Chicago History Museum / Getty Images Rosa Parks (1913-2005) Wells founded the Alpha Suffrage Club, an organization of women who helped elect candidates who would best serve the Black community in Chicago. She was one of the founders of the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People), and led a powerful anti-lynching crusade in the U.S. Wells was a prominent Black investigative journalist, educator and activist in the early civil rights movement. Her legacy is indelible in the movement to abolish slavery, as she is documented to have made approximately 13 trips through the Underground Railroad, leading dozens of slaves to freedom and was never caught, despite a $40,000 reward for her capture. Harriet Tubman (unknown-1913)Īmerican abolitionist Harriet Tubman is best known for her efforts to move slaves to liberation in the Underground Railroad, a network of antislavery activists.

On May 21, 1796, a 22-year-old Ona successfully escaped her enslavement to President George Washington while he and wife, Mrs. Vernon and brought to Philadelphia to serve at the president’s house. Ona Judge, known by the Washingtons as 'Oney,' was a mixed woman born into an enslaved family on Mt. Her suit helped lead to the permanent abolition of slavery in the state of Massachusetts. Elizabeth Freeman (unknown-1829)įreeman, also known as Mum Bett, was a nurse and midwife who successfully sued Massachusetts for her freedom in 1781, becoming the first African American enslaved woman to win a freedom suit in the state. In honor of Black History Month, we've gathered a list of influential Black women, whose contributions, accomplishments and talent have not only helped shape the world, but made it a better place for all.

While there's still a long way to go, these iconic women along with Maya Angelou, Harriet Tubman and other famous females have forged a path toward progress and, in return, leave their legacies behind.

Bold women in black history