By Sis. Shirley Tarpley, NDG Religion Editor
Theme for 2013: Women Inspiring Innovation Through Imagination: Celebrating Women in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics.
Although women now outnumber men in American colleges nationwide, the reversal of the gap is a very recent phenomenon. The fight to learn was a valiant struggle waged by many tenacious women, especially Black women.
I will highlight some facts about Black women and their contribution to mankind. “To God be all the glory” for Godly women.
I thank God for the Black women that He has allowed to cross my path in life. Those women may not have done things that made great changes for mankind, but they made a big difference to me. Each lady left me with cherished memories and godly wisdom.
In 1978 the United States Post Office Department issued the first stamp to commemorate the contributions of African Americans females. You can log on the Internet to see the contribution each lady made to our society. The Harriet Tubman stamp was the first female in the Black Heritage Series, a 13¢ stamp was issued on February 1, 1978.
Tubman (born Araminta Harriet Ross, 1820 – March 10, 1913) a Civil War Nurse and spy; Suffragist and Civil Rights activist. On June 2, 1863 she led the Union Army guerillas into Maryland and freed more than 700 slaves using the network of anti-slavery activist and safe houses known as the Underground Railroad which was organized on April 20, 1853. A devout Christian, Tubman ascribed the visions and vivid dreams to revelations from God.
The Mary McLeod Bethune stamp, a 22¢ on March 5, 1985. Bethune (July 10, 1875 – May 18, 1955) an educator and civil rights leader started a school for Black students in Daytona Beach, FL that eventually became Bethune-Cookman University. The school’s educational quality far surpassed the standards of education for Black students and rivaled those of schools for Caucasian students. She was also known for being an advisor to President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
The Sojourner Truth stamp, a 22¢ on February 4, 1986. Sojourner Truth (November 18, 1787 – November 26, 1883)was the self-given name, from 1843 onward, of Isabella Baumfree, an African-American abolitionist and women’s rights activist. She was born into slavery in Swartekill, Ulster County, New York, but escaped with her infant daughter to freedom in 1826. After going to court to recover her son, she became the first Black woman to win such a case against a Caucasian man.
Her best-known extemporaneous speech on racial inequalities, “Ain’t I a Woman?” was delivered in 1851 at the Ohio Women’s Rights Convention in Akron, Ohio. During the Civil War, she helped recruit Black troops for the Union Army; after the war, Truth tried unsuccessfully to secure land grants from the federal government for former slaves.
The Ida B. Wells stamp a 25¢ on February 1, 1990. Ida Bell Wells-Barnett (July 16, 1862 – March 25, 1931) was an African American journalist, newspaper editor and, with her husband, newspaper owner Ferdinand L. Barnett, an early leader in the civil rights movement. She documented lynching in the United States, showing how it was often a way to control or punish Blacks who competed with Caucasians. She was active in the women’s rights and the women’s suffrage movement, establishing several notable women’s organizations. Wells was a skilled and persuasive rhetorician. She received her education at Freedman’s School, Rust College and Fisk University. She also traveled internationally on lecture tours.
Elizabeth “Bessie” Coleman (January 26, 1892 – April 30, 1926) was an American civil aviator. She was the first female pilot of African American descent and the first person of African American descent to hold an international pilot license. She born in Atlanta, Texas, the tenth of thirteen children. Her father was part Cherokee. Coleman began school at age six and had to walk four miles each day to her all-Black, one-room school. She was an excellent student and she loved to read; and established herself as an outstanding math student. She had a U. S. postage stamp issued in her honor on April 27, 1995.
Cathay Williams (September 1844 – 1892) was an American soldier. She was the first Black female to enlist, and the only documented Black female to serve in the United States Army posing as a man under the pseudonym. She served as a Buffalo Solder of the 9th and 10th Calvary from 1866 to 1868.
