Badass Black Women's History Month

Badass Black Women History Month: Celebrating 28 Black Women Who Said, “Fuck it, I’ll Do It!”

Day 28: Bree Newsome The Woman Who Brought Down The Confederacy 

On June 17th, 2015, a white man walked into a historically black church in Charleston, SC and murdered nine people. A state senator, mothers, aunts, and choir members joined in prayer would lose their lives because of white pride and racism. White pride and racism that was emboldened by the Confederate flag. A flag that waved proudly above symbols of power and justice. The incident led to unending debates over the meaning of the flag. But, the flag remained  as images of the perpetrator holding that same flag ran across TV screens. It was as though the history of the flag outweighed the loss of nine black lives. As though that flag was more important than respecting the black lives that did not want to look up at a symbol aligned with hate every day. 

Until June 27, 2015. That’s when a woman named Bree Newsome went, fuck it, I’ll do it. That day, she climbed a flagpole and took that flag down. Bree went to high school in Columbia, Maryland. Bree is a 31-year-old filmmaker, musician, speaker, and activist from Charlotte, North Carolina. She studied film at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts after winning a scholarship for a short animated film she created. She would go on to win several awards––the Outstanding Independent Short film award in the Black Reel Awards of 2012 and the Best Short Film at the BET Urban World Film Festival. Her film Wake would be screened at festivals like Cannes and the Montreal International Black Film Festival. Bree Newsome would even become the first black undergraduate to be nominated for the Wasserman Award, NYU Film School’s top honor in recognition for outstanding achievement in film.

Bree was not an activist. Bree was a filmmaker, but the conditions she faced as a black woman forced her into activism. The sci-fi and horror genres that Bree worked in didn’t offer many opportunities for women of color. "The space that exists for many of us, as a young black girl, is so extremely limited so that you really can’t go very far without being an activist, without being in defiance of something.“ She said an a panel at Spelman College in 2014. If Bree wanted more opportunities, she had to fight for them. If Bree wanted anything to change, she had to fight for it.

So, ten days after the Charleston Massacre, unable to sleep because of the horrors she saw, Bree climbed a flagpole and removed the flag a murderer had proudly waved. Bree took the flag down out of respect for those nine lives and all the lives before them that had been harmed because of that flag. When she came down, she was arrested and given a $3,000 bond. The flag was put back up 45 minutes later. The flag was taken down for good on July 10th, 2015––13 days after Bree’s action. 

Badass Black Women History Month: Celebrating 28 Black Women Who Said, “Fuck it, I’ll Do It!” Day 8: Amber Ruffin The First Black Woman to Write for Late Night 

Late-Night TV talk shows are cultural touchstones. They tell us what the world thinks is important, funny or just relevant. From Johnny Carson to Seth Meyers, the late-night talk show has remained a staple of network television. However, throughout the history of these shows, there have been no black female writers behind the scenes. That is until Amber Ruffin joined the staff of Late Night with Seth Meyers in 2014. 

A Nebraska native, Ruffin made a name for herself in comedy when she moved to Chicago. She quickly became an improv favorite and started working for the Second City and Boom Chicago. After failing to make the cut for SNL, she thought her career was over––until Seth Meyers asked if she could move to New York in 6 days to write for him. Ruffin brings a much needed voice to the late night scene. 

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Photo by Paul Octavious

Badass Black Women History Month: Celebrating 28 Black Women Who Said, “Fuck it, I’ll Do It!” Day 5: Charlene Carruthers Black Queer Feminist Activist and Organizer

Charlene Carruthers was born and raised on the South Side of Chicago, where she still organizes. Charlene aims to create young leaders in the black community through organizations such as BYP100 and SisterSong. She has served as the National Director or National Coordinator of BYP100 since the organization’s founding in 2013.

Carruthers was inspired, along with 99 other young black activists to start BYP100 when they learned of the acquittal of George Zimmerman on an all charges relating to his February 26, 2012 killing of Trayvon Martin. Carruthers believes in united action led through a black queer feminist lens that centers a youth perspective. 

Charlene’s forthcoming book Unapologetic: A Black, Queer and Feminist Mandate for Our Movement will be published in the Fall of 2018 on Beacon Press.

When we talk about systems of oppression, young black people are disproportionately impacted. Be it by education, or the system of mass incarceration, healthcare disparities, all of those things disproportionately impact young black people. So in order to address these problems, people who are directly impacted have to be involved in the solution-making and reorganizing.

Badass Black Women History Month: Celebrating 28 Black Women Who Said, “Fuck it, I’ll Do It!” Day 6: Patricia Hill Collins Professor and Author

Patricia Hill Collins is a Distinguished University Professor of Sociology at the University of Maryland, College Park. She is also the former head of the Department of African-American Studies at the University of Cincinnati, and a past President of the American Sociological Association Council. Collins was the 100th president of the ASA and the first African-American woman to hold this position.

Collins is also the author of Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness and the Politics of Empowerment. 

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Badass Black Women History Month: Celebrating 28 Black Women Who Said, “Fuck it, I’ll Do It!” Day 9: Surya Bonaly World Champion Figure Skater

Surya Bonaly was born in Nice, France in 1973. She started ice skating when she was 11. Surya would go on to become a three-time World silver medalist (1993–1995), a five-time European champion (1991–1995), the 1991 World Junior Champion, and a nine-time French national champion (1989–1997). Bonaly is the only Olympic figure skater to land a backflip on only one blade; she performed it at the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan. However, despite the athleticism behind the move, the Olympic committee made it illegal after she did it and took points away from Bonaly for daring to perform it.

Bonaly, much like Mabel Fairbanks, faced challenges because of her race in a mostly white sport. Bonaly didn’t fit the mold of what a typical ice skater should look like and had to work twice as hard as other skaters.  

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I don’t know if race made it more difficult, but definitely it made me stronger, knowing that I had no excuse for making mistakes or being kind of so-so, because maybe I wouldn’t be accepted as a white person would’ve been. But if I was better, they had no choice but to accept it and say, ‘She did so well.’

Badass Black Women History Month: Celebrating 28 Black Women Who Said, “Fuck it, I’ll Do It!” Day 2: Dianne White Clatto America’s First Black Weathercaster

In 1962, when Dianne White Clatto became the first full-time black weathercaster for KSDK in St. Louis, she had already accomplished major feats in her life. The descendent of a Civil War general’s “mistress slave,” Clatto was the first black woman to model for Saks Fifth Avenue in St. Louis. She was one of the first black students to attend the University of Missouri. Her TV career would last 26 years, where she eventually moved from weathercaster to news anchor. 

It wasn’t easy for Dianne. The job didn’t pay much and she had to keep a second job at Avon to make ends meet. Viewers also hated her. She would receive regular death threats and phone calls asking her to “give her job to a nice white girl.” When Dianne married Fred Porterfield (the city’s first black male newscaster) and got pregnant with her first child, she dared to show her pregnancy on air. Even though she only gained 11 pounds during the pregnancy, viewers noticed. This was unheard of at the time and viewers would call in and ask them to “take that nigger baby off the air.” Dianne eventually won viewers over and moved on to become a news anchor in the 70s. She would cover live events, sports and breaking news. 

In 1986, Dianne was fired because she was considered too old to be on air. She sued for age discrimination and won a settlement. Dianne would go on to open many charities, get involved in a pretty badass federal larceny charge, and  work for the mayor’s office until she passed away in 2015.

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I knew young black women looked up to me.

Badass Black Women History Month: Celebrating 28 Black Women Who Said, “Fuck it, I’ll Do It!” Day 13 & 14: Mabel Hampton and Lillian Foster Lesbian Activists

Born in North Carolina in 1902, Mabel Hampton was a dancer, activist and domestic worker. Her mother died when she was two and her grandmother took her in. Sadly, she was left orphaned when her grandmother passed away at only 7 years old, Mabel moved to New York City to be with her aunt. She was raped by her uncle and forced back on the streets, but soon another family took her in.

Despite these hardships, Mabel fell in love with Harlem’s nightlife. She lived openly as a lesbian and refused to hide who she was. In 1932, Mabel met Lillian Foster, the two would be together until Lillians’ death in 1978. They would work together on community activism and the Lesbian Herstory Archives, which Mabel was a founding member of.

Mabel suffered racism and abuse because she was an openly gay black woman. She was beaten, kidnapped and raped. Still, Mabel went to every major gay pride march that occurred until her death. In 1985, she was awarded a lifetime achievement award by the National Coalition of Black Lesbians and Gays.

You can listen to Mabel and Lillian in their own words HERE.

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Badass Black Women History Month: Celebrating 28 Black Women Who Said, “Fuck it, I’ll Do It!” Day 1: Maria W. Stewart 1803-1879 The First Female Orator

Maria W. Stewart was a domestic servant who would go on to become the FIRST woman to speak to a mixed crowd of men and women, black and white. She was also the FIRST black woman to publicly speak about women’s rights and to make a public anti-slavery speech. When no one else wanted to speak up, Maria took it upon herself to say what she felt was right. Even though it made people hate her.

Maria was born in Hartford, CT. Her parents were free, but they died when she was 5 and she was sent to live with a minister and his family. For 10 years, she worked as their servant with no formal education or pay. In 1826, she married and moved to Boston. She was widowed after three years and she had no children, but the move would launch her public speaking career. 

In Boston, Maria achieved the feat of becoming the first black woman to give speeches in front of a mixed race crowd. At the time, this was described as a “promiscuous” crowd, but Maria wasn’t scared. She lectured on women’s rights, anti-slavery and responsibility in the black community. Her speeches and published pamphlets would make her a matronist: a matriarch of black feminist thought during the Jim Crow era. 

It wasn’t easy though. Her speeches were seen as daring and risky. Maria didn’t hold back from anyone. She criticized white people, black men, and said ignorance made up the real chains of oppression. Crowds would often turn on her in the middle of her speeches. When she gave a speech criticizing black men for their refusal to aid black women and women’s rights, the room went insane. Maria didn’t think black women should be forced to work in kitchens. She thought black girls should get the same opportunities as everyone else. The people hated her message. Soon after, Maria decided to retire from public speaking. She gave her last speech in 1833 and left Boston for New York. Very little is known about her after this move. She struggled to find writing work and eventually moved to Baltimore. She died at Freedmen’s Hospital on December 17th, 1879.

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O ye sons of Africa, when will your voices be heard in our legislative halls, in defiance of your enemies, contending for equal rights and liberty?

Badass Black Women History Month: Celebrating 28 Black Women Who Said, “Fuck it, I’ll Do It!” Day 22: Sissieretta Jones The First Black Woman To Get To Carnegie Hall

Sissieretta Jones was a soprano who sang grand opera, light opera and popular music. She was often compared to Adelina Patti, the famous Italian opera singer. 

Born in 1868, Sissieretta started singing at an early age. By 17 she was accepted to the Providence Academy of Music. Soon after, she was accepted to the the New England Conservatory of Music. Sissieretta’s talent was undeniable and she was soon performing at the White House for Pres. Benjamin Harrison. She eventually sang for four consecutive presidents — Harrison, Grover Cleveland, William McKinley, and Theodore Roosevelt — and the British royal family.

Sissieretta filled Madison Square Garden and was the first African-American to sing at the Music Hall in New York. One paper wrote of her performance, "If Mme Jones is not the equal of Adelina Patti, she at least can come nearer it than anything the American public has heard. Her notes are as clear as a mockingbird’s and her annunciation perfect.“ She was an international success. She traveled to Europe, Australia, India, and South Africa. She was pretty much the Beyoncé of her day. 

But, in 1896, Sissieretta returned to Providence to help her sick mother. America’s intense racism made it difficult for her to book classical venues and she never regained the fame she saw abroad. After forming the Black Patti Troubadours and seeing mild success, Sissieretta was forced to retire in 1915 when her mother’s illness worsened. She devoted the rest of her life to her mother and church. She died in poverty on June 24, 1933 from cancer.

Badass Black Women History Month: Celebrating 28 Black Women Who Said, “Fuck it, I’ll Do It!” Day 7: Ma Rainey Mother of the Blues

Ma Rainey was one of the earliest blues singers and part of the first generation of recorded blues singers. She’s considered the “Mother of the Blues.”

She started singing as a teenager and became known for her moving, powerful voice. She recorded with Louis Armstrong and the Georgia Jazz Band. But, Ma Rainey wasn’t just a badass singer, she would inspire LGBTQ activists for years to come and was major motivation behind the lesbian rights movement of the 1970s. 

Ma Rainey sang openly and explicitly about sexuality in her songs. She proved that a black woman could be sexual, messy, and honest and still be the most talented, baddest bitch in the scene. In 1928, Paramount would terminate her contract because they believed she had “fallen out of fashion,” but her legacy in the music world wouldn’t be forgotten. In 1989 she was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame. In 1990, she was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

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Badass Black Women History Month: Celebrating 28 Black Women Who Said, “Fuck it, I’ll Do It!” Day 26: Cathay Williams The First Black Woman To Enlist In The Army

Cathay Williams was born in Missouri to a free man and a woman in slavery, which made her a slave. She worked as a house slave on the Johnson plantation outside of Jefferson City, MO. In 1861, Union forces took over the city during the early stages of the Civil War. At that time, many slaves were forced to serve the military in support of the Union, but most of them had roles such as cooks or nurses. Williams, however, was impressed into serving the 8th Indiana Volunteer Infantry Regiment which put her in the middle of battle.

Cathay would be present a the Battle of Pea Ridge and the Red River Campaign. During her travels with the 8th Indiana, Cathay also saw uniformed black men serving as soldiers. This most likely inspired her own interest in military service. On November 15th, 1866, Cathay enlisted in the U.S. Regular Army in St. Louis, MO while passing herself off as a man. She was assigned to the 38th infantry. Only two people knew she was a woman––her cousin and a friend––both of whom were fellow soldiers in her regiment and are believed to have helped her conceal her true gender.

Sadly, two years after enlisting, Williams contracted smallpox and was hospitalized. While she did rejoin her unit, the effects of the smallpox and years of marching harmed her body. she was frequently hospitalized and eventually it was discovered that she was a woman. She was discharged from the army on October 14th, 1868. 

She would eventually find other work and would move around constantly. Her story as the first black woman to serve in the army spread and a story was published about her in The St. Louis Daily Times in 1876. Despite this, Cathay still couldn’t receive a disability pension based on her military service. Despite suffering from neuralgia, diabetes, having had all her toes amputated and only being able to walk with a crutch, her claim for disability payments was denied. 

Badass Black Women History Month: Celebrating 28 Black Women Who Said, “Fuck it, I’ll Do It!” Day 14: Maria P. Williams and Tressie Souders The first black female filmmakers 

It’s Valentine’s Day, so I’m going to do something special and honor two women. Partially, because their work speaks to each other, but also because very little is known about either one of them. 

Maria P. Williams (pictured) and Tressie Souders are widely believed to be the first black female original filmmakers in America. While black women like Zora Neale Hurston and Drusilla Dunjee Houston made documentary projects, Souders and Williams were the first to make original films. 

Souders came first. She was born in Kansas in 1897. At the time, Kansas had a bustling black community that supported black artists. It’s unclear what inspired Souders to get into film, but she released her first movie, “A Woman’s Error” in 1922. Souders produced, directed and wrote the film. It was distributed by the Afro-American Film Exhibitors Company. No copies of the film exist today, but Billboard Magazine said in January of 1922 that, “'A Woman’s Error’ was the first of its kind to be produced by a young woman of our race, and has been passed on by the critics as a picture true to Negro life.” 

Souders would later move to L.A. and work as a domestic worker.   The Tressie Souders Film Society was created in her honor. Little else is known about her life or work and no photographs of her currently exist. 

Now, just a year later in 1923, another black woman from Kansas––Maria P. Williams would produce, write and star in her own silent film, “The Flames of Wrath.” Previously, Williams worked closely with her husband and they created their own production company, the Western Film Producing Company and Booking Exchange, but “The Flames of Wrath” was Williams’ first solo production after their divorce. Only one still from Williams’ film exists today and it’s housed at the George P. Johnson Negro Film Collection in California. Nothing else is known about her life after the film. 

The Norfolk Journal and Guide said of Williams, “Kansas City is claiming the honor of having the first colored woman film producer in the United States…,” yet they also made the same proclamation for Souders a year earlier. This has led to conflict over which woman truly is “the first,” but I don’t think it matters. 

Badass Black Women History Month: Celebrating 28 Black Women Who Said, “Fuck it, I’ll Do It!”

Day 2: Mara Brock Akil.

Before Shonda Rhimes ever even downloaded Final Draft to her dusty mac book, Mara Brock Akil was laying it down with the show Girlfriends. Mara was out here going “oh, y'all ain’t gonna realistically portray the complex nuances of being a black woman on TV? Well, fuck it. I’ll do it.”

Badass Black Women History Month: Celebrating 28 Black Women Who Said, “Fuck it, I’ll Do It!” Day 24: Jacci Gresham The First Black Female Tattoo Artist

Jacci Gresham is a 70-year-old woman and the owner of New Orleans’ oldest tattoo shop, Aart Accent Tattoos. She went into business in 1976 and was the first black female tattoo artist not just in New Orleans, but in the U.S. Gresham moved from Detroit to New Orleans when she was 29 and never looked back.  Born in Flint, Michigan, Gresham always liked to draw. She studied architecture and engineering in college and worked for General Motors designing floor plans for car dealerships. She’s known for her ability to tattoo the same way she draws so the final product on skin completely matches her sketches. When she opened her shop, there were only two other tattoo shops in the city. There were a total of five female tattoo artists in the U.S. Gresham had never given or received a tattoo. She had been sketching and doing pen-and-ink drawings all her life, but she had no experience in the business she was about to enter. While the other shops have closed, Aart Accent continues to grow. 

“Jacci was ahead of her time in tattooing,” says Jim Seawright, who got his first tattoo from Gresham about 25 years ago, when he was 21. Unlike many artists at the time, Gresham was willing to move beyond the art samples on the walls, Seawright says.  "She was doing tattoos that no one else even thought about doing,“ he says. "She did portraits of people, animals. That was back in the day when people were still doing hearts with arrows through them.”

There also were very few black tattoo artists at the time and, Gresham says, few African-Americans getting tattooed by a professional. “Black people in Louisiana have always gotten tattoos, but they’re hand-stuck,” she says, citing musician Aaron Neville as an example. “I think the reason black people didn’t get tattoos was because the tattoo trade was predominantly a biker group, and they were not women-friendly or black people-friendly or any of that.”

Badass Black Women History Month: Celebrating 28 Black Women Who Said, “Fuck it, I’ll Do It!” Day 11: Meta Vaux Warrick Fuller, 1877-1968 Sculptor, Poet, Painter

I cannot wait to tell y’all about this baddie, Meta Vaux. When people think about black history, far too often they think of sadness, poverty, and hardship. That’s fair; we got a lot of that. But, we’ve also always had a lot of fly, boujie ass black excellence. In the early 20th century, affluent black communities were common in major cities around the north (Chicago’s Bronzeville is one example). So, today, we’re gonna get to know Meta Vaux, Philadelphia’s baddest and boujiest. 

Meta Vaux came from a fairly wealthy family. Her mother was a beautician and her father was a barber. At the time, Philadelphia’s black community was booming as the Great Migration brought an influx of new black organizations, businesses and institutions. Yeah, Meta Vaux was a lil black girl who took horseback riding lessons. She was trained in dance, art and music. When she was in HIGH SCHOOL, one of her projects was selected for the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago. This got her a scholarship to the Pennsylvania Museum and School of Industrial Art where she decided to study sculpture. 

She graduated in 1899, but faced discrimination in Philadelphia’s white art circles. So, she said fuck y’all and, like so many black artists, found refuge in Paris. While there, she became friends with W.E.B. DuBois and was inspired to introduce black themes into her work. She became internationally known as “the sculptor of horrors.” She had a desire to portray terrifying aspects of humanity, like her sculpture of Mary Turner––a pregnant young black woman who was lynched the previous year. 

She eventually returned to America in 1903. White fragility tried at every turn to stop her. Philadelphia’s art community shunned her, but she still became the first black woman to receive a U.S. government commission. Meta Vaux would marry, raise three children and continue to create art, but she’d never reach the heights of her Paris fame in America. 

When she and her husband moved to Framingham, MA, neighbors in their mostly white neighborhood created a petition to have the family removed. Yeah, some pasty white Massachusetts farmers tried to get a black woman who studied with Rodin removed from their neighborhood.

“My child, you are a sculptor; you have the sense of form in your fingers.”  - Rodin on Meta Vaux Warrick Fuller

Badass Black Women History Month: Celebrating 28 Black Women Who Said, “Fuck it, I’ll Do It!” Day 12: Jacqueline Moore The First Black WWE Women’s Champion