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Women have made so many unattributed contributions in history.
Many of the women I spotlight here, even after March - Women's History Month - is over, will be people of whom most visitors
to this page have never heard. So . . . let's begin.
How far have women come in the workplace? Progress has been made, but, it has taken years to
even get close to that glass ceiling. It might be interesting to take a look back in time to see how far we have - and
haven't - come.
"Women & the Workplace"
Then ~From
"Women & the Workplace" - what life was like for working women:
During the American Revolution, some twenty thousand women
accompanied American troops to war, serving as cooks, nurses, laundresses, guides, seamstresses, water porters, and ammunition
loaders.
In 1848, Charlotte Woodward campaigned to change laws that
gave husbands the right to pocket their wives' earnings.
By 1870, six out of ten working women were domestic servants.
In New York City at mid-century, 25 percent of all employed Irish women and half of all African-American women worked as servants.
Ninety percent of working women fit into 11 of 451 job types
listed on the 1940 census. More than ninety percent of all nurses, clerical workers, and domestic servants were women.
A Women's Bureau study of 1944 reported that eighty percent
of women who worked during the war wished to continue at their jobs.
The 1943 “Guide To Hiring Women” has quite a
bit of advice for the men who were, of course, doing the hiring.
General experience indicates that "husky" girls are more
even tempered and efficient than their underweight sisters.
A girl has more confidence and is more efficient if she can
keep her hair tidied, apply fresh lipstick, and wash her hands.
Pick young married women. They usually have more of a sense
of responsibility than their unmarried sisters, they're less likely to be flirtatious, they need the work or they wouldn't
be doing it, they still have the pep and interest to work hard and to deal with the public efficiently.
Numerous properties say that women make excellent workers
when they have their jobs cut out for them, but that they lack initiative in finding work themselves.
PAGE CONTENTS:
Women In The Workplace
Sybil Ludington
Jeanette Rankin
Hattie Caraway
Angela Davis
Kate Mullaney
Bessie Blount
Stagecoach Mary Fields
Fannie Lou Hamer
Minor v. Happersett
Mary Katherine
Goddard
Pioneering newspaper publisher,
editor, postmaster
In an era when few women rose to prominence,
Mary Goddard was a striking exception. The Connecticut native became a noted newspaper publisher and editor, and may have
been the first American woman to serve as postmaster, a position she held in Baltimore, Maryland from 1775 until 1789.
Goddard began her career in Providence, Rhode
Island, at a print shop owned by her brother. She later worked with her brother in Philadelphia and Baltimore, where she joined
him in the newspaper business. While in Baltimore, she was credited as being both the editor and the publisher of the "Maryland
Journal and Baltimore Advertiser."
It was that newspaper which, on February
19, 1783, announced that the British had agreed to recognize the legitimacy of the United States of America -- the first newspaper
in the fledgling country to do so. Previously, Mary Goddard was among the first to report on the Battle of Bunker Hill in
1775, and in 1777 she published the first printed copy of the Declaration of Independence listing its signers.
More about Mary Katherine Goddard:
Mary Katherine Goddard was
a pioneer among women in Baltimore town in the era of the American Revolution. She was a newspaper editor determined to publish
the truth as well as a fighter for the right of women to pursue a career. Born in Connecticut in 1738, she was the daughter
of Dr. Giles Goddard and Sarah Updike Goddard, a woman unusually well educated for that era. Dr. Goddard was the postmaster
of New London, explaining why son William and daughter Mary Katherine also had lifelong involvement with the postal system.
William, a few years younger than his sister, served an apprenticeship in the printing trade. After the death of her husband,
Sarah Goddard helped William, then aged 22, set up a printing press in Providence, Rhode Island, in 1762. The Goddards, mother,
brother, and sister, published Providence's first newspaper, the Providence Gazette. William, a brilliant but erratic man,
quit Rhode Island to start a newspaper in Philadelphia, leaving his sister and mother to run the printing company. After Mrs.
Goddard died in 1770, Mary Katherine joined her brother in Philadelphia.
In 1773, brother and sister
came to Baltimore to start the Maryland Journal and Baltimore Advertiser, Baltimore's first newspaper. The paper gave Baltimoreans
their first taste of a local newspaper. It charmed, informed, and educated. Among the best newspapers in the colonies, its
entertainment and educational content were typified by the motto the Goddards adopted--a Latin couplet by Horace, which translated
meant: "He carries every point who blends the useful with the agreeable, amusing the reader while he instructs him."
William stayed in town long
enough to set up the newspaper then wandered off to set up a new colonial postal system, leaving Mary Katherine in charge.
The mail system helped spread the newspaper through the colonies and raise its reputation. Goddard continued in the postal
service hoping to get the top job in the continental postal system of the new United States--but was bitterly disappointed
when he failed to get the job when Benjamin Franklin retired.
Mary Katherine's sole editorship
of the Journal was announced May 10, 1775 when the colophon of the Journal was changed to read, "Published by M. K. Goddard,
at the Printing-Office in Market-Street, next Door above Dr. John Stevenson's." She edited the newspaper singlehandedly for
most of the period from 1775 to 1785.
Under the able editorship of
Mary Katherine Goddard, the newspaper openly expressed the Americans' yearning for freedom. Mary Katherine gave Baltimoreans
news of the beginning of our war for independence, with reports of the momentous events in Massachusetts of April 19, 1775--the
opening salvoes with the Battles of Concord and Lexington. An editorial of June 14, 1775 proclaimed, "The ever memorable 19th
of April gave a conclusive answer to the questions of American freedom. What think ye of Congress now? That day. . . evidenced
that Americans would rather die than live slaves!"
However, trouble was brewing.
In May 1776, Mary Katherine complained to the Baltimore Committee of Safety about threats and abuse she had received from
George Somerville, who had objected to material in the Journal. The committee sided with her in defense of a free press. Miss
Goddard again proved her patriotism by publishing in January 1777 the first printed copy of the Declaration of Independence
to include the names of the signers. Still, troublemakers wanted to control what she printed. Prime among the patriotic organizations
in Baltimore was the Whig Club, a radical group made up of local merchants and tradesmen. Members of the club raided the offices
of the Maryland Journal twice, in 1777 and again in 1779.
The first incident, in February
1777, was occasioned by the publication in the Journal of two articles by a writer calling himself "Tom Telltruth" and which
dealt with an offer of peace from British commander General Sir William Howe. It was actually a two-part tongue-in-cheek satire
written by patriot and signer of the Declaration of Independence Samuel Chase. The writer expressed gratitude "to the patriotic,
virtuous King, the August, incorruptible Parliament, and wise disinterested ministry of Britain." On March 3, two members
of the club called on William Goddard and demanded to know the author. The radicals were under the impression that William
was the editor of the Journal at this time, although it seems the "Tom Telltruth" pieces were handed to Mary Katherine by
her brother, who had received them from Chase. The club threatened to run Goddard out of state but the Goddards appealed to
the state government in Annapolis and were backed by the legislators and the Whig Club censured.
A similar incident took place
in July 1779. The Goddards published criticisms of General George Washington by General Charles Lee which incensed the radicals
and they again stormed into the printing office. An appeal by William Goddard to Governor Thomas Johnson led to banning of
the Whig Club by the State Assembly, which came out forcefully in favor of freedom of the press and against anarchy.
Relations between brother and
sister deteriorated in the following years, possibly because of financial disagreements. In January 1784, William's name was
added to the colophon of the newspaper and Mary Katherine's name dropped. William continued in charge of the newspaper and
his sister remained in town as a publisher, bookseller, and postmistress. Late in 1784, brother and sister even published
rival almanacs for 1785, which led to William attacking both her almanac and her character. In 1785, she sold her interest
in the paper, severing her last ties with the newspaper she had helped found.
Mary Katherine had been named
postmistress of Baltimore in 1775. She held this position until 1789 when the Postmaster General decreed that the head of
the Baltimore postal system must be a man. Two hundred Baltimore men supported her petition for reinstatement. A female was
said to be unsuitable for the position because the job entailed travel beyond the capacity of a woman--seemingly a sexist
statement unless we take into consideration the miserable condition of the roads of the day. Mary Katherine appealed to the
U.S. Senate and to President George Washington himself, but to no avail.
In 1792, William Goddard relinquished
the editorship of the Journal and went back to Rhode Island, where he entered politics, but his sister stayed in Baltimore.
She remained the proprietor of a bookstore until 1802, after which she retired from business. Mary Katherine Goddard died
on August 12,1816, at the age of 78, a woman of achievement who had taken an important stand for freedom of speech and the
rights of women in the young United States.
Sybil Ludington
April 5, 1761 - February 26, 1839
Known for: midnight
ride in American Revolutionary War
Also known as: the
"female Paul Revere" (she rode about twice as far as he did on his famous ride). Married name: Sybil Ogden.
About Sybil Ludington:
Sybil Ludington was the eldest of twelve children. Her father, Col. Ludington,
had served in the French and Indian war. As a mill owner in Patterson, New York, he was a community leader, and he volunteered
to serve as the local militia commander as war with the British loomed.
When he received word late on April 26, 1777, that the British were attacking
Danbury, Connecticut, Colonel Ludington knew that they would move from there into further attacks in New York. As head of
the local militia, he needed to muster his troops from their farmhouses around the distict, and to warn the people of the
countryside of possible British attack.
Sybil Ludington, 16 years old, volunteered to warn the countryside of
the attack and to alert the militia troops to muster at Ludington's. The glow of the flames would have been visible for miles.
She traveled some 40 miles through the towns of Carmel, Mahopac,
and Stormville, in the middle of the night, in a rainstorm, on muddy roads, shouting that the British were burning Danbury
and calling out the militia to assemble at Ludington's. When Sybil Ludington returned home, most of the militia troops were
ready to march to confront the British.
The 400-some troops were not able to save the supplies and the town at
Danbury -- the British seized or destroyed food and munitions and burned the town -- but they were able to stop the British
advance and push them back to their boats, in the Battle of Ridgefield.
More About Sybil Ludington:
Sybil Ludington's contribution to the war was to help stop the advance
of the British, and thus give the American militia more time to organize and resist. She was recognized for her midnight ride
by those in the neighborhood, and was also recognized by General George Washington.
Sybil Ludington continued to help as she could with the Revolutionary
War effort, in one of the typical roles that women were able to play in that war: as a messenger.
In October, 1784, Sybil Ludington married lawyer Edward Ogden and lived
the rest of her life in Unadilla, New York.
Her hometown was renamed Ludingtonville in honor of her heroic ride.
There is a statue of Sybil Ludington, by sculptor Anna Wyatt Huntington, outside the Danbury Library.
©2006 About, Inc., A part of The New York Times Company. All rights
reserved.
Jeanette Rankin
(June 11, 1880 - May 18, 1973)
First American woman elected to Congress (November 6, 1916);
suffragist, peace activist, reformer.
Jeannette Pickering Rankin was born on June 11, 1880.
Her father, John Rankin, was a rancher and lumber merchant and her mother, Olive Pickering, a former schoolteacher. She spent
her first years on the ranch, then moved with the family to Missoula where she attended public school. She was the oldest
of eleven children.
Rankin attended Montana State University at Missoula and
graduated in 1902 with a bachelor of science degree in biology. She was a schoolteacher, seamstress and studied furniture
design -- looking for some work to which she could commit herself. When her father died in 1902, he left money to Rankin,
paid out over her lifetime.
On a long trip to Boston in 1904 to visit with her brother
at Harvard and with other relatives, she was inspired by slum conditions to take up the new field of social work. She became
a resident in a San Francisco Settlement House for four months, then entered the New York School of Philanthropy (later, to
become the Columbia School of Social Work). She returned to the west to become a social worker in Spokane, Washington, in
a children's home. Social work did not, however, hold her interest long - she only lasted a few weeks at the children's home.
Next, Rankin studied at the University of Washington in Seattle
and became involved in the woman suffrage movement in 1910. Visiting Montana, Rankin became the first woman to speak
before the Montana legislature, where she surprised the spectators and legislators alike with her speaking ability. She organized
and spoke for the Equal Franchise Society.
Rankin then moved to New York, and continued her work on
behalf of women's rights. During these years, she began her lifelong relationship with Katherine Anthony. She went to
work for the New York Woman Suffrage Party and in 1912 she became the field secretary of the National American Woman Suffrage
Association. Rankin and Anthony were among the thousands of suffragists at the 1913 suffrage march in Washington,
D.C., before the inauguration of Woodrow Wilson.
Rankin returned to Montana to help organize the successful
Montana suffrage campaign in 1914. To do so, she gave up her position with the NAWSA.
As war in Europe loomed, Rankin turned her attention to work
for peace, and in 1916, ran for one of the two seats in Congress from Montana as a Republican. Her brother served as
campaign manager and helped finance the campaign. Jeannette Rankin won, though the papers first reported that she lost the
election -- and Jeannette Rankin thus became the first woman elected to the U.S. Congress, and the first woman elected to
a national legislature in any western democracy.
Rankin used her fame and notoriety in this "famous first"
position to work for peace and women's rights and against child labor, and to write a weekly newspaper column.
Only four days after taking office, Jeannette Rankin made
history in yet another way: she voted against U.S. entry into World War I. She violated protocol by speaking during
the roll call before casting her vote, announcing "I want to stand by my country, but I cannot vote for war." Some of
her colleagues in NAWSA -- notably Carrie Chapman Catt -- criticized her vote as opening the suffrage cause to criticism as
impractical and sentimental.
Rankin did vote, later in her term, for several pro-war measures,
as well as working for the political reforms including civil liberties, suffrage, birth control, equal pay and child welfare.
In 1917, she opened the congressional debate on the Susan B. Anthony Amendment, which passed the House in 1917 and the Senate
in 1918, to become the 19th Amendment after it was ratified by the states.
But Rankin's first anti-war vote sealed her political fate.
When she was gerrymandered out of her district, she ran for the Senate, lost the primary, launched a third party race, and
lost overwhelmingly.
After the war ended, Rankin continued to work for peace through
the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, and also began work for the National Consumers' League. She worked,
at the same time, on the staff of the American Civil Liberties Union.
After a brief return to Montana to help her brother run --
unsuccessfully -- for the Senate, she moved to a farm in Georgia. She returned to Montana every summer, her legal residence.
From her base in Georgia, Jeannette Rankin became Field Secretary
of the WILPF and lobbied for peace. When she left the WILPF she formed the Georgia Peace Society. She lobbied for the
Women's Peace Union, working for an antiwar constitutional amendment. She left the Peace Union, and began working with
the National Council for the Prevention of War. She also lobbied for American cooperation with the World Court and for labor
reforms and an end to child labor.
In 1935, when a college in Georgia offered her the position
of Peace Chair, she was accused of being a Communist, and ended up filing a libel suit against the Macon newspaper.
The court eventually declared her, as she said, "a nice lady."
In the first half of 1937, she spoke in 10 states, giving
93 speeches for peace. She supported the America First Committee, but decided that lobbying was not the most effective way
to work for peace. By 1939, she had returned to Montana and was running for Congress again, supporting a strong but
neutral America in yet another time of impending war.
Elected with a small plurality, Jeannette Rankin arrived
in Washington in January as one of six women in the House, two in the Senate. When, after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor,
the U.S. Congress voted to declare war against Japan, Jeannette Rankin once again voted "no" to war. She also, once
again, violated long tradition and spoke before her roll call vote, this time saying "As a woman I can't go to war, and I
refuse to send anyone else" as she voted alone against the war resolution. She was denounced by the press and her colleagues,
and barely escaped an angry mob. She believed that Roosevelt had deliberately provoked the attack on Pearl Harbor.
In 1943, Rankin went back to Montana rather than run for
Congress again (and surely be defeated). She took care of her mother and traveled worldwide, including to India and
Turkey, promoting peace, and tried to found a woman's commune on her Georgia farm. In 1968, she led more than five thousand
women in a protest in Washington, DC, demanding the U.S. withdraw from Vietnam, heading up the group calling itself the Jeannette
Rankin Brigade. She was active in the antiwar movement, often invited to speak or honored by the young antiwar activists
and feminists.
Jeannette Rankin died in 1973 in California.
©2005 About, Inc. All rights reserved. A PRIMEDIA Company.
Hattie Caraway
(February 1, 1878 - December 21, 1950)
(Hattie Ophelia Wyatt Caraway)
First woman elected to the United States Senate
Born in Tennessee, Hattie Wyatt graduated from Dickson Normal in
1896. She married fellow student Thaddeus Horatius Caraway and moved with him to Arkansas.
Her husband practiced law while she cared for their children and
their farm. Her husband was elected to Congress in 1912 and women won the vote in 1920: while Hattie Caraway took it as her
duty to vote, her focus remained on homemaking. Her husband was re-elected to his Senate Seat in 1926 and 1932, but then died
unexpectedly.
Arkansas Governor Harvey Parnell then appointed Hattie Caraway to
her husband's Senate seat. She was sworn in on December 9, 1931 and was confirmed in a special election January 12, 1932. She thus became the first woman elected to the United States
Senate -- Rebecca Latimer Felton had previously served a 'courtesy' appointment of one day.
Hattie Caraway maintained a "housewife" image and made no speeches
on the floor of the Senate, earning the nickname "Silent Hattie." But she had learned from her husband's years of public service
about a legislator's responsibilities, and she took them seriously, building a reputation for integrity.
She took Arkansas politicians by surprise when, presiding over the
Senate one day at the invitation of the Vice President, she took advantage of the public attention to this event by announcing
her intention to run for reelection. She won, aided by a 9-day campaign tour by populist Huey Long, who saw her as an ally.
She maintained an independent stance, though she was usually supportive
of New Deal legislation. She remained, however, a prohibitionist and voted with many other southern senators against anti-lynching
legislation. In 1936, she was joined in the Senate by Rose McConnell Long, Huey Long's widow, also appointed to fill out her
husband's term (and also winning re-election).
In 1938, Caraway ran again, opposed by Congressman John L. McClellan
with the slogan "Arkansas needs another man in the Senate." She was supported by organizations representing women, veterans
and union members, and won the seat by eight thousand votes.
When she ran again in 1944 at age 66, her opponent was 39-year-old
Congressman William Fulbright. Hattie Caraway ended up in fourth place in the primary election, and summed it up when she
said, "The people are speaking."
She was appointed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt to the Federal
Employees' Compensation Commission, and later to the Employees' Compensation Appeals Board. She resigned after suffering a
stroke in January, 1950, and died that December.
©2005 About, Inc. All rights reserved. A PRIMEDIA Company.
ANGELA YVONNE DAVIS
January 26, 1944 -
Angela Yvonne Davis was born January 26, 1944,
to B. Frank, a teacher and businessman, and Sally E. Davis, who was also a teacher. Davis was born in Birmingham, Alabama,
at a time of great political unrest and racism in the United States. As a child, Davis's parents had many Communist friends
and she subsequently joined a Communist youth group.
Davis traveled to Germany in 1960, where she
spent two years studying at the Frankfurt School under acclaimed scholar Theodor Adorno. From 1963 to 1964, Davis attended
the University of Paris. Davis, then returned to the United States and attended Brandeis University, in Waltham, Massachusetts.
After earning her B.A. (magna cum laude) in 1965, Davis flew to Germany, where she conducted graduate research. Upon returning
to the U.S., Davis enrolled at the University of California at San Diego, where she began pursuing her master's degree, which
she received in 1968.
It was at the University of California at San
Diego that Davis began closely studying the Communist party. In 1968, Davis became a member of the Communist party, as well
as a member of the Black Panthers. It was her involvement in these radical groups that caused Davis to be watched very closely
by the United States government. After teaching for only one year, it was also these radical associations that resulted in
her dismissal from her position as assistant professor of philosophy at the University of California at Los Angeles.
Championing the cause of black prisoners in the 1960s
and '70s, Davis grew particularly attached to a young revolutionary, George Jackson, one of the so-called Soledad Brothers
(after Soledad Prison). Jackson's brother Jonathan was among the four persons killed—including the trial judge—in
an abortive escape and kidnapping attempt from the Hall of Justice in Marin county, California (August 7, 1970). Suspected
of complicity, Davis was sought for arrest and became one of the Federal Bureau of Investigation's most wanted criminals.
In 1970, Davis became only the third woman in history to appear on the FBI's most wanted list. Davis was charged by the authorities
with conspiracy to free George Jackson with a bloody shootout in front of a courthouse in California. The FBI also asserted
that Davis armed prisoners in the Marin County courthouse with guns that were registered in her name. After the warrant was
issued for her arrest, Davis spent two weeks evading police.
During this time, a sign went up in windows
of houses and businesses all across the United States. The sign read, "Angela, sister, you are welcome in this house." Finally,
Davis was discovered in a Greenwich Village hotel, and was formally charged with murder and kidnapping, even though she didn't
actually take part in the shootout in Marin County, California. Davis spent sixteen months behind bars, until her subsequent
acquittal on all charges by an all-white jury.
After her release from prison, in 1971, Davis's
essays were published in a collection entitled If They Come in the Morning: Voices of Resistance. In her essays,
she details her belief in Communist theory, as well as her thoughts on racial oppression in the United States. Davis's friends
then convinced her that she should draft an account of her life in the 1960s and 1970's. The result was Angela Davis:
An Autobiography. In 1980, Davis ran for Vice President of the United States on the Communist Party ticket.
Davis's next book, Women, Race, and Class
was published in 1981. Women, Race, and Class became an instant feminist classic and a text for many classes on sexism, racism,
and classism. Then, in 1989, Davis published the first collection of her speeches, entitled Women, Culture, and Politics.
This book documents Davis's speeches from 1983 to 1987.
Today, Angela Y. Davis continues to be a strong
force for political and social activism, as well as the reformation of the prison industrial complex. She is also an accomplished
cultural theorist. Davis is now a tenured professor at the University of California at Santa Cruz, and spends much of her
time delivering speeches to eager audiences around the country.
© 2003 Voices from the Gaps
Althea Gibson
(August 25, 1927 - September 28, 2003)
From Harlem to Wimbleton and into the annals of sports
history, Althea Gibson broke the color bar and paved the way for other African American athletes.
Tennis, which first came to the United States in
the late 19th century, by the middle of the 20th century had become part of a culture of health and fitness. Public programs
brought tennis to children in poor neighborhoods, though those children couldn't dream of playing in the elite tennis clubs.
One young girl named Althea Gibson lived in Harlem in the
1930s and 1940s. Her family was on welfare. She was a client of the Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Children. She had
trouble in school and was often truant. She ran away from home frequently.
She also played paddle tennis in public recreation programs.
Her talent and interest in the game led her to win tournaments sponsored by the Police Athletic Leagues and the Parks Department.
Musician Buddy Walker noticed her playing table tennis, and thought she might do well in tennis. He brought her to the Harlem
River Tennis Courts, where she learned the game and began to excel.
The young Althea Gibson became a member of the Harlem Cosmopolitan
Tennis Club, a club for African American players, through donations raised for her membership and lessons. By 1942 Gibson
had won the girls' singles event at the American Tennis Association's New York State Tournament. (The American Tennis Association
- ATA - was an all-black organization, providing tournament opportunities not otherwise available to African American tennis
players.) In 1944 and 1945 she again won ATA tournaments.
Then Gibson was offered an opportunity to develop her talents
more fully: a wealthy South Carolina businessman opened his home to her and supported her in attending an industrial high
school, while studying tennis privately. From 1950, she furthered her education, attending Florida A&M University, where
she graduated in 1953. Then, in 1953, she became an athletic instructor at Lincoln University in Jefferson City, Missouri.
Gibson won the ATA women's singles tournament ten years in
a row, 1947 through 1956. But tennis tournaments outside the ATA remained closed to her, until 1950. In that year white tennis
player Alice Marble wrote an article in American Lawn Tennis magazine, noting that this excellent player was not able
to participate in the better-known championships, for no reason other than "bigotry."
And so later that year, Althea Gibson entered the Forest
Hills, New York, national grass court championship, the first African American player of either sex to be allowed to enter.
Gibson then became the first African American invited to
enter the all-England tournament at Wimbledon, playing there in 1951. She entered other tournaments, though at first winning
only minor titles outside the ATA. In 1956, she won the French Open. In the same year, she toured worldwide as a member of
a national tennis team supported by the U.S. State Department.
She began winning more tournaments, including at the Wimbledon
women's doubles. In 1957 she won the women's singles and doubles at Wimbledon. In celebration of this American win
-- and her achievement as an African American -- New York City greeted her with a ticker tape parade. Gibson followed up with
a win at Forest Hills in the women's singles tournament.
In 1958 she again won both Wimbledon titles and repeated
the Forest Hills women's singles win. Her autobiography, I Always Wanted to Be Somebody, came out in 1958. In 1959
she turned pro, winning the women's professional singles title in 1960. She also began playing professional women's golf and
she appeared in several films.
Althea Gibson served from 1973 on in various national and
New Jersey positions in tennis and recreation. Among her honors:
- 1971 - National Lawn Tennis Hall of Fame
- 1971 - International Tennis Hall of Fame
- 1974 - Black Athletes Hall of Fame
- 1983 - South Carolina Hall of Fame
- 1984 - Florida Sports Hall of Fame
In the mid 1990s, Althea Gibson suffered from serious health
problems including a stroke, and also struggled financially though many efforts at fund-raising helped ease that burden.
She died on Sunday, September 28, 2003, but not before she knew of the tennis victories of Serena and Venus Williams.
Other African American tennis players like Arthur Ashe and
the Williams sisters followed Gibson, though not quickly. Althea Gibson's achievement was unique, as the first African
American of either sex to break the color bar in national and international tournament tennis at a time when prejudice and
racism were far more pervasive in society and sports.
©2005 About, Inc. All rights reserved. A PRIMEDIA Company.
Kate Mullaney - Union Maid
After working 12 to 14 hours a day with hands immersed in
boiling water and such bleaching agents as chloride of soda and diluted sulfuric acid, Kate Mullaney, while still in her teens,
organized the first female labor union in the United States.
Born in Ireland around 1845 and immigrating to Troy, NY with
her parents and her older sister Mary, Kate Mullaney could have hardly envisioned the twists and turns her life would take
in America - the land of opportunity. As a young girl in America, safely shadowed from many of the mundane household chores
by her older sister, Kate could spend much of her time enjoying her two younger sisters and her younger brother Frank. However,
when her father died and with her mother in ill health it fell on Kate’s shoulders to become the breadwinner while sister
Mary assumed the role of homemaker.
While Kate’s entrance into the workforce may have been
an early hardship for an Irish girl still in her teens it was a godsend for the working women of America. Thanks to the popularity
of the detachable collar so favored by men from middle-class families, Troy had become the manufacturing center of ninety
percent of the collars, cuffs and the white starched shirts sold throughout America and the world. However, to keep this economic
engine booming in Troy, the manufacturers and the many related businesses needed to hire over 3,000 women.
Kate’s venture into the workforce began quickly as
she found employment in one of the commercial laundries. Working 12 to 14 hours a day with hands immersed in boiling water
and such bleaching agents as chloride of soda and diluted sulfuric acid, Kate and the other girls earned only 3 to 4 dollars
a week. Even in the 1860’s this was considered sweatshop conditions and, as faster starching machines were introduced
into the laundries, health and safety hazards increased as many of the girls were badly burned.
True to her Irish heritage Kate Mullaney could no longer
stand idly by and watch her fellow workers be subjected to inhumane treatment. Knowing full well the benefits and conditions
that the men of Troy who joined the Iron Moulders Union had won for the many area foundry workers, Kate set her mind to try
and organize the laundry workers. In February of 1864 with almost 300 other women Kate announced the formation of the Collar
Laundry Union - the first female union in the country.
Before the ink was fully dry on the new union charter, Kate
led a strike against the 14 commercial laundries in the city demanding wage increases and attention to the womens’ concern
of safety. Within a week the owners acceded to the Union demands and, a mere two years later in 1866, Collar Laundry Union
members had increased their members' wages to 14 dollars a week.
Kate went on to play a sterling role in organized labor.
At the 1868 convention of the National Labor Union in New York City she was appointed assistant secretary and national organizer
for women - the first woman ever appointed to a national labor union office.
Kate Mullaney died on August 17, 1906 and was buried in Troy’s
St. Peter’s Cemetery. For many years she lay in an unmarked grave until 1999 when several local labor leaders and Irish
organizations were successful in raising enough money to mark the final resting place of a great woman and a true role model
for women in organized labor.
Bessie Blount
Bessie Blount was born in Hickory, Virginia in 1914. She
left Hickory for New Jersey, where she studied at Panzar College of Physical Education to become a physical therapist.
She left New Jersey to finish her education in Chicago. She
began working with injured World War II amputees. While she worked at helping her patients regain their independence, eating
was the most difficult task for them to manage by themselves.
In response to her patients’ difficulty, Blount invented
a device to assist them. A mouthful of food was delivered through a tube each time the patient bit down on the tube. The device
could be used while lying down or sitting up.
By 1951, Blount had moved back to Newark, New Jersey where
she began teaching physical therapy at the Bronx Hospital in New York. She tried to market her device, but was unsuccessful.
Instead she decided to patent another device called the portable receptacle support. While its purpose was the same, this
device was composed of a brace that was worn around the patient’s neck and was used to support a bowl or other dish.
However, Blount was not able to successfully market this
device either and she was unable to get the Veteran's Administration to use it. Therefore, she signed over her rights to the
French government in 1952.
According to Bessie Blount, despite not being able to successfully
market her inventions, she was able to prove that "a black woman can invent something for the benefit of humankind."
Stagecoach Mary Fields (1832 - 1914)
When people think of pioneers of the wild west several images
come to mind; the gritty gunslinger, the uncompromising lawman, or even the wagon train families. However, there is a much
different image to be had for those that really know the wild west. Imagine a gritty, cigar smoking, whiskey drinking, fist
fighting, six foot tall black woman. That is the picture of the famous Stagecoach Mary Fields. She was born in 1832 in Tennessee
and decided to travel out west at the age of 52.
Stagecoach Mary had lived a rugged life as a slave that prepared
her for the rigors of the wild west. She made her way eventually to Cascade County, Montana where she worked as a hired hand
for a group of nuns. She did all manner of physical chores for the sisterhood from cutting wood to picking up supplies. Her
temper apparently ran her into trouble with the sisterhood when she had a gunfight with another worker. After her employment
ended with the nuns she tried her hand at restaraunt ownership. She was unsuccessful and finally landed the job that would
make her famous. She began to deliver the mail and was so regular that she earned the name 'Stagecoach'.
Mary Fields took her job quite seriously and allowed nothing
to stand in the way of the mail delivery. She gave meaning to the postal services unofficial motto "Neither snow nor rain
nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds." She finally retired
from the postal service in her 70's and then opened a laundry. She continued to have the same grit and supposedly decked a
man for trying to cheat her out of a laundry bill. She died in 1914 after living a long and fruitfull life in Cascade, Montana.
Stagecoach Mary Fields was a pioneer in many ways. She was
unwilling to allow the prejudices of the time to hold her back. She is an inspiration to not only African-Americans and women,
but also to those of us attempting to start something new later in life.
FANNIE LOU HAMER
Fannie Lu Hamer was 47 years old. She was married
and the mother of two children. Mrs. Hamer had spent her life as a sharecropper. Once she went to a civil rights meeting civil
rights and, upon hearing the words of James Forman, joined the movement. Forman was part of a group of young civil rights
activists called The Student Non-Violent Co-Ordinating Committee (SNCC). When Fannie Lu Hamer went to register to vote, her
landlord promptly evicted her from the plantation where she lived and out into the street.
Two days later, sixteen bullets riddled the house of a friend
who was putting her up after her eviction. No one was hurt. Later when Mrs. Hamer was returning from Greenville, she was stopped
and arrested for no apparent reason. While in jail she was beaten severely by a black prisoner who was following the orders
Mississippi State troopers. He beat her with a blackjack all over her body. From that point on Fannie Lu Hamer never looked
back for she was now part of the civil rights movement.
Mrs. Hamer became a field secretary for the Student Non-Violent
Co-Ordinating Committee (SNCC). SNCC workers and the residents of Mississippi were a people whose bravery is one of the highlights
of American History. They withstood threats, beatings and bombings. SNCC cried out for federal protection but none was forthcoming.
The 14th and 15th amendment clearly protected the rights of citizens and the rights to vote but these amendments were ignored
for nearly a century. Once Mrs. Hamer told a FBI agent, "If I get to heaven and see you there, I will tell St. Peter to send
me back to Mississippi."
In 1964, she went to the Democratic convention as part of
the Mississippi Freedom Party. The MFD were there to challenge the right of the regular Democratic Party of Mississippi to
be seated at the convention. Mrs. Hamer appeared before the convention's Credentials Committee and gave a moving account of
what she had seen. President Johnson, who did not want to alienate Southern democrats, felt he needed their support in the
upcoming election. So Johnson called a press conference while Hamer was speaking and the networks, being the lapdog they are,
quickly bought the bait and switched to the President.
Hubert Humphrey wanted very much to be vice-president but
first he would have to do Johnson's dirty work. LBJ sent Humphrey to see if he could reach a compromise between the regulars
and the MFD. The insurgents refused. The deal would leave them with only two seats in the delegation and they felt that they
deserved more. Humphrey, his aid Walter Mondale, and the UAW pressured them but the MFD would not compromise.
Fannie Lu Hamer spoke out angrily against the proposed settlement
and the delegation, moved by her words, rejected the offer. Mrs. Hamer's argument was plan and simple. James Whitten, her
representative in the second district, had excluded blacks from voting rolls. Mrs. Hamer went through the whole state, district
by district, and told the nation about the intimidation, beating, and murders that African-Americans received when they tried
to register to vote in Mississippi.
The next forty days saw blacks all over the state of Mississippi
attempting to register to vote. Armed with over one hundred lawyers who volunteered their time and energy, the tide turned.
But it was a costly victory for the movement. Many people had lost their lives for the right to vote even though the 15th
amendment, passed in 1870, already guaranteed their right to vote. In 1965, the voting rights act was finally enacted. The
battle in the South was not won with the aid of the federal government. They were, in many cases, obstacles. It was people
like Fannie Lu Hamer, who had risked their lives, who were the real heroes. That is a lesson we should remember.
Sources: Eyes On the Prize, Is This America?;
The New Abolitionists, Howard Zinn, Beacon Press
In Missouri in 1872, Virginia Minor tried to register to vote,
and she sued when the registrar wouldn't allow her registration. The case went to the Supreme Court, which in 1874 decided
that women were citizens but that voting was not a necessary part of being a citizen. Read more about Minor v. Happersett,
a key case in the history of women's rights in America.
Minor v. Happersett
A key case in the history of women's rights in America
by Jone Johnson Lewis
On October 15, 1872, Virginia Minor applied to register to vote in Missouri.
The registrar, Reese Happersett, turned down the application, because the Missouri state constitution read: "Every male citizen
of the United States shall be entitled to vote."
Mrs. Minor sued in Missouri state court, claiming her rights were violated
on the basis of the Fourteenth Amendment.
After Minor lost the suit in that court, she appealed to the state Supreme
Court. When the Missouri Supreme Court agreed with the registrar, Minor brought the case to the United States Supreme Court.
The US Supreme Court, in an 1874 unanimous opinion written by the chief
justice, found:
- women are citizens of the United States, and were even before the Fourteenth
Amendment passed
- the right of suffrage -- the right to vote -- is not a "necessary privilege
and immunity" to which all citizens are entitled
- the Fourteenth Amendment did not add the right of suffrage to citizenship
privileges
- the Fifteenth Amendment was required to be sure voting rights were not
"denied or abridged ... on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude" -- in other words, the amendment was
not necessary if citizenship conferred voting rights
- women's suffrage was explicitly excluded in nearly every state either
in the constitution or in its legal code; no state had been excluded from joining the Union for lack of women's voting rights,
including states re-entering the Union after the Civil War, with newly written constitutions
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