Jackson part of line of great Black women

Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson’s appointment to the U.S. Supreme Court got me to thinking about other African-American women who have made their mark on American history.

There are many, including lesser-known women such as the late Constance Baker Motley, the first Black woman to be appointed to a federal judgeship. In her day, she played a pivotal role in desegregating Southern institutions of higher learning, critical to ending the era of Jim Crow.

Then there are famous Black women like Rosa Parks. In 1955, she refused to give up her seat to a white person on a Montgomery, Ala. bus. She was arrested for this act of peaceful “civil disobedience,” a bus boycott ensued, and the world was changed forever.

Of course, these and other Black women were bravely preceded by others who had to face down socially acceptable violence. Harriet Tubman was born a slave before she escaped to the North, then she returned more than a dozen times through a network of escape routes known as the Underground Railroad; Tubman herself is credited with leading more than 70 slaves to freedom. She went on to become one of the most famous abolitionists of her day.

Then came Ida B. Wells, who was born into slavery about a year into the Civil War. After her emancipation, she managed to move her family from Mississippi to Memphis, Tenn., where, after witnessing a lynching, she used the powers of investigative journalism to document and expose the too-common practice of lynchings in the South and became known worldwide for her work. In her day, she was one of the greatest champions out there for civil rights and women’s suffrage.

In more contemporary times, we’ve seen African-American women rise to prominence in politics, sports, entertainment and more. No Black woman has equaled Kamala Harris’ rise to the vice presidency, but others made their political imprint in other significant ways. Barbara Jordan and Shirley Chisholm are two who rose up in the 1960s and ‘70s.

Both Jordan and Chisholm served in the U.S. House of Representatives in the 1970s. Jordan is perhaps best known for her opening statement at a House Judiciary Committee hearing to consider the impeachment of then-President Richard Nixon. She was the first African American, and the first woman, in history to deliver a keynote address at the Democratic National Convention in 1976.

Rep. Chisholm took it up a notch. In 1968, she became the first Black woman ever elected to Congress, and four years later she became the first woman, and the first African-American, to run as a major party (Democrat) candidate for president.

Of course, I’d be remiss not to mention Oprah Winfrey in the world of entertainment. Born in 1954 to a single mother in Mississippi, she escaped her poverty to become the first Black billionaire. She took a popular daytime television talk show and launched a media empire, then she used her fame and fortune to become an activist with phenomenal influence. One could argue that her early support of Barack Obama for president got him elected.

These are just a few of the shoulders upon which Judge Jackson stands. She’s just the latest in a long line of great Black American women who helped to shape the modern world in which we live.

Tom McDonald is editor of the New Mexico Community News Exchange. Contact him at:

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