Class assignment overview and requirements

African-American women: Exhibit review of "Claiming Their Citizenship: African-American Women From 1624-2009"

On February 2010, in honor of Black History month, the National Women's History Museum (NWHM) launched the cyberexhibit "Claiming Their Citizenship: African-American Women From 1624-2009." The exhibit reviews the history of African-American women from earliest arrivals of Africans as slaves to today. The essays and historical documents demonstrate how African women resisted slavery ever since the earliest days of European settlers: "One such recorded rebellion occurred in 1721, when an African woman stole weapons and served as lookout for two male slaves who attempted to take over the slave ship Robert" ("Introduction, NWHM, 2010).

By tracing slavery in America before America was founded as a nation, the reasons for the creation and entrenchment of the institution become much clearer. African-Americans replaced white indentured servants because they were easier to capture due their 'non-European' appearance if they escaped. Because African women were used to 'produce' or breed more slaves they often suffered sexual as well as physical abuse.

Even during the early colonial and Revolutionary War era, African-American women distinguished themselves, overcoming formidable social obstacles, such as the poet Phillis Wheatley, whose poetry is featured on the exhibit website. Additionally, in Massachusetts and other northern colonies, many slaves successfully petitioned the courts for their freedom. During the years leading up to the Civil War, northern women's groups were active in supporting the abolitionist movement, and former female slaves such as Sojourner Truth spoke out in favor of both the causes of women's rights and abolitionism. While I had heard of Sojourner Truth and Harriet Tubman, I did not know that one of the first recorded uses of the 'separate but equal' doctrine of Plessy v. Ferguson was employed by the Massachusetts' state supreme court in 1848 when Benjamin Roberts attempted to get his daughter Sarah Roberts admitted to a whites-only school. The first African-American women to earn a degree from an institution of higher learning, Lucy Sessions earned her degree from Oberlin College the same year as the infamous Dred Scott Supreme Court decision declared all slaves to be property. After slavery was abolished, many African-American women migrated to the north, and the White Rose Mission of free black journalist Victoria Earle Matthews, offered free housing and other resources in New York City to former slaves.

Interestingly, in the first sections of the website, little is said about the inherent sexual violence within the slavery system. The exhibit focuses on positive examples of empowerment and resistance of women, or more generalized discussion of overall trends in Black history. For example, one section on the Great Migration of blacks to the north after the formal end of reconstruction contains no mention of how this specifically affected African-American women. However, other sections, such as the career of anti-lynching journalist Ida B. Wells-Barnett, and the founders of the first African-American women's colleges, bring hidden history to light. Some African-American women during the early 20th centuries accomplished feats even white women had not, such as Maggie Lena Mitchell Walker, the president of the Saint Luke Penny Savings Bank in Richmond, Virginia, the creator of the patented 'folding' bed Ira E. Goode, the sculptress Mary Edmonia Lewis, and the aviatress Bessie Coleman.

However, during the Great Depression, African-Americans suffered the economic stress of that era to an even greater degree than whites, and the era was accompanied by a rise in 'scientific racism' which 'scientifically' attempted to prove the superiority of whites. African-American women resisted, and eventually formed the core of the American Civil Rights movement, including famous figures such as Rosa Parks. The website ends with a brief overview of famous Black women, such as Alice Walker and Noble-prize winning Toni Morrison, as well as Oprah and First Lady Michelle Obama.