 'Africana.' In 1930, she was on the Broadway stage again, this time in 'Blackbirds' and the following year in 'Rhapsody in Black.' In 1933, she was in 'As Thousands Cheer,' her first show without an all-Black cast. She also performed with many well-known blues singer, including Duke Ellington and Benny Goodman. Several composers wrote songs especially for her to perform. Her first serious drama role came in 1939 and the next year she spent a season performing another Broadway musical.

Her greatest success was possibly her role in 'The Members of the Wedding' in 1950. She won a New York Drama Critics' Circle Award for her performance as well as starring in the film adaptation. She continued her work in film as well, starring in several films throughout the 1940s and 50s. Her autobiography in 1951 was a best seller.

After the mid 1950s, Ethel often worked in night clubs and on television. It was during this time that, despite her success, she began questioning the meaningfulness of her career. When she saw the Billy Graham crusade in Madison Square Garden, she chose to rededicate herself to her faith and her talents to God. She even began touring extensively with Billy Graham. Ethel would continue to do some secular work, but her focus was on the Crusade. She sang with them until her death from cancer in 1977.

[theherstorybuff]

June Jordan

June Jordan (1936 - 2002) was a poet, essayist, journalist, and activist. Born in Harlem, she was the child of immigrant parents. When June was five, the family moved to Brooklyn. She began writing poetry at age seven. Her childhood was tumultuous. Throughout her education, June attended predominantly white schools. In her teens, she attended the Northfield School for Girls in Massachusetts and later Barnard College. She often found it difficult to connect to white, often male curriculum.

In 1955, she married a white Columbia University student, in a time where interracial marriages were still stigmatized. A few years later she gave birth to a son. June and her husband divorced in 1965.

She began teaching at the City College of the City University of New York soon after, and in 1969, she published her first book of poetry. She would continue teaching, at first focusing on English and literature, before moving on to African American Studies. This also crossed over into her activism - she fought for the inclusion of black studies and Third World studies in university curriculum and advocated acceptance of African American English.

In the 1970s, June's writing expanded to include books for children and young adults. She also taught writing workshops to young Black and Puerto Rican children. As a journalist and poet, she often focused on topics of feminism, freedom of choice, and the fight against racism. She also never shied away from discussing her bisexuality, even when it may not have been considered acceptable.

June continued to publish collections of poetry and writing on these subjects throughout her life. She would author more than 25 major works of poetry, fiction, and essays, in addition to children's books. She also often wrote music for musicians, as well as for plays and musicals. June also received many awards and recognition for her writing. In 2000, she published her biography, 'Soldier: A Poet's Childhood.' She passed away from breast cancer in 2002.

[theherstorybuff]

Lucy Hicks Anderson

Lucy Hicks Anderson (1886 - 1954) was a chef, socialite, and is considered one of the first openly transgender women. Though Lucy's life predates the term 'transgender,' she lived the majority of her life presenting as a woman. Growing up in Kentucky, she knew from a young age that she identified as a girl. She insisted on wearing dresses and began going by the name 'Lucy' in school. When her parents sought a doctor's advice, the doctor actually recommended they raise Lucy as a girl. Incredibly for the era, they did just this.

At fifteen, Lucy left home and began domestic work. She married her first husband and together they moved to Oxnard, California. While there, Lucy worked as a nanny and chef for the wealthy families in the area. She also hosted a variety of parties - from lavish gatherings for the wealthy families, to celebrating soldiers' homecomings as well as at the church welcoming town visitors.

By 1929, she had divorced her first husband and began making her own way. When she had saved enough money, she purchased a boarding house, where she began running a speakeasy and brothel. Because of her good standing within the community, Lucy was able to run this illegal business successfully during prohibition. On an occasion that she was arrested for liquor, she was bailed out by a local banker, as he needed her assistance at a party that evening.

In 1944 she married again, this time to a retired soldier. The following year, a naval outbreak of venereal disease was traced back to Lucy's brothel, and a local doctor was sent to examine all the women working there. Then he insisted on examining Lucy herself. He discovered that she was not physically born a woman and he chose to publicly out her. Lucy was then charged with perjury for 'lying' on her marriage certificate and fraud for receiving money as the wife of a soldier. Lucy became the first transgender woman to defend her identity in a court of law, but she and her husband were sentenced to jail time. Lucy was also given an additional ten years of probation and prohibited from wearing women's clothing.

When the couple was finally released from jail, they were told they could not return to Oxnard. They settled in Los Angeles and led a quiet life until Lucy passed away in 1954.

[theherstorybuff]

Ma Rainey

Ma Rainey, born Gertrude Pridgett (c. 1882 - 1939), was one of the earliest African American professional blues singer and a part of the first generation of blues singers to record. The second of five children, she was born in Alabama. Her parents were minstrel show performers, and she began singing at a young age.

She first performed in a local talent show at fourteen and began touring soon after. She acquired her stage name as Ma Rainey after a marriage to Will "Pa" Rainey in 1904. They continued to tour until they formed their own group. Around this time, she also met and began to mentor young Bessie Smith.

Separated from her husband in 1916, Ma Rainey subsequently toured with her own band for the next eight years. She was a big influence on the popularity of early blues, and she herself even claimed to have penned the term "blues" for the style of music she performed.

In 1923, Ma Rainey made her first recording. In the next five years, she would record over 100 more. She would record with famous men such as Louis Armstrong, Fletcher Henderson, and Coleman Hawkins.

Some of her music referenced lesbianism and bisexuality and Ma Rainey would date both men and women throughout her life. She was also a foster mother to seven children. As live vaudeville declined in the late 1920s, she at first still recorded and toured with Paramount.

In 1928, Paramount terminated her contract as that style of blues began to fall out of fashion. She performed on the vaudeville circuit for a few years, but after the death of her sister and mother, she returned to Georgia. She ran two theatres and doing charitable works there until her death from a heart attack in 1939.

[theherstorybuff]

Marielle Franco

Marielle Franco (1979 - 2018) was a Brazilian city councilmember, a member of the Party for Socialism and Liberty, and an LGBT activist. She was also a human rights activist, particularly against police brutality in poor communities. She was raised by her parents in the slums of Rio de Janeiro.

At the age of nineteen, she gave birth to a daughter. Marielle then earned a scholarship to the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio where she received a bachelor's degree in social sciences. She later earned her master's degree in public health administration.

In 2005, after the death of a close friend in a shootout, Marielle joined a state representative for the Socialist party as his congressional consultant. In the ensuing years, she helped create the Committee for the Defense of Human Rights and Citizenship. In 2016, she was elected to the Rio City Council, becoming the sole Black female representative.

In March of 2018, Marielle was shot four times in the head and killed by unknown assailants in a drive by shooting. It was later discovered that the bullets that killed her were originally sold to the Federal Police, reportedly stolen, and used in other killings. Prior to her murder, she filed formal complaints against the police for suspected murders. A month before she was killed, the Brazilian president had ordered the military to occupy the city in a security attempt, but Marielle publicly opposed the intervention and had just been appointed to monitor the militarization of the police. Two years later, the murder is still considered unsolved. Her partner, Monica Benicio, continues to fight for justice for Marielle's murder.

[theherstorybuff]

Fay M. Jackson

Fay M. Jackson (1902 - 1979) was a journalist. Born in Dallas, Texas, she moved to Los Angeles, California in 1918. After graduating from high school, she became one of a small number of African American women who were students at the University of Southern California.

During college, she became involved with the junior branch of the NAACP. In 1925, she served as vice president for the junior NAACP when the group mounted a successful boycott of W.E.B. Dubois' play 'Star of Ethiopia.' This was after older members limited the role of the junior NAACP members in the production. During her time in school, she also married a medical student.

Starting in 1928, she began a foray into journalism. She published a short-lived news and literary magazine 'Flash.' She also covered politics and race issues as political editor for the 'California Eagle.' When Fay's friends started a competing paper, she joined them to make the young paper a popular alternative. She would also write for the Chicago 'Defender' and the Association of Negro Publishers. For them, she worked as a Hollywood correspondent, the first African American to do so, focusing on African American movie stars. At the time she was one of very few Black people with the credentials to come and go as they pleased on a Hollywood set. In 1937 the ANP sent Fay as their representative to the coronation of King George VI, where she returned with interviews with the Emperor of Ethiopia, Josephine Baker, and Paul Robeson.

After Alice Dunbar-Nelson's death, her diaries revealed that she had had an extramarital affair with Fay around 1930. In fact, she and Fay were involved in a rather complicated love triangle with another of Fay's former lovers, Helene Ricks London. Though they would correspond after Alice left California, she and Fay's relationship eventually ended.

After World War II, Fay took a job with the U.S. Department of Defense. By the 1950s, she earned her realtor's license. This work in real estate would prompt her to become an advocate for African American housing issues. Fay passed away in Los Angeles in 1988.

[theherstorybuff]

Billie Holiday

Billie Holiday (1915 - 1959) was an American jazz singer. Born Eleanora Fagan, she spent most of her childhood in Baltimore, Maryland. The daughter of a teen mother, it is believed her father was Clarence Holiday, a successful jazz musician in his own right. With her father absent, Eleanora and her mother struggled for stability throughout her childhood. Eleanora often skipped school, even ending up in court due to her truancy. Because of this, she was sent to a facility for 'troubled' African American girls in January 1925. At barely ten, she was one of the youngest girls in the facility and returned to her mother in August of that year.

Eventually she followed her mother to New York City, where she worked as sex worker in Harlem for a time. Around 1930, she began singing in local clubs and renamed herself Billie. At just eighteen, she was discovered by a producer while performing in a Harlem jazz club. She then recorded vocals on several tracks with a well known band leader. In 1935, she made several singles and recorded with Duke Ellington that same year. In 1937, she toured with the Count Basie Orchestra and later Artie Shaw and his orchestra. Promoters unfortunately resisted Billie because of her race and she ended up leaving the orchestra in frustration.

On her own, she began performing at New York's Cafe Society. It was during this time that she first performed some of her best songs, including 'Strange Fruit.' Billie had a list of conditions under which she would perform the song: waiters would halt service, the room would be dark save for a spotlight on her face, it would be the last song, and there would be no encore. Billie continued to sing this powerful song about the lynching of African Americans in the South for the next twenty years. She said it reminded her of how her father had died -- from a lung disease after being refused treatment at a hospital because he was black.

The head of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics, Harry Anslinger, was a known racist and would spend a good portion of his career trying to eliminate Billie. When he insisted she cease performing the song, she refused and he contrived a plan to eventually destroy her.

Openly bisexual, Billie had relationships with men and women throughout her life, including Tallulah Bankhead. Though their relationship ended, the two retained a friendship. She also dated and married a series of abusive men who took advantage of her fame and addiction. With a new boyfriend, she began using heroin. She soon also had another hit song and signed with Decca Records. After her mother's death in 1945, her addiction worsened. In the music world, Billie continued to grow her success despite her personal struggles.

In 1947, Harry Anslinger of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics had his own men frame Billie and finally arrested her for narcotics possession. She was sentenced to one year and a day of jail time and sent to a federal rehabilitation facility. Upon her release, federal authorities refused to reissue her cabaret performer's license.

Determining to continue on, she had a sold out performance at Carnegie Hall and continued to perform at concert halls. She continued to tour and perform in the 1950s, as well as recording. Two years later, she had a successful European tour. She also worked in collaboration with a writer to produce an autobiography in 1956, but claimed she never read the book afterwards. After a televised performance and years of lackluster record sales and recordings, Billie recorded 'Lady in Satin' with the Ray Ellis Orchestra. Her final performance was in New York City on May 25th, 1959.

Soon after, she was admitted to the hospital for heart and liver problems. Anslinger took this opportunity to arrest Billie again for narcotics possession. They handcuffed her to the hospital bed, refused her the methodone treatment she had been taking, and placed her under police guard. Anslinger's men refused to allow the doctors to treat Billie, and so her gradual signs of recovery soon diminished. During this time, Tallulah Bankhead contacted her family friend, FBI director J. Edgar Hoover and pleaded for Billie's release. The FBI did not acquiesce and Billie died within days at the age of 44. More than 3,000 people attended her funeral services. She has posthumously received 23 Grammys and was inducted into the National Rhythm & Blues Hall of Fame.