Walking in Their Footsteps: GLADYS NOEL BATES

Gladys Noel Bates was the civil rights pioneer and educator who filed the first Civil Rights lawsuit in the state of Mississippi. She was born in McComb, Mississippi. The suit, filed in 1948, charged salary discrimination against black teachers and principals. Black teachers were paid one-half of what white teachers were paid, sometimes even less. … Continue reading Walking in Their Footsteps: GLADYS NOEL BATES

Walking in Their Footsteps: ANNIE BELL ROBINSON DEVINE

Annie Bell Robinson Devine was a no-nonsense civil rights activist. Born in Canton, Mississippi, Devine was the trailblazer behind the voter registration movement in Canton and Madison County. When she began in 1963, fewer than 100 of the county’s 10,000 Black adults were registered. She was a soft-spoken woman with a ready smile, whose commitment … Continue reading Walking in Their Footsteps: ANNIE BELL ROBINSON DEVINE

Walking in Their Footsteps: ELIZA FARISH PILLARS

Eliza Farish Pillars was born in Jackson, Mississippi. She was the first Black registered nurse employed by the Mississippi State Board of Health in 1926. After graduating from the School of Nursing-Hubbard Hospital at Meharry Medical College in Nashville in 1912, Pillars worked at the Jackson Infirmary Charity Hospital, now known as St. Dominic Hospital. … Continue reading Walking in Their Footsteps: ELIZA FARISH PILLARS

Walking in Their Footsteps: IDA BELL WELLS-BARNETT

Ida Bell Wells-Barnett, a Holly Springs, Mississippi native, was a journalist, newspaper editor, suffragist and sociologist. She documented lynching in the United States to expose its use as a mechanism to control and punish blacks who competed with whites. In 1884, 80 years before Rosa Parks, Wells bought a first class “ladies’ car” train ticket in … Continue reading Walking in Their Footsteps: IDA BELL WELLS-BARNETT

Walking in Their Footsteps: ELIZABETH TAYLOR GREENFIELD

Elizabeth Taylor Greenfield was born a slave in Natchez, Mississippi. When Mrs. Holliday Greenfield moved to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania from Natchez, she took the young Elizabeth with her. Elizabeth established a career as an acclaimed vocalist. Known as “The Black Swan,” in 1853 she debuted at the Metropolitan Hall in New York before a whites-only audience … Continue reading Walking in Their Footsteps: ELIZABETH TAYLOR GREENFIELD

“Walking in Their Footsteps” March 16 at Tougaloo College

Women’s History Month began as International Women’s Day in 1911. In 1980, President Jimmy Carter issued a proclamation declaring the week of March 8th as National Women’s History Week. In 1987, with petitions from the National Women’s History Project, Congress passed P.L. 100-9 designating March as Women’s History Month. Women’s History Month was not actually … Continue reading “Walking in Their Footsteps” March 16 at Tougaloo College