Black women

Achebe Betty Powell (June 14, 1940 - February 21, 2023) was a groundbreaking and influential leader in the LGBTQ+ and Civil Rights movements. She devoted her life to activism and was an active antiracism and diversity trainer through her consulting firm, Betty Powell Associates. This collection primarily documents Powell’s consulting work between 1989 and 2023, although there are also materials relating to Powell’s activist work and personal life during that period.

In this oral history Barbara Smith describes her childhood in an emotionally warm and culturally rich family that valued education and race work. The interview focuses on her activism as a grassroots organizer, writer, and publisher. Smith's story details the political challenges and personal costs of being a pioneer in radical coalition politics against imperialism, racism, and sexism, and homophobia. (Transcript 109 pp.)

Beth Jacobs was a birth control activist and member of the Legislative Council of Jamaica. Her papers include correspondence, speeches, clippings, photographs, video tape, writings, and printed material relating to family planning, sex education, family life and health, child welfare association, the International Planned Parenthood Foundation and the Beth Jacobs Family Planning Clinic in Jamaica, 1950-1998.

Health reformer; reproductive rights advocate. Papers document Avery's work as an activist in the field of black women's health and reproductive rights, including clippings, articles, correspondence, financial information, conference materials, speaking engagements, memorabilia, and audiovisual materials. Materials relating to Avery's involvement in the Black Women's Health Imperative are also included.

Doris Vivian Wilson worked for many years for the YWCA of Metropolitan Chicago, and was the first African American executive of that organization.This collection includes awards, photograph of unidentified African American woman under a YWCA of Metropolitan Chicago poster, primitive wood carving, paper parasol, and oher memorabelia.

Elaine Pinderhughes was a professor of social work and highly sought after consultant, as well as a leader and featured speaker at conferences, workshops, and symposia. This collection includes published and unpublished articles and essays, including notes and drafts, as well as research materials for her book, Understanding Race, Ethnicity and Power: The Key to Efficacy in Clinical Practice (1989).

The collection contains the personal papers of Evelyn Boyd Granville, mathematician, computer scientist, and educator.

Evelyn Corliss White is a writer of books relating to women of African descent. Her papers include research files for her biography of Alice Walker, articles and book reviews by White, research files for The Black Women's Health Book: Speaking For Ourselves, correspondence, photographs, and a small amount of biographical material.

In this oral history, Frances Beal describes her unique childhood, born of parents of refugee Jewish, African American, and Native American descent. The interview focuses on her activism in the United States and in France, including founding the Women's Committee of SNCC (Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee). Beal's story captures the challenges of anti-racist, anti-fascist and anti-imperialist organizing with a gender perspective. (Transcript 54 pp.)

The collection contains the personal and professional papers of Jewel Graham, including a typescript of her unpublished memoir, which includes reflections on growing up as an African American girl in Springfield, Ohio, her education, her employment as professor at Antioch College, and her life-long service in the YWCA, from age 13, to becoming President of the National Board and of the World YWCA.

In this lengthy interview, Ross details her childhood and early education, family life and sexual assault. She traces and analyzes her political evolution from black nationalism in the 1970s to liberal feminism in the 1980s, and from human rights advocacy in the 1990s to reproductive justice organizing in the present. Her account sheds light on the interplay of national and international events in women of color organizing in the U.S. (Transcript 364 pp.)