5 Women Forgotten by Black History Month

Happy Black History Month!

It’s a time of remembrance and appreciation for the contributions of Black Americans throughout history; even if it is in the shortest month of the year and shared by another Holiday that often suffocates if not completely overshadows Black History month.

But hey! I’d say that Black Americans do an amazing job of celebrating our heritage every February in unique and enticing ways.

Through songs, Sunday speeches, movies, school reports and so much more we pay homage to the Black Americans who paved the way for not only this generation of Black Americans but for America as it stands today, regardless of your ethnicity.

Our contributions to science, arts, technology, and medicine have revolutionized the face of this country and the world at large.

But have you ever noticed that it seems like we celebrate the same inventors, scientists, activists, and more each year? You would think that history was created in a vacuum.

But not to fret, in hopes of ending this dreadful trend, I offer you 5 Black American Women Whom Black History has all but Forgotten.

It is my intention to shed a light on Black Women who may not be as much of a household name as say, Madam CJ Walker. A chance to celebrate women who dedicated their lives to improving the world around them for generations to come.

One of the first women that I stumbled across upon beginning my research for this article was Ms. Daisy Bates.

Black women Forgotten by Black History Month — (Image Source: University of Arkansas Libraries: Special Collections)

Daisy Bates

Daisy Lee Gatson Bates was an American civil rights activist, publisher, journalist, and lecturer who played a leading role in the Little Rock Integration Crisis of 1957. (Born in 1914 in Huttig, AR).

Experiencing the loss of her mother at the early age of 3 after her mother was murdered by 3 White men, Bates grew up in a foster home. But it was this early confrontation with racism that inspired her to dedicate her life to social justice.

At the age of 15, she began traveling throughout the South with her, soon-to-be husband, and eventually settled down in Little Rock, AR. There she launched The Arkansas Weekly. Bates worked as both the editor and a contributing writer. Distributed throughout the entire state of Arkansas, the paper was dedicated solely to the Civil Rights Movement.

Bates also served as the President of Arkansas’ chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. In 1954 after the Supreme Court ruled segregation in schools unconstitutional, Bates gathered groups of African American students to enroll at white schools.

Bates leveraged her newspaper as a way to highlight the schools that carried out the federal mandate, as she faced a tremendous amount of push back from Arkansas Public Schools. Bates also historically selected the nine students, known famously as The Little Rock Nine, who integrated Central High School in Little Rock in 1957. She regularly drove the students to school and spearheaded safety efforts to protect them from violent crowds.

Bates passed in November of 1999 and for her work the state of Arkansas proclaimed the third Monday in February, Daisy Bates Day.

Shirley Chisholm – The first African-American congresswoman in 1968 and four years later, became the first major-party Black candidate and the first woman to make a bid for the U.S. presidency.

Shirley Chisholm

Making history right in the intersection of race and gender by making Women’s History and Black History, Shirley Anita St. Hill Chisholm was an outspoken advocate for women and minorities during her seven terms in the U.S. House of Representative. Her motto was “UnBossed and Unbought” and her life served as a testament to that.

Although one could argue, that Chisholm hasn’t been particularly forgotten by history, as a 20 something that has spent over half her life in school, I can honestly say I didn’t know much about her story until I started researching for this article.

I had heard of Chisholm, but I can’t help but feel like many people in my generation may be like me…unaware of exactly how amazing Ms. Shirley Chisholm was, so I had to include her in this list.

Born (1924) and raised in Brooklyn, NY, Chisholm was an accomplished academic, graduating from Brooklyn College cum laude and consistently winning prizes on the debate team while enrolled.

When first urged to go into politics she responded that she had a “double handicap” being both Black and female. In the 1960s Chisholm joined local chapters of the League of Women Voters, The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, the Urban League, and the Democratic Part club in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn.

In 1964, Chisholm ran for and became the second African American in the New York State legislature and it was in 1968 that Chisholm sought and won a seat in Congress. During her term, “Fighting Shirley” introduced more than 50 pieces of legislation; championing racial and gender equality, the plight of the poor, and ending the Vietnam War. She was also a co-founder of the National Women’s Political Caucus in 1971.

Chisholm retired from Congress in 1983 but remained active as an educator and activist until falling ill in 1991. When speaking on how she would like to be remembered, Chisholm said, “I want to be remembered as a woman who dared to be a catalyst of change.”

Mary Jane Patterson – born into slavery, is recognized as the first Black woman in the United States to graduate from an established four-year college.

Mary Jane Patterson

Mary Jane Patterson (born in 1840, North Carolina) became the first woman to receive a college degree when she graduated from Oberlin College in 1862. But she didn’t stop there, she continued her legacy as an educator and eventually in 1871 became the first Black principal of the newly-founded Preparatory High School for Negores.

Patterson’s studies at Oberlin paved the way for her career in education as she studied in the college’s Preparatory Department. Oberlin College had admitted its first Black students only as recent as 1835 and two years later they became the country’s first coed institution of higher education. These radical strides laid the groundwork for the success of Patterson’s future endeavors.

Patterson dedicated much of her life to mentoring African-American women and continued to work at the Preparatory High School up until her death on September 24, 1894.

Marie M. Daly – Marie M. Daly is best known for being the first African-American woman to receive a Ph.D. in chemistry in the United States. She was awarded her doctoral degree in 1947 from Columbia University.

Marie M. Daly

Born in 1921, Daly was an American biochemist. She was educated at Hunter College High School where her ambition of becoming a chemist was supported and encouraged. She enrolled in Queens College in Flushing, New York and graduated magna cum laude in 1942 with a bachelor’s degree in chemistry.

The college offered her a fellowship to pursue graduate studies in chemistry at New York University while working part-time as a lab assistant at Queens College. She completed her master’s degree in just one year. Daly went on to enroll in the doctoral program at Columbia University.

Although we commend Daly for being a trailblazer in her studies in the field of science and medicine, I would be remiss if I didn’t highlight the importance of her work and research itself, beyond her accomplishment of being the first Black Woman with a Ph.D. in Chemistry. Another woman on our list that attests to the dual discrimination of being both Black and female, Daly’s experience pursuing her own education inspired her to develop programs to increase the enrollment of minority students in medical school and graduate science programs.

Her early research included studies of the effects of cholesterol on the mechanics of the heart, the effects of sugars and other nutrients on the health of arteries, and the breakdown of the circulatory system as a result of advanced age or hypertension.

Her later studies included research on how proteins are produced and organized in the cell after receiving a grant from the American Cancer Society and joining molecular biology pioneer, Alfred E. Mirsky, at the Rockefeller Institue in New York.

In 1988 she established a scholarship fund for African American science students at Queens College in honor of her father.

Valerie Thomas – Valerie Thomas is an African-American scientist and inventor best known for her patented illusion transmitter and contributions to NASA research.

Valerie Thomas

With an interest in electronics at an early age, Much of Thomas’ (born in 1943) early education in physics was self-taught through the books that she found, as she was not supported in her endeavors to pursue math and science. She did, however, go on to major in Physics at Morgan State University after high school. In 1964, Morgan began working for NASA as a data analyst.

During her tenure with NASA, she worked on and headed several operations including developing real-time computer data systems to support satellite operations (1964-1970), the Landsat Program (1970 – 1981), and the LACE (Large Area Crop Inventory Experiment) [1974]. But her most notable work came after being inspired by an optical illusion she viewed at an exhibition, where a light bulb appeared to be lit although it had been removed from its socket.

The illusion involved concave mirrors and Thomas became curious about how she could use the mirrors in her work at NASA. Her research and work with the mirrors led to Thomas inventing the illusion transmitted, a device that NASA continues to use today.

With contributions to projects related to Halley’s Comet and the Voyager and project manager roles for some of the most important teams in NASA’s history, Thomas’ work speaks for itself.

In her retirement, Thomas serves as an associate at the UMBC Center for Multicore Hybrid Productivity Research and she continues to mentor youth through the Science Mathematics Aerospace Research and Technology and National Technical Association.

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