RETURN TO TIMELINE
1851
Key People

Sojourner Truth

Sojourner Truth (1797–1883) was an abolitionist, women’s-rights activist, and evangelist. She was an enslaved woman who, after gaining freedom, preached about abolition and equal rights. Her famous speech, “Aint I a Woman?” (1851), highlighted the discrimination that she experienced as a Black woman.

Authors: History.com Editors
VISIT RESOURCE
SEE MORE Key People
1913
1913
Woman Suffrage March
1982
“We Don’t Live Singl...
2013
Black Lives Matter
1720
Nanny of the Maroons
1831
Maria Stewart
1843
Carlota Lucumi
1848
The Seneca Falls Convention
1849
Harriet Tubman
1851
“Ain’t I a Woman?...
1851
Sojourner Truth
1856
Wilberforce University
1863
Combahee River Raid
1869
Ball Culture and Community
1881
Atlanta Washerwomen Strike
1890
Formation of Social and Politica...
1890
Race Women
1892
Frances E. W. Harper
1892
Ida B. Wells
1896
Lifting as We Climb
1896
Mary Church Terrell
1900
Nannie Helen Burroughs
1904
Literary and Industrial Training...
1913
Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc....
1916
The Great Migration
1918
Harlem Renaissance
1924
Amy Jacques Garvey
1924
Anna Julia Cooper
1929
Igbo Women’s War
1929
The Great Depression
1932
Shirley Graham Du Bois
1936
Mary McLeod Bethune Appointed by...
1941
Pauli Murray Enrolls in Howard U...
1943
Pauli Murray
1944
Justice for Recy Taylor
1944
Recy Taylor
1947
The Rosa Lee Ingram Case
1949
An End to the Neglect of the Pro...
1949
Eslanda Cardozo Goode Robeson
1951
Sojourners for Truth and Justice
1954
Addie L. Wyatt
1954
Mother Netti Hunt and Daughter N...
1955
Claudia Jones
1955
Georgia Gilmore
1955
Rosa Parks
1956
Laura Mae Dixie
1956
Vel Phillips
1956
Women’s March in Pretoria
1960
Bennett College
1961
Lorraine Hansberry
1961
Ruby Doris Smith Robinson
1962
Black Is Beautiful
1964
Fannie Lou Hamer
1964
Fannie Lou Hamer’s Speech ...
1965
Black Arts Movement
1965
The Moynihan Report
1966
Black Panther Party
1966
Compton’s Cafeteria Riot
1968
Consciousness Raising
1969
Double Jeopardy: To Be Black and...
1969
June Jordan
1969
Marsha P. Johnson
1969
Stonewall
1970
Angela Davis
1970
Childcare Access
1970
Comparative Women’s Studies at S...
1970
Free Angela
1970
Louise Thompson Patterson
1970
My Body, My Choice
1970
Patricia Hill Collins
1972
Florynce “Flo” Kennedy
1972
Johnnie Tillmon
1972
Shirley Chisholm
1973
Assata Shakur
1973
Free Assata
1973
Roe v. Wade
1973
National Black Feminist Organiza...
1973
Hip Hop
1974
Barbara Smith
1974
Katie Cannon
1974
The Joan Little Campaign
1975
“For Colored Girls,”...
1977
Combahee River Collective Statement
1977
Loretta Ross
1978
Black Macho and the Myth of the ...
1978
“Uses of the Erotic,”...
1978
Pat Parker
1979
Beverly Guy-Sheftall
1979
Womanism
1980
Audre Lorde
1980
Crack Epidemic
1980
Kitchen Table Press
1981
Ain’t I a Woman? by bell hooks
1981
bell hooks
1981
Byllye Avery
1981
Gloria Joseph
1981
HIV Epidemic
1982
Alice Walker
1984
Sister Outsider, by Audre Lorde
1985
Hortense Spillers
1985
Prison Abolition
1987
Dr. Johnnetta B. Cole
1989
Intersectionality
1989
Kimberlé Crenshaw
1990
Black Maternal and Infant Mortality
1990
Linda Burnham
1990
Women of Color Resource Center
1991
Black LGBTQ Pride
1993
Elsa Barkley Brown
1994
1994 Crime Bill
1994
Black Women in the Academy: Defe...
1995
African American Agenda 2000
1995
Barbara Ransby
1997
Cathy Cohen
1997
Critical Resistance
1997
Women of Color
1997
The Million Women March
1998
Black Feminist Caucus of the Bla...
1999
When Chickenheads Come Home to R...
2000
INCITE! Women of Color Against V...
2003
Are Prisons Obsolete? by Angela ...
2004
“Tip Drill”/Take Bac...
2004
Brittney Cooper
2004
Crunk Feminist Collective
2005
Hurricane Katrina
2006
Me Too
2007
When and Where I Enter, by Paula...
2007
Ella’s Daughters
2008
Misogynoir
2009
Mariame Kaba
2010
E. Frances White
2010
Kai Lumumba Barrow
2011
At the Dark End of the Street, b...
2011
Sister Citizen, by Melissa V. Ha...
2011
Nikky Finney
2012
Beth Richie
2012
The Violence Matrix
2012
CeCe McDonald’s Plea Barga...
2013
Alicia Garza
2013
BYP100 (Black Youth Project 100)
2013
Charlene Carruthers
2013
Police Murders
2014
Patient: Poems, by Bettina Judd
2014
Beyoncé Feminism
2014
#SayHerName
2015
Pushout, by Monique W. Morris
2015
Bree Newsome
2016
The Congressional Caucus on Blac...
2016
Black Women’s Truth and Re...
2017
Black Mama’s Bail Out
2017
The Tambourine Army
2017
March for Black Women
2017
Cite Black Women
2018
Unapologetic, by Charlene Carrut...
2018
Black Feminist Disability Framework
2018
Black Feminist Organizing Schools
2018
Imara Jones
2018
#MuteRKelly
2020
Transgender Self-Defense
2020
Visibility of Black Trans Women
2022
Farah Jasmine Griffin
2022
Sevonna Brown
2022
M Adams
2022
The Mothers of Gynecology: Anarc...
2022