Eslanda Robeson

A staunch opponent of injustice, Eslanda found her intellectual community and political point of view in New York, where she was located in history on the eve of the Harlem Renaissance and the end of the Bolshevik revolution.

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Adelaide Casely-Hayford

Sierra Leone activist, teacher and fiction writer Adelaide Casely-Hayford advocated for the Creole community, cultural nationalism, feminism and education for women and girls.

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Amaza Lee Meredith

Despite being prevented from a career as a professional architect as an African-American woman in the early and mid-1900s, Amaza Lee Meredith left a legacy through her work.

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Bessie Smith

Acknowledged as one of the greatest blues singers of the twentieth century, Bessie Smith reigned as the “Empress of the Blues” throughout most of the 1920s.

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Bessie Stringfield

“The Motorcycle Queen of Miami” Bessie Stringfield loved riding so much that she would drop a penny on a map and ride to wherever it landed.

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Aïssata Kane

Mauritian political Aïssata Touré Kane served as the country’s first female government minister as part of President Moktar Ould Daddah’s cabinet from 1975 to 1978, when the government was overthrown by a military coup.

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