Black Women’s enormous contribution to the United States cannot be counted or measured. Since Black people arrived in this country, Black women have fought on many fronts for freedom, justice & equality, from abolition of slavery, ending segregation, civil rights and up to this very moment in the fight for reparations and police accountability.

This freedom fighting by Black women in America follows a long tradition: Harriet Tubman, Wells, Rosa Parks, Phylis Wheatly and many others stood on the front line for the African American cause.

Four little Black girls, Cynthia Wesley, Carol Robertson, Carol Denise Mc Nair and Addie Mae Collins, paid the ultimate sacrifice and were killed during the 116th Baptist Church Bombing. Today Black women still suffer from white supremacist attacks: Sandra Bland, Charlena Lyles, Korryn Gaines and Desire Collins were all terrorized by police in the United States. Systemic financial attacks and racist policies and procedures have contributed to creating barriers to economic upward mobility for Black women. However, in the face of white supremacy and institutional structural anti-black racism, Black women continue to make significant breakthroughs and strides in the fight for Black Liberation, whether astronauts such as Mae Carol Jemison, or Dorothy Lavina Brown, the first Black female surgeon in the American South, or Katanji Jackson, who sits on the Supreme Court, to our local Black woman elected officials.

Today and every day we will continue to honor the legacy of the Black woman in America and throughout the diaspora.