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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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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

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 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 3: Mabel Fairbanks America’s First Black Female Figure Skater

Mabel Fairbanks was the first black person to be inducted into the US Figure Skating Hall of Fame in 1997. She was also inducted into the International Women's Sports Hall of Fame. While Mabel coached some of the biggest names in figure skating like Scott Hamilton, Debi Thomas and Kristi Yamaguchi, she was never allowed to compete in the Olympics at the height of her career because of her race. As a black woman skating in Jim Crow America, she was often banned from rinks and competitions. 

Born in 1915 in Florida, Mabel was left orphaned after her mother died when she was 8. Mabel went to live with her older brother in New York City, but his wife wouldn’t allow her to stay with them and she was soon homeless. A wealthy woman saw her sleeping on a park bench and gave her a job as a babysitter in her home overlooking Central Park. Mabel watched the children skating from the Central Park apartment and decided she could do it too. At only 10 years old, Mabel bought a pair of used skates that were too big, stuffed them with cotton and headed to the whites only ice rink. "Blacks didn't skate there. But it was a public place, so I just carried on," she once said. 

By the 1930s, Mabel was a skating sensation, but she was still not allowed into most ice rinks. There weren’t any black skate rinks and she was denied entry to the white rinks. Still, Mabel would return every single day until, finally, the manager let her in. Even though Olympic medalist and nine-time US Champion Maribel Vinson personally took Mabel under her wing as a student, Mabel still wasn’t able to compete in any qualifying events for the Olympics because she was black. 

Instead, Mabel would perform at black charity events and private shows. White producers refused to book her despite her skills. With few options, Mabel decided to move to Los Angeles where she was able to tour internationally, skating with Ice Capades in Mexico and later with Ice Follies. Mabel would go on to coach singles and pairs skating. Many of her students would go on to compete in the Olympics and win gold. Mabel was never bitter and was proud of her accomplishments. In a 1998 interview the Los Angeles Times wrote:

Badass Black Women History Month: Celebrating 28 Black Women Who Said, “Fuck it, I’ll Do It!” Day 15: Margaret Walker Poet and Writer

Margaret Walker was a central character to the Chicago Black Renaissance. Even though she was born in Alabama and grew up in New Orleans, in Chicago she would help form the foundations of a literary movement. In 1935, she graduated from Northwestern University and became a member of the South Side Writers Group. She was inducted into The Chicago Literary Hall of Fame in 2014. 

Excerpt from How I Wrote Jubilee and Other Essays on Life and Literature:

Badass Black Women History Month: Celebrating 28 Black Women Who Said, “Fuck it, I’ll Do It!” Day 11: Mary Jones The First Recorded Trans Woman in American History

Mary Jones was a sex worker in New York City. Nothing is known about her upbringing or life until her arrest in 1836. Mary would frequently steal the wallets of her customers, who usually wouldn’t go to the cops because they didn’t want anyone to know they paid a sex worker. However, on June 11th, 1836, she was finally arrested. When officers did a strip search on her, they discovered that she’d been born male. They also discovered that Mary wore a leather pouch in the shape of a vagina attached to a girdle to hide her gender. 

Mary’s case caused an uproar and people would crowd the courtroom to harass and assault her while telling her to dress like a man. Through it all, Mary would continue to wear lavish and beautiful gowns to court, upsetting the crowd even more. She simply could not be bothered with their petty anger. When asked why she dressed like a woman, she said she looked better in women’s clothing and had always dressed that way when she lived in New Orleans. 

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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