Serena Williams is an American tennis player known for revolutionizing women’s tennis. Williams’s once said, “The success of every woman should be the inspiration to another. We should raise each other up. Make sure you’re very courageous: be strong, be extremely kind, and above all be humble”. Women’s history month is fast approaching and allows us to appreciate all the accomplishments women of various backgrounds have made our overall culture and society. Listed below are three women in history that should be well known.
Claudia Jones – Journalist | Black Activist | Feminist
Claudia Jones was incredibly influential during the 20th century as a black radical and a feminist. Jones was born in 1915 in Trinidad and migrated to the U.S. in 1924, and resided in Harlem. At the age of 12, her mother passed away due to the harmful condition and being overworked as a garment worker. After her mother’s death, Jones’s family fell into deep poverty, resulting in Jones having to drop out of high school. During this time, she began to take a particular interest in politics, specifically social activism. When she was 18, Jones joined the Young Communist League, a group centered around educating youth about studying Communism and Marxism-Leninism. The group was also dedicated to actively participating in the struggles of working-class Americans. Throughout the rest of her adult life, Jones was a Communist that was both a writer and a journalist. Much of her work revolved around broadening the Marxist theory around women, gender, and age. Jones is well known for her article entitled “An End to the Neglect of the Problem of the Negro Woman”. This article is what helped in the construction of the concept of intersectionality.
Laura Cornelius Kellogg – Native American Activist | Poet
Laura Cornelius Kellogg was born in 1880 on the Oneida reservation in Wisconsin. She then attended Barnard College, Cornell University, New York School of Philanthropy, Stanford University, and the University of Wisconsin. Kellogg studied law and several other subjects; however, she never received an actual degree from these universities. After this, during 1911, she became one of the founders of the Society of American Indians and taught at the Sherman Institute in Riverside, California. Kellogg wore several different hats throughout her life. She was a public speaker, organizer, Native American rights activist, writer, poet, and political essayist. Her only known surviving poem is entitled “A Tribute to the Future of My Race.”
Patsy Mink – House of Representative Congresswoman
Patsy Mink was a third-generation Japanese woman born in Paia, Hawaii, in 1927. Mink was a highly intelligent woman who was the valedictorian of her high school and soon attended the University of Nebraska. However, Mink then had to go back to Paia to finish her education due to illness. After finishing her undergraduate program, she applied to several medical schools however was rejected by all the schools. So Mink decided to pursue a law degree, so in 1948 she went to the University of Chicago Law School. Mink faced a lot of adversity as she was denied the right to take the bar exam in Hawaii as she had lost her territorial residency due to her marriage. She fought back from these sexist laws and, as a result, passed the bar exam and started her own practice in 1953. In 1964, Mink ran for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives in order to fight against discriminatory practices. She brought barriers as the first Japanese American to be elected into Congress and as one of the first women of color to be in the House of Representatives. She served in Congress for 12 years and was involved in main milestones in Congress. She was involved in the first federal child-care bill, the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965, and a lawsuit that caused major changes to presidential authority in the Freedom of Information Act in 1971. Not only that, but Mink was also one of the co-authors for the Title IX Amendments for Higher Education Act; this amendment, in essence, prohibits discrimination based on one’s sex.
These are three extraordinary women who have broken down so many barriers for women and caused major ripples in how society views women’s capabilities. Unfortunately, these are just three of so many women who are not known well enough. There are countless other women who remain hidden and are not fully appreciated enough in our society. We as a society need to celebrate these tremendous contributions this women’s history month.