Female Leaders

72 Pages·1993·10.229 MB·English

by  Richard Scott Rennert

j
'
BOSTON
PUBLlC
LlBAARY
Digitized by the Internet Archive
in 2013
http://archive.org/details/femaleleadersproOOrich

I
I ~, PR OFILES O F GREAT~
B L,\ CK AMERICANS
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F
etnale Leaders '
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Edited by Richard Rennert
1
Introduction by Coretta Scott King
1
Ill A Chclse~ House
II Muhibiogrophy
Chelsea House Publishers
Nc,v York Philadelphia
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L - - - -- -
On the cover: Rosa Parks at the time of the ,vlontgomery bus
hoycon.
Copyright© 1994 by Chelsea Ilou~c Publi~hcrs, djvision of
:1
J\l.iin Line Book Co. All right~ re~erved. Printed and bound in the
L'nired States of America.
First Printing
I 3 5 7 9 8 6 4 1
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Female Leaders/edited by Rjchard Rennert.
p. cm.-(Profiles of great Black \merican~)
(A Chelsea House mulribiography)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Content~: Shirley Chisholm-:\Iarian \Vright Edclman
Barharn.Jordan- Coretta Scott King-Carol Nlosclcy-Braun
J. \
Rosa Parks-,\ ladam C. \'alkcr-lda \Veils-Barnett.
ISBN 0-7910-1057-6.
0-7910-2058-4(pbk.)
I. Afro-A1neric:1n ,, omcn-Biogrnphy-Juvenile literature.
I
1. \ \'on1cn Biogr:iphy. 1. ,\fro-Americans-Biography.]
I. Ren nen, Rich:1rd. Il. Series. 111. Series: A Chelsea House
1nultihiography
El85.96.F46 1993 93-16415
920.72'08996073-dc20 CIP
IB] AC
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~, CONTENTS
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Introduction 4
Shirley Chishohn 5
Marian Wright Edelman 12
Barbara J ordan 19
Coretta Scott King 26
Carol Moseley-Braun 33
Rosa Parks 40
J.
Maclain C. W alker 47
Ida B. W ells-Barnett 54
Further Reading 61
Index 62
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by Coretta Scott King
T his book is about black An1ericans \.vho served
society through the excellence of their achieven1ents. lt
for111s a part of the rich history of black n1en and won1cn
in An1erica-a history of stunning acco,nplishrnents in
every field of hun1an endeavor, fro1n literature and art
to science, industry, education, diplo,nacy, athletics,
jurisprudence, even polar exploration.
Not all of the people in this history had the san1e
ideals, but I think you ,vill find son1ething that all of
them had in co111n1on. Like ,\lartin Luther King,Jr.,
they all <leci<le<l to become "<lrun1 111ajors" and serve
hu1nanity. In that principle-\.vhether it ,vas expressed
in books, inventions, or song- they found son1ething
outside thc111seh·es to use as a goal and a guide. Son1e
thing that sho,vecl then1 a ,vay to serve others instead of
only living for then1selves.
Reading the stories of these courageous n1en and
won1en not only helps us disco,·er the principles that,ve
,vill use to guide our o,vn lives but also teaches us about
our black heritage and about Atnerica itself. It is crucial
for us to k.no,v the heroes and heroines of our history
and to realize that the price ,ve paid in our struggle for
equality in An1erica ,vas dear. But \.Ve must also under
stand that \.Ve have gotten as far as ,ve have partly be
cause An1erica's de1nocratic systen1 and ideals n1ade it
possible.
½7e are still struggling \Vith racisrn and prejudice. But
the great ,nen and \VOmen in this series are a tribute
to the spirit of our de,nocratic ideals and the systen1
in ,vhich they have flourished. 1-\nd that 111akes their
stories special and ,vorth kno"ving.
S ilJRL EY CIIISIIOLM
S hirley Chisholm, An1erica's
first black congress\vo1nan, ,vas born Shirley Anita
St. Hill on November 20, 192-+, in the Bedford
Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn, Ne\v York. She \vas
the oldest of Ruby and Charles St. Hill's four
daughters. Hoping to save n1oney for the girls' educa
tion, their parents sent rhein to live with their grand-
111other in Barbados in L9 27. Seven years later, Shirley
~, 6 Ffi\lALE. Lf:·\DERS
and her sisters returned to the United States, which
\vas by then in the grip of the Great Depression.
Like millions of other A111ericans of the 1930s, the
St. Ilills had very little money, but they never con
sidered letting a school-age child v.rork. To Charles
St. I Ii II, a fifth-grade dropout hi1nself, education came
first. I--Iis girls rewarded his faith by doing well at
school; Shirley led the pack by graduating at the top
of her high school class and receiving scholarship
offers from Vassar and Oberlin. Unable to afford
a distant school even on a scholarship, Shirley St. Hill
enrolled in Brooklyn College, from which she
graduated cu1n laude in 1946.
Urged by her college professors to consider politics
as a career, star pupil St. IIill had clen1urred: "You
forget t\vo things," she said. "1'111 black-and I'1n a
\V01nan." After college, she took a job at a Harlen,
child-care center, ,vhere she ·Norked for seven years
\vhile studying for a master's degree in early childhood
education at Colun1bia UniYcrsity night school. She
received the degree in 1952. During this period, she
1net and 1narried a recent i1nn1igrant fro,n Jamaica,
graduate student c:onrad Chisholrn.
Fro1n 1953 to 1964, Shirley Chisholrn served as an
educational consultant for the Ne,v York City Bureau
of Child \i\relfare. 1vlean,vhile, she had finally entered
politics. In 1960, the 36-year-old educator, along with
a group of reforn1-n1inded neighbors, decided to oust
the local Den1ocratic political machine and replace it
with a ne,v, liberal party organization. Their group,