Celebrating Activists During Black History Month
Black History Month is a time to celebrate and honor the achievements of Black Americans and their central role in U.S. history. In honor of Black History Month, Journey Center honors Black activists who have impacted the gender-based violence movement.
These are just a few of the influential Black voices who have made history as part of the anti-violence movement. Journey Center is grateful to these, and many other, Black activists for leading the way.
Stormé DeLarverie
Stormé DeLarverie was an American woman born in New Orleans, Louisiana, and was always a performer. She joined the Ringling Brothers Circus as a teenager, where she rode jumping horses. Then from 1955 to 1969, DeLarverie toured the black theater circuit as the MC — and their only drag king — of the Jewel Box Revue, the first racially integrated drag revue in North America. She worked as a bouncer for several lesbian bars in New York City in the ‘80s and ‘90s, . Known as the butch lesbian whose scuffle with police was, according to Stormé and many eyewitnesses, the spark that ignited the Stonewall uprising.
DeLarverie also served the community as a volunteer street patrol worker, and as a result, was called the "guardian of lesbians in the Village." Beyond her LGBTQ activism, DeLarverie organized and performed at fundraisers for women and children suffering from domestic violence.
Kimberlé Crenshaw
Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw is an American lawyer, civil rights advocate, philosopher, and a leading scholar of critical race theory who introduced and developed the theory of intersectionality.
Intersectionality is the theory of how overlapping or intersecting social identities, particularly minority identities, relate to systems and structures of oppression, domination, or discrimination. Her scholarship was also essential in the development of intersectional feminism which examines the overlapping systems of oppression and discrimination to which women are subject due to their gender, ethnicity, sexuality and economic background
Wagatwe Wanjuki
Wagatwe Wanjuki is a feminist activist, speaker, writer, and digital strategist best known for her work as a national campus anti-violence advocate.
Wanjuki first became a public name as a sexual assault survivor in 2009, when she was a student at Tufts University. In July 2016, she co-founded a new anti-rape organization, Suvivors Eradicating Rape Culture; in it’s inaugural campaign #JustSaySorry received international attention and her hashtag #SurvivorPrivledge went viral after she responded to a Washington Post Column claiming there was no campus rape epidemic.
Marian Wright Edelman
Marian Wright Edelman, founder of the Children’s Defense Fund has dedicated her life to ending childhood poverty. With her lifelong vision is in the headlines, she drove bipartisan efforts to lift children and their families.
Edelman was the first African American woman admitted to The Mississippi Bar in 1964. She began practicing law with the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund's Mississippi office, working on racial justice issues in the civil rights movement.
Dr. Pauli Murray
Anna Pauline "Pauli" Murray was an American civil rights activist. In 1940, Murray and a friend were arrested for violating state segregation laws when they sat in the whites-only section of a Virginia bus. This incident, and her subsequent involvement with the socialist Workers' Defense League, led her to pursue her career goals of working as a civil rights lawyer, women's rights activist, Episcopal priest, and author.
As a lawyer, Murray argued for civil rights and women's rights. In 1966 she was a co-founder of the National Organization for Women. Ruth Bader Ginsburg named Murray as a coauthor of a brief on the 1971 case Reed v. Reed, in recognition of her pioneering work on gender discrimination. This case articulated the "failure of the courts to recognize sex discrimination for what it is and its common features with other types of arbitrary discrimination."
Dr. Thema Bryant-Davis
Dr. Thema Bryant-Davis is a licensed psychologist, ordained minister, and sacred artist who has worked nationally and globally to provide relief and empowerment to marginalized persons. Her contributions to psychological research, policy, and practice have been honored by national and regional psychological associations.
Dr. Bryant-Davis is author of the book Thriving in the Wake of Trauma: A Multicultural Guide and is published in the journals The Counseling Psychologist, Professional Psychology: Research and Practice, and Trauma, Violence, and Abuse. Dr. Bryant-Davis serves on the Editorial Board for the journal Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice, and Policy.
Angela Davis
A trailblazing voice for black women, Davis played a crucial part in the Civil Rights movement. The political activist was a key leader in the Black Power movement, and though some of her more radical positions and role in political protests have been deemed controversial, she has relentlessly fought for over six decades to champion the advancement of women's rights. Most recently she served as an honorary co-chair for the Women's March on Washington in 2017.
Davis is the author of over ten books on class, feminism, race, and the US prison system. She has received numerous awards, including the Soviet Union's Lenin Peace Prize Davis has been inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame. Accused of supporting political violence, she has sustained criticism from the highest levels of the US government. She was listed as the 1971 "Woman of the Year" in Time magazine's "100 Women of the Year" edition, which covered the 100 years that began with women's suffrage in 1920.
Beverly Gooden
Beverly Gooden is an African American writer and social activist known for her groundbreaking work in domestic violence, victimology, and women's health. In 2014, she launched a movement when she created the Why I Stayed hashtag (#WhyIStayed) in response to the Ray Rice video released by TMZ.
A survivor of domestic violence, she tweeted several reasons why she remained in an abusive marriage as a direct response to widespread victim blaming of Janay Rice. #WhyIStayed was listed as one of the top social change hashtags of 2014 by Forbes, and one of the "top 10 hashtags that started a conversation" by Time magazine. In March 2015, #WhyIStayed was recognized as one of "8 hashtags that changed the world".
Ida B Wells
Ida B. Wells-Barnett was a prominent journalist, activist, and researcher who battled sexism, racism, and violence. As a talented writer, Wells-Barnett also used her skills as a journalist to shed light on the conditions of African Americans throughout the South.
Wells-Barnett traveled internationally, shedding light on lynching in the United States. Abroad, she openly confronted white women in the suffrage movement who ignored lynching. Because of her stance, she was often ridiculed and ostracized by women’s suffrage organizations in the US. Nevertheless, Wells-Barnett remained active the women’s rights movement. She was a founder of the National Association of Colored Women’s Club created to address civil rights and women’s suffrage.
Journey Center recognizes the critical work that is needed to center the experiences of Black women in order to address the disproportionate impact of violence on Black women and girls.
Black women face higher rates of domestic violence than white women, and are over-represented among victims of severe domestic violence and domestic violence related homicides.
Black women are murdered by men at a rate 2.5 times higher than white women
Women from communities with histories of racial discrimination often have less access to services and resources that help reduce risk and increase safety. Journey Center is committed to serving all survivors on their unique path to safety and healing.
If you or someone you know is experiencing domestic violence, call or text Journey Center's 24-Hour Helpline at 216.391.4357 (HELP).