In Honor of Women's History Month - 100 Black Women You Should Know, But Might Not

 

Fannie Lou Hamer

Daisy Bates

Mamie Till

Mary McLeod Bethune

Marjorie Lee Browne

Shirley Chisholm

Dorothy Height

bell hooks

Mae C. Jemison

Ntozake Shange

Sojourner Truth

Maggie Lena Walker

Ida B. Wells-Barnett

Elizabeth Key

Ella Baker

Ruby Bridges

Septima Clark

Harriet Tubman

Zora Neale Hurston

Bessie Coleman

Audre Lourde

Anne Moody

Barbara Johns

Annie Easley

Mary Louise Baldwin

Cheryl Shavers

May Edward Chinn

Maya Angelou

Marjorie Stewart Joyner

Drusilla Dunjee Houston

Sadie Tanner Mossell Alexander

Ella Fitzgerald

Shirley Ann Jackson

Dr. Mamie Clark

Ellen Smith Craft

Pearl Bailey

Edith Sampson

Gwendolyn Brooks

Octavia Butler

Lorraine Hansberry

June Bacon-Bearcey

Marian Anderson

Cicely Tyson

Cathay Williams

Billie Holiday

Mamie 'Peanut' Johnson

Sarah S. Goode

Barbara Jordan

Rosa Parks

Dorothy E. Davis

Frances Harper

Cinque

Catherine Burks-Brooks

Autherine Lucy

Linda Brown Smith

Melba Pattillo Beals

Glenda Gaither Davis

Mae Francis Moultrie

Effa Manley

Elizabeth Eckford

Gloria Ray Karlmark

Ethel Louise Belton Brown

Diane Nash

Connie Morgan

Bernice Johnson Reagon

Ruby Doris Smith Robinson

Nina Simone

Carlotta Walls Lanier

Unita Blackwell

Prathia Hall

Eleanor Holmes Norton

Kathleen Neal Cleaver

Dorothy Cotton

Angela Davis

June Jordan

Dorothy Geraldine Counts

Elizabeth Keckly

Toni Stone

Myrlie Evers Williams

Claudette Colvin

Rita Dove

Alice Walker

Minnijean Brown

Margaret Burroughs

Elaine Brown

Thelma Mothershed

Patricia Bath

Janet Emerson Bashen

Condoleeza Rice

Toni Morrison

Mari Evans

Carol Moseley Braun

Patricia Roberts Harris

Dorothy Dandridge

Ruby Dee

Gertrude Koen

Joyce Bryant

Lena Horn

Josephine Baker 

Charlotte E. Ray

Speaking of Women's History Month...The Best and Worst States For Women

iVillage recently conducted a study of the nation's states to see which of them are the best for women. They compared six criteria including: Women's economic well-being [health insurance, preventative services, overall health, domestic violence laws] Parenting [affordable childcare, parental leave] Female representation [state government, Congress] Reproductive rights [family planning, abortion barriers, contraception coverage by insurance] and Education [four-year college degrees] Here's the list: 1. Connecticut 2. Hawaii 3. Maryland 4. Massachusetts 5. California 6. Vermont 7. New York 8. Minnesota 9. Washington  10. New Hampshire 11. New Jersey 12. Colorado 13. Maine 14. Illinois 15. Alaska 16. Rhode Island 17. Delaware 18. Oregon  19. Virginia 20. Wisconsin 21. Michigan 22. Arizona 23. New Mexico 24. North Carolina 25. Georgia 26. Montana 27. Nevada 28. Iowa 29. Kansas 30. Pennsylvania 31. Florida 32. Ohio 33. Wyoming 34. Nebraska 35. Utah 36. Missouri 37. North Dakota 38. Texas 39. South Dakota 40. Tennessee 41. Idaho 42. South Carolina 43. Indiana 44. Louisiana 45. Alabama 46. Kentucky 47. West Virginia 48. Arkansas 49. Oklahoma 50. Mississippi

Read more here.