Timeline

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.

    1800-1820
  • 1819 Jarena Lee
  • 1820-1840

    After the Middle Passage

    Survival, Creating Community, Crafting Diaspora Identities.
  • 1820 Marie Laveau (Laveaux)
  • 1822 Betsey Stockton
  • 1829 Oblate Sisters
  • 1831 Maria Stewart
  • 1831 Sarah Mapps Douglass
  • 1833 Philadelphia Female Anti-Slavery Society
  • 1840-1860

    Reconstruction and America’s Apartheid

    Freedom and the Rise of Jim Crow.
  • 1842 The Congregation of the Sisters of the Holy Family
  • 1851 Sojourner Truth
  • 1860-1880
  • 1863 Harriet Tubman
  • 1864 Efunroye Tinubu
  • 1872 Bridget Biddy Mason
  • 1874 The Women’s Parent Mite Missionary Society
  • 1874 Women’s Christian Temperance Union
  • 1877 Woman’s American Baptist Home Mission Society
  • 1880-1900
  • 1886 Lucy Craft Laney
  • 1891 The Missionary Training Department of Spelman Seminary
  • 1896 National Association of Colored Women
  • 1898 Mary J. Small
  • 1900-1920

    Making Strides to Freedom

    Organizing and Agitating for Equal Protection, Education, Civil and Human Rights.
  • 1900 Nannie Helen Burroughs
  • 1900 Women’s Auxiliary, National Baptist Convention
  • 1902 Charlotte Hawkins Brown
  • 1902 Susie Baker King Taylor
  • 1903 Church of the Living God, The Pillar and Ground of The Truth
  • 1903 Harriet Gibbs Marshall
  • 1904 Mary McLeod Bethune
  • 1906 Pocahontas Pope
  • 1906 National League for the Protection of Colored Women
  • 1907 Janie Porter Barrett
  • 1908 Lugenia Burns Hope
  • 1908 Organization of Negro Women for the Culture
  • 1913 Ida B. Wells
  • 1915 Georgia De Baptiste
  • 1917 Lethia Cousins Fleming
  • 1918 Langley Avenue All Nations Pentecostal Church
  • 1919 Delilah Beasley
  • 1920-1940

    Making Strides to Freedom

    Organizing and Agitating for Equal Protection, Education, Civil and Human Rights.
  • 1920 Florida Ruffin Ridley
  • 1921 Rosebud Literary and Industrial School
  • 1922 Katherine Davis Tillman
  • 1924 Fannie Barrier Williams
  • 1926 Hallie Quinn Brown
  • 1930 Young Negroes Cooperative League
  • 1939 Francis Albrier
  • 1940-1960
  • 1942 Pauli Murray
  • 1942 Congress of Racial Equality
  • 1943 Rosa Parks
  • 1951 Ruby Hurley
  • 1960-1980

    Making Strides to Freedom

    Organizing and Agitating for Equal Protection, Education, Civil and Human Rights.
  • 1960 Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee
  • 1963 Dorothy Height
  • 1964 Fannie Lou Hamer
  • 1964 Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party
  • 1966 American Equal Rights Association
  • 1966 Black Panther Party for Self Defense
  • 1967 Kathleen Cleaver
  • 1967 Clara Muhammad
  • 1968 Addie Wyatt
  • 1969 Afro-American Women’s Clergy
  • 1969 Coretta Scott King
  • 1971 Elaine Brown
  • 1972 Imagene Stewart
  • 1975 Septima Clark
  • 1977 Barbara Lewis King
  • 1980-2000

    Contemporary Activisms

    Enduring Struggles for Freedom
  • 1980 Della Reese
  • 1981 Jacquelyn Grant
  • 1984 Jamye Coleman Williams
  • 1985 Jamaica Kincaid
  • 1985 Luisah Teish
  • 1985 Queen Mother Moore
  • 1987 Jo Ann Gibson Robinson
  • 1988 Yelena Abdulaevna Khanga
  • 1991 Yvette Flunder
  • 1993 Mary Antoinette Schiesler (Carole Virginia Rodez)
  • 1993 bell hooks
  • 1994 Helen “Queen Afua” Robinson
  • 1995 Betty Shabazz
  • 1995 Myrlie Evers Williams
  • 1997 Juanita Bynum
  • 1999 Debra Majeed
  • 2000-2020
  • 2000 The Fellowship of Affirming Ministries
  • 2000 Maayan Zik
  • 2000 Khristi Adams
  • 2000 Cheryl A. Giles
  • 2003 Cathy Royal
  • 2004 Ifalade Ta’Shia Asanti
  • 2004 Faith Adiele
  • 2005 Amina Amatul Haqq
  • 2008 Jamillah Karim
  • 2010 Teresa E. Snorton
  • 2011 Abiola Abrams
  • 2013 Alicia Garza
  • 2013 Ayo (Opal) Tometi
  • 2013 Patrisse Khan-Cullors
  • 2015 Bree Newsome
  • 2015 Larycia Hawkins
  • 2020-2040
  • 2020 Cori Bush
  • 2021 Tarece Johnson
  • 2022 Candice Marie Benbow