Resilience and Achievement of Black Women

Black women in the late 1800s achieved progress faster than any group in world history.

Just 30 years after emancipation, starting with nothing, they faced a double barrier of racism

and sexism that blocked them from most jobs. But they didn't just survive.

They graduated with honors from top universities like Vassar and Cornell. They became doctors,

dentists, and ran huge businesses. They founded their own hospitals when others shut them

out. As activist Mary Church Terrell said in 1898, they weren't asking

for favors. They were knocking at the bar of justice, demanding an equal chance.