A Timeline of Black Women’s Religious Leadership, Activism, and Organizing:
Black women pursuing collective survival, organizing for bodily integrity, equal protection, opportunity, and the ability to flourish.
Timeline
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1819 Jarena Lee -
1820 Marie Laveau (Laveaux) -
1822 Betsey Stockton
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1829 Oblate Sisters -
1829 Theresa Maxis Duchemin
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1831 Maria Stewart
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1831 Sarah Mapps Douglass
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1833 Philadelphia Female Anti-Slavery Society
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1842 The Congregation of the Sisters of the Holy Family
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1847 Jane Elizabeth Manning James
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1850 Harriet Tubman
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1851 Sojourner Truth
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1853 Mary Ann Shadd Cary
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1864 Efunroye Tinubu -
1872 Bridget Biddy Mason
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1874 The Women’s Parent Mite Missionary Society
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1874 Women’s Christian Temperance Union
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1877 Woman’s American Baptist Home Mission Society
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1886 Lucy Craft Laney
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1886 Clarissa Minnie Thompson Allen
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1887 Lucy Ann Henry Coles
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1890 Clara Ann Howard
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1891 The Missionary Training Department of Spelman Seminary
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1892 Ida B. Wells
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1892 Anna Julia Cooper
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1892 Frances Ellen Watkins Harper
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1896 Coralie Franklin Cook -
1896 National Association of Colored Women
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1897 Florence Spearing Randolph
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1898 Mary J. Small -
1899 Mary Talbert
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1899 Olive Jackson
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1900 Nannie Helen Burroughs -
1900 Women’s Auxiliary, National Baptist Convention
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1901 Anna E. Hall -
1902 Emma Beard Delaney
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1902 Charlotte Hawkins Brown
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1902 Susie Baker King Taylor
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1903 Church of the Living God, The Pillar and Ground of The Truth
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1903 Maggie Lena Walker
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1903 Charlotte Maxeke (Manye)
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1903 Harriet Gibbs Marshall
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1904 Mary McLeod Bethune
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1906 Pocahontas Pope
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1906 National League for the Protection of Colored Women
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1907 Virginia E. Walker Broughton
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1907 Janie Porter Barrett -
1908 Lugenia Burns Hope
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1908 Organization of Negro Women for the Culture
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1912 Adella Hunt Logan
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1915 Georgia De Baptiste -
1915 Jennie B. Moton
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1917 Lethia Cousins Fleming
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1918 Langley Avenue All Nations Pentecostal Church
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1919 Delilah Beasley
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1920 Florida Ruffin Ridley
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1921 Rosebud Literary and Industrial School
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1922 Katherine Davis Tillman
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1922 Elizabeth Carter Brooks
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1924 Fannie Barrier Williams
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1926 Hallie Quinn Brown
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1930 Young Negroes Cooperative League
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1937 Zora Neale Hurston
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1939 Frances Albrier
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1942 Pauli Murray
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1942 Congress of Racial Equality
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1943 Rosa Parks
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1951 Ruby Hurley
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1951 Jane Cooke Wright
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1957 Septima Clark
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1957 Anna Arnold Hedgeman
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1960 Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee
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1961 Charlayne Hunter-Gault
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1962 Prathia Laura Ann Hall Wynn
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1962 Bernice Johnson Reagan
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1963 Dorothy Height
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1964 Fannie Lou Hamer
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1964 Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party
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1965 Bettie Mae Fikes
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1966 American Equal Rights Association
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1966 Black Panther Party for Self Defense
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1966 Constance Baker Motley
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1967 Kathleen Cleaver
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1967 Clara Muhammad
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1968 Audre Lorde -
1968 Addie Wyatt
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1968 Thea Bowman
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1968 Patricia Grey
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1969 Magora Kennedy
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1969 Afro-American Women’s Clergy
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1969 Coretta Scott King
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1971 Elaine Brown
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1972 Barbara Sizemore
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1972 Barbara Charline Jordan
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1972 Imagene Stewart
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1973 Angela Davis
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1974 Katie Geneva Cannon
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1975 Audrey F. Bronson
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1977 Barbara Lewis King
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1978 Darlene Garner
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1979 Alveda King
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1980 Barbara Smith
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1980 Della Reese
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1981 Jacquelyn Grant
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1983 Alice Walker
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1983 Kelly Brown Douglas
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1984 Cheryl Sanders
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1984 Jamye Coleman Williams
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1984 Leontine T. C. Kelly
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1985 Jamaica Kincaid -
1985 Nontombi Naomi Tutu
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1985 Luisah Teish
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1985 Queen Mother Moore
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1987 Jo Ann Gibson Robinson
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1988 Yelena Abdulaevna Khanga
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1988 Barbara Clementine Harris
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1988 Bernice A. King
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1989 Renita J. Weems
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1990 Catherine Stokes
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1991 Lilith Dorsey
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1991 Yvette Flunder
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1992 Carol Lani Guinier
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1992 Billie Blair
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1993 Mary Antoinette Schiesler (Carole Virginia Rodez) -
1993 bell hooks
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1993 Delores Seneva Williams
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1993 Cassandra Alexander-Green -
1994 Helen “Queen Afua” Robinson
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1995 Betty Shabazz
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1995 Myrlie Evers Williams
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1997 Juanita Bynum
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1997 Carolivia Herron
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1998 Barbara Lee
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1999 Debra Majeed
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2000 The Fellowship of Affirming Ministries
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2000 Beverly Shamana
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2000 Maayan Zik
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2000 Khristi Adams -
2000 Angel Kyodo Williams
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2001 Jan Dean Willis -
2001 Cheryl Townsend Gilkes
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2003 Cathy Royal -
2003 Saleemah Abdul-Ghafur
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2003 M. Shawn Copeland
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2004 Rima Vesely-Flad
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2004 Ifalade Ta’Shia Asanti -
2004 Faith Adiele
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2005 Amina Amatul Haqq -
2005 Amina Wadud -
2005 Carolyn Tyler-Guidry -
2005 Karen Jackson-Weaver
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2006 Tarana Burke
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2006 Marcia Y. Riggs
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2006 Stacey Yvonne Abrams
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2007 Myokei Caine-Barrett
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2008 Jamillah Karim
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2008 Catherine Coleman Flowers
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2009 Alysa Stanton -
2010 Teresa E. Snorton
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2011 Abiola Abrams
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2012 Vanessee J. Burns
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2012 Cheryl A. Giles
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2012 Chanda Prescod-Weinstein
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2013 Alicia Garza
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2013 Ayo (Opal) Tometi
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2013 Patrisse Khan-Cullors
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2014 Ava DuVernay
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2015 Bree Newsome
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2015 Larycia Hawkins -
2016 Melva Sampson
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2016 D. Danyelle Thomas
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2017 Ibtihaj Muhammad
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2017 Sindile Dlamini Mathebula
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2018 Neichelle R. Guidry
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2018 Naomi Wadler
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2019 Ilhan Omar
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2020 Ruth King
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2014 Ava DuVernay
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2020 Cori Bush -
2020 Pamela Ayo Yetunde
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2020 Nikole Hannah-Jones
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2020 Sebene Selassie
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2020 Tarece Johnson
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2021 Amber Starks
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2021 Rachel Ricketts
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2022 Candice Marie Benbow
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2022 Robin Dease
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2022 Tawnicia Rowan
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2023 Beverly Wallace
1800-1820
1820-1840
After the Middle Passage
Survival, Creating Community, Crafting Diaspora Identities.
1840-1860
Reconstruction and America’s Apartheid
Freedom and the Rise of Jim Crow.
1860-1880
1880-1900
1900-1920
Making Strides to Freedom
Organizing and Agitating for Equal Protection, Education, Civil and Human Rights.
1920-1940
Making Strides to Freedom
Organizing and Agitating for Equal Protection, Education, Civil and Human Rights.
1940-1960
1960-1980
Making Strides to Freedom
Organizing and Agitating for Equal Protection, Education, Civil and Human Rights.
1980-2000
Contemporary Activisms
Enduring Struggles for Freedom
2000-2020
2020-2040
