Happy Women’s History Month! In this post we are shining a light on five incredible Black women whose achievements have shaped history but often don’t get the recognition they deserve.
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Claudette Colvin (b. 1939)
Nine months before Rosa Parks’ famous act of defiance, 15-year-old Claudette Colvin made history by refusing to give up her seat on a segregated bus in Montgomery, Alabama, on 2 March 1955. When ordered to move to allow a white passenger to sit, she refused, stating that it was her constitutional right to remain seated. Police officers dragged her from the bus, handcuffed her, and arrested her.
Colvin became one of four plaintiffs in Browder v. Gayle, the landmark case that eventually overturned bus segregation laws in Montgomery. Despite her pivotal role, Colvin’s contribution was largely overlooked for decades. Civil rights leaders initially hesitated to use her as a face for the movement because she was a teenager who became pregnant shortly after her arrest. Historians have recently worked to restore her rightful place in civil rights history, recognising her courage in standing up against injustice at such a young age.
Una Marson (1905-1965)
Una Marson was a trailblazing Jamaican feminist, poet, playwright, and broadcaster whose work championed women’s rights and Black identity. As the first Black woman to work as a producer for the BBC, Marson created and produced “Caribbean Voices,” a radio program that ran from 1943 to 1958 and became a vital platform for Caribbean literature and cultural expression.
Marson’s literary works, including poetry collections like “Tropic Reveries” (1930) and plays such as “At What Price” (1932), explored themes of gender, racial identity, and colonialism. She organised the first Jamaican Women’s Social Club and edited “The Cosmopolitan,” a magazine addressing women’s rights. Through her work at the BBC during World War II, she helped connect Caribbean soldiers with their families through her program “Calling the West Indies.” Marson’s pioneering efforts created spaces for Caribbean voices in literature and broadcasting that resonate today.
Pauli Murray (1910-1985)
Pauli Murray was a renaissance figure whose work spanned civil rights, feminism, law, literature, and religion. After being denied admission to the University of North Carolina because of her race and to Harvard Law School because of her gender, Murray earned her law degree from Howard University in 1944. There, she developed the argument that segregation violated the 13th and 14th amendments – a strategy later used in Brown v. Board of Education.
Murray coined the term “Jane Crow” to describe the dual discrimination Black women faced. Her 1965 article “Jane Crow and the Law” influenced Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who named Murray as a co-author in a Supreme Court brief challenging gender discrimination. In 1977, Murray became the first African American woman ordained as an Episcopal priest. Throughout her extraordinary life, she published works including “States’ Laws on Race and Color” (1951), her memoir “Song in a Weary Throat” (1987), and poetry under the pen name “Ruth Nelson.” In 2016, Yale University named a residential college after her, acknowledging her profound legacy.
Marie Van Brittan Brown (1922-1999)
Living in Queens, New York, in the 1960s amid rising crime rates and slow police response times, nurse Marie Van Brittan Brown invented the first home security system to protect her family. Working with her husband Albert, an electronics technician, she developed a system that included a camera that could slide into peepholes, monitors, a two-way microphone, and an alarm button that could contact police immediately.
Brown’s 1966 patent application described a closed-circuit television security system that allowed a homeowner to see and speak with a visitor via a wireless television and radio system. Her innovation included remote-controlled door locks and a button to contact police. The patent (US3482037A) was granted in 1969, and her invention became the foundation for modern security systems used in homes and businesses worldwide. Brown’s ingenuity demonstrated how necessity drives innovation, and her work continues to protect millions of people globally.
Bessie Coleman (1892-1926)
When every flight school in America refused to teach Bessie Coleman because she was both Black and a woman, she didn’t abandon her dream – she transformed it into a global journey. Learning French and saving money from her job as a manicurist, Coleman travelled to France in 1920, where she earned her international pilot’s license from the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale in just seven months.
Returning to the U.S. as “Queen Bess,” Coleman specialised in stunt flying and parachuting, performing at air shows across the country. She refused to perform at venues that wouldn’t admit Black spectators and was known for encouraging African Americans to pursue aviation. Coleman planned to open a flight school for Black students, but her life was cut short at age 34 when she died in a plane crash while preparing for an airshow. Her pioneering spirit inspired generations of pilots, particularly women and African Americans. In 1995, the U.S. Postal Service issued a stamp in her honour, and she was inducted into the National Aviation Hall of Fame in 2006.
