During her lifetime, Zora Neale Hurston published four novels; Jonah's Gourd Vine (1934), Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937), Moses, Man of the Mountain (1939), Seraph on the Suwanee (1948) and more than 50 published short stories, plays, and essays.
Considered one of the best contraltos of the 20th century, Marian Anderson broke barriers. She was the first African American artist to sign with RCA Victor Recording Company. Her first record featured spirituals “Deep River” and “My Way’s Cloudy.” In 1955 when she became the first African American to perform at the Metropolitan Opera.
Susan Bromwell Anthony was born February 15, 1820 in Adams, Massachusetts, to a Hicksite Quaker family with long activist traditions... the second of seven children. Her activism began with abolitionism in the 1840s. She later opposed the 15th Amendment, which granted suffrage to African American men. Her frustration with the dominant male chauvinist culture of the 19th century United States moved her to adopt racist positions.
Anna Eleanor Roosevelt was born on October 11, 1884 to Elliott Roosevelt and Anna Hall. She worked on social, education, and cultural issues and in 1947 was elected head of the 18-nation U.N. Human Rights Commission. She even published her own newspaper column, called “My Day,” which ran in newspapers across the country, six days a week for nearly 30 years.
Considered one of the greatest writers in the United States, Maya Angelou was the first African-American to work on the streetcars in San Francisco. She was the first African-American woman to recite her poetry at a US presidential inauguration, the first African-American women to make the non-fiction bestseller’s list, the first African-American woman to have an original screenplay produced for the movie Georgia, Georgia in 1972.
