Celebrating Black Females' Achievements and Bravery - BHM 2023

Exhibition:

Celebrating Black Females’ Achievements and Bravery Black History Month

Wangari Muta Maathai

Environmental and political activist

1940 - 2021

Founded the Green Belt Movement, an organization focused on the planting of trees, environmental conservation, and women’s rights. The first African woman to receive the Nobel Peace Prize for “her contribution to sustainable development, democracy and peace”

Hindou Oumarou Ibrahim

Chadian environmental activist and geographer

1999 founded the Association of Indigenous Peul Women and Peoples of Chad (AFPAT) which focussed o promoting the rights of girls and women, inspiring leadership and advocacy in environmental protection. Has argued that her People the Mbbororor have been directly adversely affected by climate change to the extent of having to leave their lands

Adenike Oladosu

Nigerian climate activist

2019 participated in and spoke at COP”5 in Spain as a Nigerian youth diplomat. Founded her own pan-Arican climate justice movement and has been recognised by UNICEF Nigeria as a young change maker. She leads a grassroots movement ILeadClimate which advocates for restoration of Lake Chad and youth involvement in climate justice through education

Elizabeth Wanjiru Wathuti

Kenyan environment and climate activist

Founder of Green Generation Initiative in 2016 which encourages young people to be environmentally conscious.She is winner of numerous wards including Africa Green Person of the year 2019 by the Eleven Eleven Twelve Foundation and nmed as one of the 100 most influential Young Africans by the Agrica Youth Awards

Vanessa Nakate

Ugandan climate justice activist

She is founder of the Youth for Future Africa and also the Africa based Rise Up Movement. Nakate spoke at COP25 in 2019 along with Greta Thunberg and Alejandro Martinez. In August 2020, Jeune Afrique magazine named her among the top influential Africans. That month she joined former UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon at the Forum Alphach to discuss climate activism

Queen Nanny of the Maroons

Leader of the Jamaican Maroons c.1685 - 1755

Born in Ghana. Brought to Jamaica as a slave. Ran away from the plantation with her brothers and founded Maroon communities. By 1720, Nanny and brother Quao had settled and controlled an area in the Blue Mountains called Nanny Town. Strategic location and single town entrance made surprise attack by the British practically impossible. Freed more than 800 slaves, and helped them to resettle in the Maroon community. Was a national heroine in the 18th century.

Sojourner Truth

African-American abolitionist and women’s rights activist and author

Born into slavery but escaped with her infant daughter to freedom in 1826. Went to court to recover her son, in 1828 and became the first black woman to win such a case against a white man. Delivered her famous “Ain’t I a Woman?” speech in 1851, at the Ohio Women’s Rights Convention in Akron, Ohio. During the Civil War (1861-65), she helped recruit black troops for the Union Army. Post war she unsuccessfully tried to secure government land grants for former slaves.

Mary Seacole

‘Nurse’

1805 -1881

Jamaican-born of Scottish and Creole parentage. Set up a “British Hotel” behind the lines during the Crimean War, Cared for sick and wounded soldiers including on the battlefield. Posthumously awarded the Jamaican Order of Merit in 1991. Knowledgeable in herbal medicines in the Caribbean. Mentioned in dispatches. Autobiography, “Wonderful Adventures of Mrs. Seacole in Many Lands” was published in 1857

Elizabeth Keckley

Seamstress, civil activist and author

- 1912

Former slave. Bought her freedom and moved to Washington DC in 1860. Became a successful seamstress with an elite clientele including Mary Todd Lincoln wife of President Abraham Lincoln, civil activist and author in Washington, DC. Designed Mary Todd Lincoln’s inaugural gown. Published an autobiography, Behind the Scenes: Or, Thirty Years a Slave and Four Years in the White House (1868).

Harriet Tubman

Abolitionist, humanitarian, suffragist, scout and spy 1822 - 1913

African-American. An escaped slave from Maryland she made thirteen return missions to rescue numerous enslaved family and friends using a network of safe houses known as the Underground Railroad. During the US Civil War (1861-1865) she worked for the Union Army, as a cook and nurse, and then as an armed scout and spy. The first woman to lead an armed expedition in the war. Guided the raid at Combahee Ferry, which liberated more than seven hundred slaves. Active in the women’s suffrage movement during the post war era.

Black History Woman

Sarah Parker Remond

American lecture, activist and abolitionist campaigner and physician

1826 -1894

Became and international activist for human rights. She was 16 when she made her first abolitionist speeches in NE United States. Became an agent of the American Anti Slavery Society. Travelled to Britain in 1858 to gather abolitionist support. From England went to Italy to study medicine and became a physician there. She did not return to the US dying in Rome aged 68.

Yaa Asantewaa

c1840 - 1921

Queen mother and military and political leader, anti-colonial rebel

Queen mother of Ejisu in the Ashanti Empire—now part of modern-day Ghana. In 1900, she led the Ashanti rebellion known as the War of the Golden Stool, also known as the Yaa Asantewaa war, against British colonialism

Charlotte E. Ray

Lawyer and teacher

1850 - 1911

First African-American female lawyer in the United States. Graduated from Howard University School of Law in 1872. First female admitted to the District of Columbia Bar, and first woman admitted to practice before the Supreme Court of the District of Columbia. Ray opened her own law office and ran advertisements in a newspaper run by Frederick Douglass. Unable to practice in the racial and gender climate of the time, she became a teacher. Involved in the women’s suffrage movement and joined the National Association of Colored Women https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlotte_E._Ray;http://www.bet.com/news/national/2012/02/27/this-day-in-black-history-feb-27-1872.html

Black History Woman

Ella Baker

Civil and human rights activist 1903

- 1986

African-American. Worked alongside some of the most famous civil rights leaders of the 20th century, including W. E. B. Du Bois, Thurgood Marshall, A. Philip Randolph, and Martin Luther King, Jr. Mentored many emerging activists such as Diane Nash, Stokely Carmichael, Rosa Parks, and Bob Moses. Promoted grassroots organisation and radical democracy. Critic of professionalized, charismatic leadership. Called ‘One of the most important African American leaders of the twentieth century’ and perhaps the most influential woman in the civil rights movement.

Una Marson

1905 - 1965

Poet, playwright, writer, activist and feminist

Jamaican. Produced poems, plays and programmes for the BBC. Produced Caribbean Voices a radio programme which provided a forum for Caribbean literary work. Numerous authors’ work was presented including V. S. Naipaul, Samuel Selvon, George Lamming and Derek Walcott. Nevertheless, her radio show, Caribbean Voices, was described by Kamau Brathwaite as ‘the single most important literary catalyst for Caribbean creative writing in English.

Josephine Baker

Entertainer and member of the French Resistance WW2

The first black woman to star in a major motion picture, Zouzou (1934). Noted for her contributions to the Civil Rights Movement. Assisted the French Resistance during World War II, and received the French military honor, the Croix de guerre and was made a Chevalier of the Légion d’honneur

Rosa Parks

1913

- 2005

Black

History

Claudia Jones

Journalist and activist

1915 -1964

Political activist and Communist. Editor of a number of journals from 1938 onwards. Imprisoned in 1951 for ‘un-American activities’ and deported from the USA in 1955. Subsequently moved to Britain. Helped organise anti-racist campaigns including against the 1876 Immigration Act. Founded Britain’s first black newspaper, The West Indian Gazette (WIG), in 1958. After riots in Notting Hill and Nottngham in 1958 Jones helped launch the first Mardi-Gras-based carnival 1959. Known as the ‘Mother of Caribbean Carnival’

Rosalind Howells, Baroness Howells of St Davids

Labour member of the House of Lords. First black woman to sit on the Greater London Council’s Training Board. First female member of the Court of Governors of the University of Greenwich. Vice Chair at the London Voluntary Services Council. Active campaigner for justice relating to race relations.

Ellen Johnson Sirleaf

Politician and activist

First elected female head of state in Africa. 24th and current President of Liberia. Awarded the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize, jointly with Leymah Gbowee of Liberia and Tawakel Karman of Yemen in recognition of ‘their non-violent struggle for the safety of women and for women’s rights to full participation in peace-building work’

Angela Davis

American political activist, scholar, and author

1944

Prominent activist and radical in the 1960s as a leader of the Communist Party USA. In 1969 Ronald Reagan requested that she be barred from teaching at any university in the State of California because of her membership of the Communist Party Arrested, charged, tried, and acquitted of conspiracy in the 1970 armed take-over of a Marin County courtroom, in which four persons died. Twice a candidate for Vice President on the Communist Party USA ticket during the 1980s. Professor at the San Francisco State University from at least 1980 to1984; Professor at the University of California, Santa Cruz from 1991 to 2008. Currently Distinguished Professor Emerita

Black History Woman

Black History Woman

Graça Machel

Politician and Humanitarian

1945 -

Graça Machel is a member of the Africa Progress Panel which advocates equitable and sustainable development in Africa. She was Chancellor of the University of Cape Town between 1999 and 2019. Has received numerous awards including the Africa Prize in 1992 for contributing to the goal of eliminating hunger in Arica by 2000.

Baroness Doreen Lawrence

Anti-racism campaigner and working peer

1952 -

British Jamaican. Campaigned for reform of the police after her son Stephen Lawrence, was murdered in a racist attack in 1993. Appointed OBE for “services to community relations” in 2003, and created a Life Peer in 2013. Key figure in the campaign leading to the Stephen Lawrence Inquiry. The inquiry concluded that the Metropolitan Police was “institutionally racist” and that this was one of the main causes of their failure to solve the case. Founded the Stephen Lawrence Charitable Trust to promote a positive community legacy in her son’s name. A member of both the board and the council of Liberty, Took part in the 2012 Olympic opening ceremony.

Marai Larasi

Black African-Caribbean British feminist advocate, community organiser and consultant

Has worked in social justice for over 27 years particularly focusing on violence against Black/Global Majority women and girls. A member of Project Tallawah a Black Feminist collective.

Diane Abbott

MP for Hackney North and Stoke Newington since 1987. First black woman to be elected to the House of Commons. 2010-2013 Shadow Public Health Minister

British Labour Party Member of Parliament

Valerie Amos, Baroness Amos

Politician, diplomat, university head

8th UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator. British High Commissioner to Australia. Created a Labour Life Peer in 1997, becoming Leader of the House of Lords and Lord President of the Council. Appointed Secretary of State for International Development in 2003, becoming the first black woman to sit in the Cabinet of the United Kingdom. In 2010 appointed to the role of Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator. 2015 appointed the 9th director of, the School of Oriental & African Studies (SOAS) making her the first woman of African descent to be director of an institute of higher education in Great Britain.

Patricia Janet Scotland, Baroness Scotland of Asthal

Barrister, diplomat and politician

UK Government ministerial include Attorney General for England and Wales and Advocate General for Northern Ireland.

Michele Obama

American attorney, political campaigner and author.

Former first lady of the US

She campaigned on her husband’s presidential campaign. Campaigner on various issues including supporting military families and ending childhood obesity. Inspirational speaker. Role model particularly for Black girls. Author of 3 books American Grown: The Story of the White House Kitchen Garden and Gardens Across America, Becoming and The Light we Carry, Overcoming in Uncertain Times.

Photo by Chuck Kennedy

Oona King, Baroness King of Bow

Politician and Diversity head

Former Labour MP for Bethnal Green and Bow from 1997 until 2005. When she won the seat King became only the second black woman to be elected as Member of Parliament. 2009 became head of Diversity at Channel 4.

1999 co-founded the Motsepe Foundation with her husband with aims to eradicate poverty and improve living conditions of poor. 2007 founded African Fashion International to promote the African fashion industry and designers to an international audience.

Precious Moloi-Motsepe Chancellor of the University of Cape Town, South African philanthropist and fashion entrepreneur

Dido Elizabeth Belle

Gentlewoman and heiress 1761

- 1804

Born into slavery in the West Indies. Natural daughter of Maria Belle, an enslaved African woman and Sir John Lindsay. Brought to England by Lindsay 1765 and entrusted to his uncle William Murray, First Earl of Mansfield, and his wife Elizabeth. Brought up as a free gentlewoman together with their other niece, Lady Elizabeth Murray.

Lady Sara Forbes Bonettapocock

Queen Victoria’s goddaughter

1843 - 1880

A Yoruban orphaned in inter-tribal warfare, sold into slavery, then liberated. Became a goddaughter to Queen Victoria. Married to Captain James Pinson Labulo Davies, a wealthy Victorian Nigerian philanthropist

Phillis Wheatley

African American author, poet

C. 1753 - 1784

Born in Africa, captured and sold into slavery aged 7 or 8. Bought by the Wheatley family of Boston. The family allowed her to be educated. Wrote first poem aged 14. 1773 accompanied Nathaniel Wheatley to London and Selina Hastings countess of Huntingdon subsidised the publication of Wheatleys poetry volume Poems on Various Subjects that year. Came to the attention of Voltaire who stated that she proved Black people could write poetry.

Black History Woman

Black History Woman

Zora Neale Hurston

American author, anthropologist and film maker

Wrote 4 novels as well as short stories, plays and essays. Most famous for novel Their Eyes Were watching God. Central figure in the Harlem renaissance. Works covered African American’s’ experiences and racial division. Was interested in African-American and Caribbean folklore and how this contributed to community identity.

Maya Angelou

1928 - 2014

Author, poet, dancer, actress, director and singer

Internationally acclaimed, award winning author. Became a poet and writer after a number of other careers. Works include noels, plays, essays, books of poetry. Made numerous appearances on the lecture circuit

Made an inaugural recitation at President Bill Clinton’s inauguration in 1993

Toni Morrison

American novelist, editor, essayist and professor

1931 -

Novels include “The Bluest Eye”, “Sula”, “Song of Solomon” and “Beloved”. Librettist for a new opera “Margaret Garner”, first performed in 2005. Awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1988 and the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2012. Emeritus Professor at Princeton University

Audre Lorde

American writer, radical feminist, professor, philosopher and civil rights activist

1934 - 1992

Described herself as “black, lesbian, feminist, socialist, mother, warrior, poet,” Used her creative abilities to challenge racism, sexism classism and homophobia. Highly respected as a poet including spoken word. Notable works include Zami: A New Spelling of My Name, The Cancer Journals and Sister Outsider.

Margaret Busby

Author, journalist, critic, editor and publisher

Ghanaian based in the UK. Co-founder of the publishing house Allison & Busby Ltd. Youngest publisher and first black editor of the UK. 1987-1990 chief editor of Earthscan Publications. 1990 onwards known as writer, journalist, critic and consultant.

Buchi Emecheta

1944 - 2017

Nigerian born novelist, playwright and auto biographer

Author of more than 20 books including Second Class Citizen, The Bride Price and The Joys of Motherhood. Other work includes children and young adults’ books, plays, articles and shorter writing. She wrote editions for TV including Crown Court Granada Television Has influenced other authors including Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie who on her death said “Buchi Emecheta. We are able to speak because you first spoke….”

Daughter of sharecroppers. Earned a full scholarship to go to Spelman College. The Colour Purple, probably the best known work was made into a film and a musical with the same title. Writings include novels and polemics

Alice Walker

American novelist, short story writer poet and social activist

Jean “Binta” Breeze

1956 -

2021

Poet, storyteller, theatre director, choreographer, actor and teacher

A Jamaican dub poet and storyteller, she has worked also as. Has performed her work around the world.

Bernardine Evaristo

Joint winner of the Booker Prize 2019 with her novel Girl, Woman, Other. The first Black woman to win the prize. She is Professor of Creative Writing at Brunel University. Evaristo is the first Black woman to hold the post of President if the Royal Society of Literature which was founded in 1820. Has received multiple honours.

Jackie Kay

and novelist

1961 -

Award winning novelist and poet. Awards the Saltire Society Scottish First Book Award (1991) Somerset Maugham Award for Other Lovers, and the Guardian First Book Award Fiction Prize for Trumpet. Her play Twice Over was the first by a Black writer to be produced by Gay Sweatshop Theatre Group in 1988. Currently Professor of Creative Writing at Newcastle University, and Cultural Fellow at Glasgow Caledonian University. Appointed Chancellor of the University of Salford in 2014 and the University ‘Writer in Residence’ in January 2015.

Poet

Malorie Blackman Writer

1962 -

British. Children’s Laureate from 2013 to 2015. Primarily writes literature and television drama for children and young adults. Has won numerous awards.

Zadie Smith Writer

British. Acclaimed novelist, essayist, and short story writer. In 2003 and 2013 included on Granta’s list of 20 best young authors. Won the Orange Prize for Fiction and the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award in 2006. Her novel White Teeth was included in Time magazine’s TIME 100 Best English-language Novels from 1923 to 2005 list. Became tenured professor on New York University’s Creative Writing Program in 2010.

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

1977 -

Nigerian Author Black

Adichie has achieved critical acclaim with her work and is a prize winning novelist. Celebrated work includes the Purple Hibiscus and Half of a Yellow Sun. In 2021 her memoir Notes on Grief was published which was based on the death of her father.

Ayòbámi Adébáyò

Nigerian Author

Achieved critical acclaim with her debut novel, Stay with Me which was shortlisted for a number of prestigious literature prizes. Her second novel A Spell of Good Things was long listed for the 2023 Booker Prize. Her other work has included short stories and poems.

Reni Eddo-Lodge

British journalist and author

1989 -

Best known work is Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race. Following The torture and murder of George Floyd’s protests the book topped the UK non-fiction paperback chart. Work focusses on feminism and exposing structural racism. She has written for several broadsheets including the New York Times, The Guardian etc.

Yvonne Brewster

Stage director, actor, teacher, television producer, radio announcer and writer

Jamaican-born. Between 1982 and 1984 was Drama Officer at the Arts Council of Great Britain thereby the first black Arts Council Officer in Britain. Founded a number of theatre companies including Talawa in the UK in 1985. One of the aims was to bring work written, directed and starring black people to the fore. She has served on the Black Theatre Forum, the London Arts Board, and the British Council’s Dance and Drama Advisory Committee.

, Photo © Richard Hubert Smith

Baroness Floella Benjamin

Actress, author, television presenter, singer, businesswoman and politician

British, known as presenter of children’s programmes such as Play School, Play Away and Fast Forward. She is chief executive of Floella Benjamin Productions, which has produced television programmes since 1987. On 28 June 2010, Lady Benjamin was introduced to the House of Lords as a Life Peer in 2010

British presenter. First African-Caribbean female newsreader on British television. Has received numerous media awards

Moira Stuart Newsreader, TV presenter and broadcaster

Opprah Winfrey

American talk show host, TV producer, actress author, media proprietor and philanthropist

Best known for The Oprah Winfrey Talk Show which ran from 1986 to 2011. Dubbed ‘Queen of All Media’. Landed job in radio while still at high school By 19 co-anchor for local evening news. By mid 1990’ her show moved to focus on literature, self- improvement, mindfulness and spirituality. Oprah’s Book Club commenced in 2019. Other media roles include starring in Steven Spielberg’s film The Colour of Purple.

Adjoa Andoh

Actor

1963 -

British film, television, stage and radio actress of Ghanaian descent. Has had lead roles at the RSC, the National, the Royal Court, and Almeida Theatres. Known on British television. Appeared in two series of Doctor Who, 90 episodes of Casualty and EastEnders. On radio she is the voice of Alexander McCall Smith’s Number 1 Ladies Detective Agency. Won “Audio Book of the Year” for Tea Time for the Traditionally Built. Hollywood debut in 2009 starring as Nelson Mandela’s Chief of Staff Brenda Mazibuko.

Angie Le Mar

Comedian, actor, writer, director, presenter and producer

British. Rose to prominence as a comedian in the 1990s. Gained the title “The Queen of Black Comedy”. Became a regular act at established comedy clubs culminating in her sell-out one woman show Off The Hook at the Apollo Theatre, Shaftesbury Avenue, in 2000. Achieved international acclaim at the Apollo Theatre, New York, and the Comedy Act Theatre in Los Angeles in 2017.

Akosua Dentaa Amoateng MBE

British Ghanaian entrepreneur actress, TV presenter, singer, producer and manager

Received an MBE in 2016 and the Ghana Peace Awards Humanitarian Service Laureate. Has appeared on British TV shows including Eastenders. Advocate for the Ghanaian community in the UK and promoting Ghanaian achievement

Kadiatu Kanneh-Mason

Author, lecturer

Mother of the seven Kanneh Mason children who are all classical musicians. Her memoir House of Music: Raising the Kanneh-Masons won the Royal Philharmonic Society’s Storytelling Award in 2021 and the non-fiction 2022 Indie Book Awards. Jointly with her husband received a Lifetime Award for Contribution to Children’s Arts 2028. Sits on the advisory council for the Royal Philharmonic Society. Gives lectures and talks across the UK on diversity in classical music, music education race and inclusion, literature and parenting.

Marianne Jean-Baptiste

Actor, singer-songwriter, composer and director Black History Woman

Best known for her role as Hortense Cumberbatch in Secrets & Lies (1996), for which she received Golden Globe and Academy Awards for Best Supporting Actress nominations for her performance, becoming the first black British actress to be nominated for an Academy Award. Starred as Sharon Bishop QC in the ITV crime series Broadchurch in 2015. Has recorded an album of blues songs and composed the musical score for Leigh’s 1997 film Career Girls.

Afua Hirsch

British writer and broadcaster

She has worked as a journalist for the Guardian. Is author of the 2018 book Brit(ish): On Race, Identity and Belonging. In 2020 Hirsch presented the documentary series African Renaissance: When Art Meets Power and in 2023 she presented the 3 part documentary Africa Rising with Afua Hirsch

Florence Price Composer

The first African American woman to be recognized as a symphonic composer, and the first to have a composition played by a major orchestra.

Marian Anderson

African American contralto

Performed wide range of music from opera to spirituals across the US and Europe. Blocked by the Daughters of the American Revolution to sing to an integrated audience in Constitution Hall Washington D.C. Eleanor Roosevelt supported her to perform an open air concert on Easter Sunday 1939 on the Lincoln Memorial steps in the capital. The concert was attended by more than 75,000 people and aired on the radio to millions. First African American to perform at the Metropolitan Opera.

Rosetta Tharpe

African American singer and guitarist

1915 - 1973

Became popular in the 1930’s and 40’s through gospel recordings accompanied by her electric guitar. Pioneered her guitar technique though heavy distortion. Her guitar playing was a significant influence on rhythm and blues and rock and roll including Chuck Berry, Elvis Presley and Eric Clapton. See her performance on a Chorltonville railway station platform.

Dame Cleo Laine

Singer and actress

1927 -

British jazz and pop singer and an actress, noted for scat singing and vocal range. Only female performer to have received Grammy nominations in jazz, popular and classical music categories.

Miriam Makeba

1932 - 2008

South African Singer, songwriter, actress and civil rights activist

Makeba was one of the first African musicians to achieve worldwide acclaim. During the apartheid era some songs opposed the racist regime including Soweto Blues. One of most famous songs was Pata Pata.

Nina Simone

African American singer, songwriter, pianist and civil rights activist

1933 - 2003

Aspired to be a classical concert pianist and enrolled at the Juilliard School of Music and the applied to Curtis Institute of Music but denied admission. Playing in a nightclub and told to accompany herself singing she became a jazz vocalist. Her piano playing was influenced by classical music and spanned many styles.

Tina Turner

1939-2023

Black History Woman

Jessye Norman

African American opera singer and recitalist Black

Norman won the ARD International Music Competition in Munich 1968 which launched her career and led to joining Deutsche Oper Berlin. During her career she sang leading roles in many companies. Norman sang at Ronald Reagan’s second inauguration and at Queen Elizabeth II’s 60th birthday celebration in 1986. She also received many awards and honours

Joan Armatrading

Singer-songwriter and guitarist

1950 -

Received an Ivor Novello Award for Outstanding Contemporary Song Collection in 1996 and a Lifetime Achievement Award in 2012.

Holds honorary degrees from Liverpool John Moores University the University of Birmingham, the University of Northampton, Aston University, the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, the Open University and the University of the West Indies

Chi-chi Nwanoku CBE

British double bassist and Professor of Historical Double Bass Studies at the Royal Academy of Music Black

Nigerian Irish decent. Founder of the classical Chineke Orchestra, the first in Europe to comprise a majority of Black and ethnically diverse musicians. Chi-chi performs regularly with the orchestra as well as playing with other leading ensembles.

Chi-chi was a founder of the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and played Principal double bass for over 30 years.

Shirley Thompson OBE

Composer and conductor

English composer of Jamaican descent. In 2004 became the first woman in Europe to have composed and conducted a symphony within the past 40 years.

Sade Helen Folasade Adu

Singer, songwriter, composer, and record producer

1959 -

British Nigerian. The band ‘Sade’s’ debut album Diamond Life (1984). The album sold over six million copies became the best-selling debut ever by a British female vocalist.

Angelique Kidjo

Beninese-French singer-songwriter, actress and activist

She has collaborated with number of artists and composers including Philip Glass. She became a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador in 2002. In 2006 Kidjo founded the Batonga Foundaton which focusses in hard to reach vulnerable young women and children. She started campaigning for ‘Africa for women’s rights’ in 2009

Kanya King

Founder of the MOBO Awards

As founder of the MOBO Awards in 1996 has played a major role in bringing black music and culture to the mainstream. Consultant to a number of Government initiatives for disadvantaged youth including the Home Office Task Force to reduce gun violence. Patron of the Horniman Museum, and founder member of Net Women, a body of women in the media.

Beverley Knight

Recording artist, radio presenter and musical theatre actress

Considered one of Britain’s greatest soul singers. Released platinum-selling compilation album in 2006. Hosted four series of the BBC Radio 2 show Beverley’s Gospel Nights, exploring the origins and impact of gospel music.

Corinne Bailey Rae

English singer and song writer

Fourth female British act to have debut album become a number one hit. Won 2 MOBO awards in 2007. Studied classical violin before turning to singing. Latest album is Black Rainbows inspired by objects and artworks collected by Theaster Gates at Stony Island Arts Bank Chicago

Beyonce

American singer, songwriter and business woman

Has achieved critical acclaim and is regarded as one of the greatest entertainers of her generation. Through music and visual media she is enormously influential pop cultural figure in the 21st century. Rose to fame as part of Destiny’s Child and went solo in 2003. The 2022 LGBT inspired dance album Renaissance went Platinum.

Black

Ms. Dynamite: Niomi Arleen McLean-Daley

Recording artist, rapper-songwriter, and record producer

1981

Recipient of the Mercury Music Prize, two BRIT Awards and three MOBO Awards.

Soma Jobarteh

Gambian multi-instrumentalist, singer and composer

First female professional kora player from a griot family. Also pays the cello, piano and harpsichord. Set up The Gambia Academy in 2018 to educate young Africans in their culture, traditions and history. She challenges the inherited post-colonial value system.

“It is detrimental for future generations of the continent whose values and concepts are shaped during their school years to continue to be trained with a system where African culture, African history, African traditions and their intrinsic values are either non-existent or at best, relegated to the position of extra-curricular activities”

Pretty Yende

South-African operatic soprano

Yende has achieved world renown. Performances at leading opera houses have included La Scala and the Metropolitan opera. She performed at the coronation of King Charles III and Queen Camilla

Isata Kanneh-Mason

Isata played solo at the 2023 BBC Proms and before that she and her brother Sheku Kanneh-Mason performed a duo recital during the 2020 BBC Proms. She has recorded a number of albums including with Sheku and her other siblings. Her first album Romance: The Piano Music of Clara Schumann 1029 became Classical Artist Albums Chart number one in July 2019. She has performed with several orchestras and was Artist in residence with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.

Konya Kanneh-Mason

Konya plays the piano and violin. She has given solo recitals around the UK and performed internationally with her siblings. She played Mozart Piano Concerto No 23 with The Orchestra of the Restoration in 2022. Konya has appeared on a number of TV and radio programmes with other family members and acted as co-presenter as part of the Kanneh-Mason Family Takeover series on classic FM. She performed on the Kanneh-Mason’s first album Carnival of the Animals.

Jeneba Kanneh-Mason

Musician

Jeneba plays the piano and cello. She was Nottingham Young Musician 2013 and a keyboard category finalist in the 2018 BBC Young Musician completion. She has performed in the UK and internationally as a recital and concerto soloist and as a chamber musician. She made her solo debut with the Chineke orchestra in 2020 playing Florence B Price Piano Concerto in One Movement.

Aminata Kanneh-Mason

Musician, singer and actor

Animata plays the violin and piano. She has performed throughout the UK and in the Carribean playing both solo and chamber music. She has performed with her siblings internationally including the 2021 BBC Proms. Animata has appeared on a number of TV and radio programmes with other family members and acted as copresenter as part of the Kanneh-Mason Family Takeover series on classic FM. She performed on the Kanneh-Mason’s first album Carnival of the Animals. She is a member of the Chineke Junior Orchestra.

Mariatu Kanneh-Mason

Mariatu is the youngest of the Kanneh-Mason family. She plays the cello and piano. She has performed with her siblings internationally including the 2021 BBC Proms. Mariatu has appeared on a number of TV and radio programmes with other family members and acted as co-presenter as part of the Kanneh-Mason Family Takeover series on classic FM. She performed on the Kanneh-Mason’s first album Carnival of the Animals.

Lubaina Himid CBE

African artist. Professor of Contemporary Art at the University of Central Lancashire. Winner of the 2017 Turner Prize, the first Black woman to do so. One of the first artists involved in the Black Art movement in the 1980s. Has work shown in galleries in Britain, as well as worldwide.

Photograph: Katherine Anne Rose, Image Philip Sinden

Maud Sulter

Artist, art historian, curator, publisher, poet

1960

2008

Award winning artist and writer of Scottish and Ghanaian heritage who lived and worked in Britain. Exhibited across the UK and internationally. Her fine are photographs are held in a number of museums and collections. Also an art historian, curator, publisher and poet. Her first poetry collection As a Blackwoman (1985), won the Vera Bell Prize for poetry. Self-Portrait, 2002, courtesy of the estate of Maud Sulter.

Marlene Smith

Part of The Blk Art Group formed in1982. 1985 exhibited at the ICA in Lubaina Himid’s Thin Black Line and organised But Some of Us Are Brave, an exhibition of black women’s work. Ran the Black Art Gallery in the early 90s. Set up Blk Art Group Research Project with Claudette Johnson and Keith Piper in 2011.

Artist

First African American to become a noted fashion designer.Her designs were high society favorites from the 1920s to the 1960s. Designed Jacqueline Bouvier’s wedding dress when she married John F. Kennedy In 1953.

Ann Lowe

Fashion designer

Zelda Wynn Valdes

Fashion designer and costumier

1905 - 2001

African-American. Opened her own shop on Broadway in 1948, the first in the area to be owned by an African American. Clientele included black women celebrities such as Dorothy Dandridge and Marian Anderson. Designed the original costumes for the Dance Theater of Harlem. Became president of the New York Chapter of NAFAD, the National Association of Fashion and Accessory Designers in 1949. Retired at 83 years old.

Tracy Reese

designer 1964 -

American fashion designer. Specialises in women’s ready-to-wear clothing, accessories, and home fashions. Board member of the Council of Fashion Designers of America. Clientele includes Michele Obama.

Fashion

Norma Sklarek Architect

1928 - 2012

One of the first African American women to be licensed as an architect in the USA and the first to be licensed in the state of New York in 1954 and state of California in 1962.

First African-American director of architecture at Gruen and Associates in in 1966. First black woman to be elected Fellow of the American Institute of Architects in 1980. First AfricanAmerican female architect to form her own architectural firm.

Designs include the San Bernardino City Hall, California, the Fox Plaza San Francisco, Terminal One at the Los Angeles International Airport and the US Embassy in Tokyo.

Dr Lesley Lokko

Ghanaian-Scottish architect, academic and novelist Black

Established the Graduate School of Architecture at the University of Johannesburg in 2015. Set up the African Futures Institute postgraduate school of architecture and public events platform in Accra Ghana in 2021. In 2021 she was appointed to curate the Venice Architecture Biennale, the first Black women to this position. As a novelist she has produced numerous novels including the bestselling Sundowners.

History Woman

Olajumoke Adenowo Architect, businesswoman, radio show host and philanthropist

Nigerian. Has been involved in the design and construction of over 70 projects for the Nigerian government and various corporate and financial institutions including the Federal Ministry of Finance in Abuja Runs an award winning architecture and interior design firm and a property development company. Founded an oil and gas firm. Also runs an NGO to support budding entrepreneurs, assist in education for children from less privileged backgrounds and encourage leadership skills for women. A speaker on several leadership and entrepreneurial platforms. Hosts a syndicated weekly radio show on Leadership - Voice of Change.

Sarah Elizabeth Goode Entrepreneur and inventor

1961

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Black History Woman

Olivete Otele Historian and professor

First Black woman to be appointed to a professorial chair in history in the UK when previously appointed Professor of History of Slavery at Bristol University. Distinguished Research professor of the Legacies and Memory of Slavery at SOAS. Was Vice president of the Royal Historical Society. Author of African Europeans an Untold History

Martha Euphemia Lofton Haynes

1890 -1980

Black History Woman

American. Contributed to the USA’s aeronautics and space programs with the early application of digital electronic computers at NASA. Known for accuracy in computerized celestial navigation, she calculated the trajectory for Project Mercury and the 1969 Apollo 11 flight to the Moon. Has numerous awards.

Katherine Johnson

Physicist, space scientist, and mathematician

Mary Maynard Daly Scientist 1921 - 2003

First African American woman to be awarded a PhD in science in 1947. Associate Professor of biochemistry and medicine at Yeshiva University.Served as an investigator for the American Heart Association. Member of the Board of Governors of the New York Academy of Sciences for two years. Fellowships received include the American Cancer Society, American Association for the Advancement of Science, New York Academy of Sciences, and Council on Arteriosclerosis of the American Heart Association.

Annie J. Easley

Computer scientist, mathematician, and rocket scientist 1933 -

2011

African-American. Worked for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and its predecessor, the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA). Leading member of the team which developed software for the Centaur rocket stage and one of the first African-Americans in her field.

Scientist and inventor

African-American. Began working for NASA in1964. Invented the illusion transmitter and received a patent for it in 1980. Was associate chief for NASA’s Space Science Data Operations Office. Currently an associate at the UMBC Center for Multicore Hybrid Productivity Research. Is a youth mentor for the Science Mathematics Aerospace Research and Technology and National Technical Association.

Valerie Thomas

-

First African-American woman to earn a doctorate at MIT in 1973. Appointed as Chairman of the U.S.Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) by President Bill in 1995, the first woman and first African American to hold this position. First woman and first African American to president of the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 1999. Has numerous awards including the Thomas Alva Edison Science Award for her contributions to physics and for the promotion of science. Inducted into National Women’s Hall of Fame in 1998 as a distinguished scientist and science advocate

Shirley Ann Jackson Physicist

1946

Maggie Aderin-Pocock MBE

Space scientist

Research fellow in UCL Department of Science and Technology Studies and an Honorary Research Associate in UCL Department of Physics and Astronomy. Since February 2014, co-presenter of the astronomy TV programme The Sky at Night, alongside.

First African American woman to travel in space aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavour in 1992. Professor-at-Large at Cornell University and was professor of Environmental Studies at Dartmouth College from 1995 to 2002. Has choreographed and produced several shows of modern jazz and African dance.

Mae Jemison

Astronaut, physician, dancer and choreographer

1956-

Elizabeth “Bessie”

Coleman Aviator

1892 –1926

First female pilot of African American descent and first person of African-American descent to hold an international pilot’s license

Ursula Burns

Chairwoman and Chief Executive

Chair and CEO of Xerox. First African-American woman CEO to head a Fortune 500 company. First woman to succeed another woman as head of a Fortune 500 company. Rated as 22nd most powerful woman in the world by Forbes in 2014.

Tessa Sanderson

Athlete

1956

Former British javelin thrower and heptathlete. Competed in the javelin competition in every one of the 6 Olympics from 1976–1996. Only the second track and field athlete, after Lia Manoliu (discus), to do so. Won Olympic gold in 1984 for Great Britain.

Kelly Holmes

British middle distance athlete

Holmes specialised in the 800 metres and 1500 metres events and won a gold medal for both distances at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens. Set British records in numerous events. Still holds the records over the 600, 800, 1000, and 1500 metres distances

Denise Lewis

Retired British track and field athlete, who specialised in the heptathlon. Won the gold medal in the heptathlon at the 2000 Sydney Olympics. Is now a athletics commentator for the BBC Television

Athlete, commentator and presenter

Venus Williams

Tennis player

1951 -

American professional tennis player. Became the World No. 1 for the first time on February 25, 2002, the first black American woman to achieve this feat during the Open Era. Has 22 overall Grand Slam titles in singles, women’s and mixed doubles. Holds five Wimbledon singles titles, four Olympic gold medals. She and her sister Serena have won more Olympic gold medals than any other female tennis players. At the 2000 Sydney Olympics, Williams became only the second player to win Olympic gold medals in both singles and doubles at the same Olympic Games, after Helen Wills Moody in 1924.

Serena Williams

Tennis player

1981

American professional tennis player ranked No. 1 in women’s singles tennis. Reigning champion of the Australian Open, French Open, Wimbledon, US Open, WTA Tour Championships and Olympic women’s singles and doubles. Williams. Holds the most major singles, doubles, and mixed doubles titles combined amongst active players, male or female. The most recent player, male or female, to have held all four major singles titles simultaneously: 2002–03 and 2014–15. Also the most recent player, together with her sister Venus Williams, to have held all four Grand Slam women’s doubles titles simultaneously 2009–10.

Jessica Ennis-Hill

1986

British track and field athlete. Specialises in multi-eventing disciplines and 100 metres hurdles. Current Olympic and world heptathlon champion. Former European heptathlon champion and world indoor pentathlon champion. Current British national record holder for the heptathlon. Former British record holder in the 100 metres hurdles, the high jump and the indoor pentathlon.

Eniola Aluko

British Nigerian football executive, football broadcaster and former professional footballer Black

Broadcaster on football on ITV, BT Sport, Amazon Prime and Fox Sports USA. First sporting director for Angel FC in america. Made 102 apearances for the England team. Played for Birmingham City, Charlton Athetiic and Chelsea before moving to Juventus. Practiced as a lawyer while playing football Her autobiography they don’t teach this –lessons in the game of life was published in 2019.

Heather Watson

Tennis player

British No 1 tennis player. won her first WTA singles title in the final of the Japan Open 2012, becoming the first British female to win a WTA singles title since Sara Gomer in 1988.In her junior career, she won the US Open and gold at the 2008 Commonwealth Youth Games. She had been as high as No. 3 in the world on the ITF Junior Circuit.