How Many of These Famous Black SHEROES Can You Name?

First Row (starting from the top, left to right):

1. Ida B. Wells – Legedary activist, journalist and founding member of the NAACP.

2. Harriet Tubman – Leading lady of the Underground Railroad; abolitionist and famed feminist.

3. Mary McLeod Bethune – Educator, humanitarian, civil rights leader, advisor to 5 U.S. presidents; founder of Bethune-Cookman University.

4. Septima Clark – Educator and civil rights activist known as the “Mother of the Movement.”

5. Augusta Savage – Activist and famed sculptor associated with the Harlem Renaissance.

6. Zora Neale Hurston – Renowned author best known for her 1937 novel Their Eyes Were Watching God.

7. Amy-Jacques Garvey – Second wife of Black Nationalist Marcus Garvey; ground-breaking publisher, journalist and activist.

Second Row:

1. Sojourner Truth – Acclaimed Abolitionist and women’s rights activist.

2. Miriam Makeba aka “Mama Africa”– South African singer and civil rights activist known for fighting against apartheid.

3. Madame C.J. Walker – America’s first self-made female millionaire; famed entrepreneur who gained notary through her acclaimed beauty and hair care line.

4. Billie Holiday – Celebrated jazz vocalist and song-writer; one of the most famous and respected jazz singers to touch a mic.

5. Maggie Lena Walker – Educator and businesswoman; best known as the first female bank president in the U.S.

6. Rosa Parks – Civil rights activist famous for refusing to give up her bus seat to White passenger in Montgomery, Alabama, which sparked the Montgomery Bus Boycott in 1955.

7. Dr. Dorothy Height – Civil and (black) women’s rights activist; known as one of the “Big Six” (influential leaders) during the civil rights movement.

Third Row:

1. Mary Lou Williams –  Known as the “First Lady of the Piano”; esteemed jazz pianist, vocalist and composer.

2. Sarah Vaughan – Award-winning jazz vocalist.

3. Susie King Taylor – Educator and the first Black nurse in the US Army; only Black woman to publish a memoir of her war experiences, and the first Black teacher to openly educate African American students in Georgia.

4. Queen Mother Moore – Civil rights leader, Black Nationalist and founding member of the Republic of New Afrika.

5. Ella Baker – Leading figure in the Civil Rights Movement.

6. Mary Eliza Mahoney – First registered African American nurse.

7. Toni Morrison – Esteemed author and educator best known for her works Beloved and The Bluest Eye.

Fourth Row:

1. Fannie Jackson Coppin – Renowed educator and missionary who pushed for women’s higher education.

2. Bessie Smith – First major blues/jazz singer on record; “The Empress of the Blues.”

3. Ella Fitzgerald – Famous jazz singer nicknamed “First Lady of Song” and the “Queen of Jazz.”

4. Mary Church Terrell – Civil rights activist and co-founder of the NAACP; one of the first Black American women to earn a college degree; the first Black woman to

5. Clara McBride Hale – Esteemed Humanitarian who founded the Hale House in Harlem, a facility dedicated to housing abandoned and drug-addicted infants.

6. Mahalia Jackson – “The Queen of Gospel” and devoted civil rights activist.

7. Ethel Waters – Prized singer and actress known for hits like “Stormy Weather,” “Cabin in the Sky,” and “Heat Wave”; the first Black American woman nominated for an Emmy Award.

Fifth Row:

1. Dinah Washington – “Queen of the Blues”; recognized as the most popular Black female recording artist of the ’50s.

2. Dorothy Dandridge – Famed singer, dancer and actress; the first African American woman to be nominated for an Oscar for Best Actress.

3. Edith Sampson – Groundbreaking lawyer and judge who was the first African American U.S. delegate appointed to the United Nations.

4. Josephine Baker – World-renowned entertainer and civil rights proponent who became the first person of color to reach world-wide acclaim and star in a major motion film; famous for her risqué banana skirt.

5. Fredi Washington – Actress and civil rights activist noted for her role in the 1934 classic Imitation of Life.

6. Hattie McDaniel – The first Black American to win an Oscar when she took home Best Supporting Actress for her role in Gone with the Wind in 1940.

7. Lucy Craft Laney – Founder of The Haines Normal and Industrial Institute, the first school for Black children in Augusta, Georgia; dubbed Georgia’s most famous Black female educator and one of the first African Americans to have their portrait displayed in the Georgia State Capital.