Black History: Focus Moments

#VRABlackHistory

For the 4th year in a row, the Transformative Justice Coalition and the Voting Rights Alliance, in honor of Black History Month, are publishing a daily special series devoted to sharing the legacies and stories of the sheroes, heroes, and events in the fight for Black suffrage. This series incorporates social media posts, daily newsletters, and website blog posts to spread the word broadly.

In addition to 11 NEW articles this year, the series is starting off its first 7 days with stories of Black women involved in the Women’s Suffrage Movement in honor of the 100th Year Anniversary of the 19th Amendment, even though many African American women were not able to vote until the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

We encourage everyone to share this series to your networks and on social media under the hashtag #VRABlackHistory. You can also tweet us @VRAmatters to share your own facts.

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Feb. 7th, 2024- The First National Conference of the Colored Women of America (August 1895) #VRABlackHistory 2024

Feb. 7th, 2024- The First National Conference of the Colored Women of America (August 1895) #VRABlackHistory 2024

by | Feb 7, 2024 |

Today, February 7th, 2024, we honor the First National Conference of the Colored Women of America. Held in August 1895 in Boston, Massachusetts, representatives from 42 African-American women’s clubs gathered at this three-day organizing and strategy conference, the first of its kind in the United States. The goal of the conference was to create a national organization for Black women after Black women expressed via poll responses the need for such an organization in the early 1890’s. The final tipping point was in 1895 when “an obscure Missouri journalist named John Jacks sent a letter to the secretary of the British Anti-Slavery Society, Florence Belgarnie. In the letter, Jacks criticized the anti-lynching work of Ida B. Wells, and wrote that black women had ‘no sense of virtue’ and were ‘altogether without character’…

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February 1st, 2024- Prince Hall (1735-1807)

February 1st, 2024- Prince Hall (1735-1807)

by | Feb 1, 2024 |

“A quest to ensure that Black people understood their past was at the heart of the creation of Black History Month…If you think you have no history, it’s like being rootless…It’s unnatural. If you think your people don’t have history, you can do nothing. The point of Black History Month is so you can understand your history.”

– CeLillianne Green, author of “A Bridge: The Poetic Primer on African and African American Experiences.” Washington Post. February, 1st, 2022 https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2022/02/01/carter-woodson-miseducation-negro-schools/

On February 1st, 2024, we honor Prince Hall of Boston, who was not only a registered voter of his day, but a staunch abolitionist and civil rights activist who used the power of petitions to effectively petition the government to gain rights for Black people.

This article is written by Caitlyn Caitlyn Arnwine (formerly Caitlyn Cobb) in 2017 and updated last in 2023 with the quote at the beginning.

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