View Points

Some women you should know

Harriet Tubman, of the Underground Railroad; Sojourner Truth, whose impromptu “Ain’t I A Woman” speech has promoted the equality of woman from one century to the next; Mary McCloud Bethune, educator and founder of Bethune Cookman College; Ida B Wells, leader of the anti-lynching campaign; Rosa Parks, galvanized a movement when she would not give up her seat to a white man on a Montgomery bus; Myrlie Evers-Williams, activist, journalist and widow of Medgar Evers; Betty Shabazz, activist, educator and widow of Malcolm X; and Angela Davis, activist and social change pioneer are all women you should know. Their historic contributions have made an indelible impact on the legacy and continuing struggle for women’s rights and the cause for justice and equality in the United States and throughout the globe. All of these women, and so many others, have contributed and continue to lead the women’s rights movement. For decades during the struggle for civil rights, the specific needs of women in the struggle took a back seat to the larger agenda. Many of these women’s stories are missing from the narrative as we recount freedom’s struggle and the fight for justice. We know the more familiar names like Frederick Douglass, Nat Turner, and Martin Luther King as the warriors for freedom and drum majors for justice and yet, countless women’s names are missing from our conversation and we need to change that.

The Commonwealth of Virginia has several iconic and perhaps lesser known warriors in the struggle, and here are some you should know. They are: Janie Porter Barrett, educator and advocate for restorative justice; Barbara Johns, youth activist and leader of the Farmville School Boycott; and the illustrious Dr. Dorothy Height, activist for women’s rights and civil rights.

Born in Athens, Georgia, Janie Porter Barrett received her education at Hampton University, and lived most of her life in Virginia where she could best be described as a social reformer and educator. Her passion was children and child advocacy. She established a school for previously incarcerated African American girls in 1915. The Barrett Learning Center was a residential school and training center for these young girls. In 1940, Barrett retired and ten years later the school was renamed the Janie Porter Barrett School for Girls. Barbara Rose Johns was only 16 years old in 1951 when she led her classmates in a strike to protest the substandard conditions at Robert Russa Moten School in Prince Edward County, Virginia. “It’s time that Negroes were treated equally with whites, time they had a decent school, Time for the students themselves to do something about it.” Johns spoke to her classmates on the steps of her depopulated, overcrowded and lacking sufficient sanitation high school, and the students boycotted their classes until they got the attention of the NAACP and the country.

Born in Richmond, Virginia, Dorothy Height worked tirelessly throughout her lifetime as an advocate for African American women during her tenure as the president of the National Council of Negro Women. In the 1990s, she brought young people to the center of the movement by focusing on the war against drugs, illiteracy and unemployment. Dr. Dorothy Height was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1994 and the Congressional Gold Medal in 2004. Her career was full and devoted to the cause of freedom, liberty and justice for her people.

These are some women you should know…now tell somebody else about them.

Up Next Week: The Politics of Women in Sports