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"'As long as the Afro-Americans of this country sit
supinely by and raise no voice against the injustice heaped upon them, conditions in this
country will grow worse, ' wrote Charlotta A. Bass in an editorial appearing in the
California Eagle in 1915. She did raise her voice and thereby influenced the course of
race relations in America. So too did scores of others of her race, gender, and
occupation. Each chapter is a biographical sketch of a black woman who has written for American newspapers or television news, and thereby changed history. The first story is that of Maria W. stewart, whose powerful anti-slavery essays aided the abolition movement in the 1830s. Also appearing are Mary Ann Shadd Cary, Gertrude Bustill Mossell, Ida B. Wells-Barnett, Josephine St. Pierre Ruffin, Delilah L Beasley, Marvel Cooke, Charlotta A. Bass, Alice Allison Dunnigan, and Ethel L. Payne. Finally, there is Charlayne Hunter-Gault, an award-winning reporter for the New York Times and later a "MacNeil/Lehrer NewHour" correspondent who first made news herself by challenging segregation at the University of Georgia in 1961." - from back cover |