THEY CARRIED US

(1790–unknown)
Evangelist | Itinerant Minister | Spiritual Autobiographer
“Satan never fails to find a pretext by which to inspire his agents with opposition against that ministry which is of God.”

(1932–2010)
Soul and Jazz Organist
“I was hell-bent on being as total a musician as I could be. Sometimes that means you have to be open to different attitudes, to different environments and vibes. I never had a problem doing that.”

(1911–2003)
Publisher of The Philadelphia Independent
“You are no better than anyone else just because of how you were born. Some people have hard times. Some people have hidden things in their closets that they don’t want people on the outside to know.”

(1806–1882)
Cofounder: Philadelphia Female Anti-Slavery Society and Female Literary Association
Founder: Free African School for Girls
“How was the scene changed when I beheld the oppressor lurking on the border of my own peaceful home!”

(1764–1849)
Abolitionist | Founding Mother of the A.M.E. Church and the African Methodist Episcopal Women’s Missionary Society
“The poor fleeing slave, trembling and panting in his flight, has lost a friend not easily replaced;
her purse to such as well as others was ever open...”

(1898–1989)
Economist | Lawyer | Civil and Human Rights Advocate
“We still have among the members of the Bar a limited number of males who cannot accept a woman as an opponent.”

(1910–1998)
Educator | Administrator | Philanthropist
“I was a savvy educator. I knew what the odds were, and I chose to keep the faith.”

(1846–1922)
Physician
“Are colored people largely forced to live in unsanitary districts, and are they more ignorant and careless about the laws of health, or are they suffering the fate of all exotics...?”

(1899–1971)
Tennis and Basketball Champion
“Ora and Inez were trailblazing African American women.
Their contributions to sport gave me the strength and faith to make my own impact in the world of women in sport.”
—Alpha Alexander

(1926–2001)
Activist | Servant Leader | Radio Personality Hospital Administrator | Nurse | Lawyer
“It’s not that you enjoy seeing the brokenness. But you learn how to be of service in that situation.”

(1940–2002)
Civil Rights Organizer | Theologian | Preacher | Womanist
“I was born in and for the freedom struggle.”

(1906–2009)
School Teacher | A.M.E. Pastor
“Above everything else, stay in school so that you will obtain your degrees and travel. Because if you don’t travel,
you will have a very limited view about the human family.”

(1783–185?)
First A.M.E. Woman Preacher | Author | Prophetic Voice
“If the man may preach, because the Saviour died for him, why not the woman?”

(1917–2009)
Activist | Community Organizer | Civic Leader
“You go home and tell your mother, you tell her exactly what she said to you, word for word, and you tell your mother to come up here and talk to that woman and tell her you are college material and she’s not the determiner of what you’re going to be.”
—Mamie Nichols, as told by Deborah Smart

(1882–1961)
Editor | Essayist | Novelist | Poet | Teacher
“...Here is an audience waiting to hear the truth about us. Let us who are better qualified to present that truth than any white writer, try to do so.”

(approx. 1912–unknown)
Basketball Player | Team Founder | Coach | Athletic Director
“She is perhaps one of the most versatile
and all around women athletes in this section of the country.”
—Newspapers sport authorities

(1927–1987)
Classical Pianist | Composer | Recording Artist | Professor of Music

(1909–2001)
Physician | Surgeon | Researcher | Health Educator Professor | Mentor
“My father wanted me to be a nurse, and I thought, if I could be a nurse, why not be a doctor?”

(1927–2018)
Children’s Librarian Extraordinaire | Storyteller
Free Library Department Head | Linker of Libraries to Communities
“Ms. Mullen, are you still telling those good stories?
—former inmate at the Youth Study Center who went on to graduate from college

(1820–1913)
Abolitionist | Conductor on the Underground Railroad Union Spy | Nurse
“There was one of the two things I had a right to, liberty or death. If I could not have one I would take the other, for no man should take me alive. I should fight for liberty as long as my strength lasted.”

(1910–1994)
Model Cities Director | City Deputy Commissioner Deputy Mayor | NAACP Official | Teacher
“I haven’t been disappointed in the things that count with me, the programs in human resources, in social services,
the ones most difficult to see and hardest to measure.”

(1855–1948)
Teacher | Journalist | Author
“Give women more power in the government offices if the desire is for peace and prosperity.”

(1837–1913)
Educator | Principal | Feminist | Missionary
“It seems necessary that we should make known to the good men and women who are so solicitous about our souls and our minds that we haven’t quite got rid of our bodies yet,
and until we do we must feed and clothe them;
and this thing of keeping us out of work forces us back upon charity.”

(1929–1981)
Physician | City Councilwoman Secretary—Commonwealth of Pennsylvania
“Like most people thought about movie stars, I thought about politicians.”

(1817/19–1876)
Classical Vocalist
“I... looked well to the lady—for the black moire antique silk in which I was clad was the gift of Mrs. Stowe and made under her own direction.”

(1935–2008)
Registered Nurse | Model | Actress | TV News Personality
“I can’t think of anything, truly, that I would rather do or spend the past 42-plus years doing than what I’ve done.”

(1916–2006)
Executive Director and Consultant: Young Women’s Christian Association
“My mother would want to be remembered as
someone who was thoughtful,
and as someone who was respectful and cared deeply about others.”
—Ann Perrone, daughter

(1843–1921)
Teacher | Principal | School Founder
“Education is a reality with the freedman now, a fixed fact.
We have no quaint or rapturous expressions of thanksgiving
or wonder to narrate, as when schools were first opened,
and we introduced books with their mysteries. Schools are a system; we have classes like those in other regulated institutions.”

(1894–1965)
Political Activist |State Legislator | Federal Official |Internationalist
“I felt as I did on the day during the 1940 presidential campaign when you were leaving the Biltmore Hotel and I was entering through the same revolving door: you looked at me and I smiled
but you averted your eyes and gave no sign of recognition....”
Letter to Eleanor Roosevelt, March 31, 1945

(1848–1919)
Physician | Educator
“I am tired of being so situated as to accomplish so little either for myself or anybody else.”

(1897–1993)
Concert Singer
“I don’t think I had much to say in choosing it; I think music chose me.”

(1846–1923)
Teacher | Principal | Abolitionist | Transportation Integrationist
“Colored children should be taught by their own.”

(1898–1977)
Educator | Author | Activist/Organizer
“I therefore urge that we have decent low-cost housing by the United States government.”
—Testimony by Nellie R. Bright to the U.S. Congress Joint Committee on Housing, 1947

(1916–1998)
Civil Rights Activist | Organizer
“We will throw a picket line around the PTC office and keep it there until company executives decide to practice this democracy there has been so much talk about.”

(1790–unknown)
Evangelist | Itinerant Minister | Spiritual Autobiographer
“Satan never fails to find a pretext by which to inspire his agents with opposition against that ministry which is of God.”

(1932–2010)
Soul and Jazz Organist
“I was hell-bent on being as total a musician as I could be. Sometimes that means you have to be open to different attitudes, to different environments and vibes. I never had a problem doing that.”

(1911–2003)
Publisher of The Philadelphia Independent
“You are no better than anyone else just because of how you were born. Some people have hard times. Some people have hidden things in their closets that they don’t want people on the outside to know.”

(1806–1882)
Cofounder: Philadelphia Female Anti-Slavery Society and Female Literary Association
Founder: Free African School for Girls
“How was the scene changed when I beheld the oppressor lurking on the border of my own peaceful home!”

(1764–1849)
Abolitionist | Founding Mother of the A.M.E. Church and the African Methodist Episcopal Women’s Missionary Society
“The poor fleeing slave, trembling and panting in his flight, has lost a friend not easily replaced;
her purse to such as well as others was ever open...”

(1898–1989)
Economist | Lawyer | Civil and Human Rights Advocate
“We still have among the members of the Bar a limited number of males who cannot accept a woman as an opponent.”

(1910–1998)
Educator | Administrator | Philanthropist
“I was a savvy educator. I knew what the odds were, and I chose to keep the faith.”

(1846–1922)
Physician
“Are colored people largely forced to live in unsanitary districts, and are they more ignorant and careless about the laws of health, or are they suffering the fate of all exotics...?”

(1899–1971)
Tennis and Basketball Champion
“Ora and Inez were trailblazing African American women.
Their contributions to sport gave me the strength and faith to make my own impact in the world of women in sport.”
—Alpha Alexander

(1926–2001)
Activist | Servant Leader | Radio Personality Hospital Administrator | Nurse | Lawyer
“It’s not that you enjoy seeing the brokenness. But you learn how to be of service in that situation.”

(1940–2002)
Civil Rights Organizer | Theologian | Preacher | Womanist
“I was born in and for the freedom struggle.”

(1906–2009)
School Teacher | A.M.E. Pastor
“Above everything else, stay in school so that you will obtain your degrees and travel. Because if you don’t travel,
you will have a very limited view about the human family.”

(1783–185?)
First A.M.E. Woman Preacher | Author | Prophetic Voice
“If the man may preach, because the Saviour died for him, why not the woman?”

(1917–2009)
Activist | Community Organizer | Civic Leader
“You go home and tell your mother, you tell her exactly what she said to you, word for word, and you tell your mother to come up here and talk to that woman and tell her you are college material and she’s not the determiner of what you’re going to be.”
—Mamie Nichols, as told by Deborah Smart

(1882–1961)
Editor | Essayist | Novelist | Poet | Teacher
“...Here is an audience waiting to hear the truth about us. Let us who are better qualified to present that truth than any white writer, try to do so.”

(approx. 1912–unknown)
Basketball Player | Team Founder | Coach | Athletic Director
“She is perhaps one of the most versatile
and all around women athletes in this section of the country.”
—Newspapers sport authorities

(1927–1987)
Classical Pianist | Composer | Recording Artist | Professor of Music

(1909–2001)
Physician | Surgeon | Researcher | Health Educator Professor | Mentor
“My father wanted me to be a nurse, and I thought, if I could be a nurse, why not be a doctor?”

(1927–2018)
Children’s Librarian Extraordinaire | Storyteller
Free Library Department Head | Linker of Libraries to Communities
“Ms. Mullen, are you still telling those good stories?
—former inmate at the Youth Study Center who went on to graduate from college

(1820–1913)
Abolitionist | Conductor on the Underground Railroad Union Spy | Nurse
“There was one of the two things I had a right to, liberty or death. If I could not have one I would take the other, for no man should take me alive. I should fight for liberty as long as my strength lasted.”

(1910–1994)
Model Cities Director | City Deputy Commissioner Deputy Mayor | NAACP Official | Teacher
“I haven’t been disappointed in the things that count with me, the programs in human resources, in social services,
the ones most difficult to see and hardest to measure.”

(1855–1948)
Teacher | Journalist | Author
“Give women more power in the government offices if the desire is for peace and prosperity.”

(1837–1913)
Educator | Principal | Feminist | Missionary
“It seems necessary that we should make known to the good men and women who are so solicitous about our souls and our minds that we haven’t quite got rid of our bodies yet,
and until we do we must feed and clothe them;
and this thing of keeping us out of work forces us back upon charity.”

(1929–1981)
Physician | City Councilwoman Secretary—Commonwealth of Pennsylvania
“Like most people thought about movie stars, I thought about politicians.”

(1817/19–1876)
Classical Vocalist
“I... looked well to the lady—for the black moire antique silk in which I was clad was the gift of Mrs. Stowe and made under her own direction.”

(1935–2008)
Registered Nurse | Model | Actress | TV News Personality
“I can’t think of anything, truly, that I would rather do or spend the past 42-plus years doing than what I’ve done.”

(1916–2006)
Executive Director and Consultant: Young Women’s Christian Association
“My mother would want to be remembered as
someone who was thoughtful,
and as someone who was respectful and cared deeply about others.”
—Ann Perrone, daughter

(1843–1921)
Teacher | Principal | School Founder
“Education is a reality with the freedman now, a fixed fact.
We have no quaint or rapturous expressions of thanksgiving
or wonder to narrate, as when schools were first opened,
and we introduced books with their mysteries. Schools are a system; we have classes like those in other regulated institutions.”

(1894–1965)
Political Activist |State Legislator | Federal Official |Internationalist
“I felt as I did on the day during the 1940 presidential campaign when you were leaving the Biltmore Hotel and I was entering through the same revolving door: you looked at me and I smiled
but you averted your eyes and gave no sign of recognition....”
Letter to Eleanor Roosevelt, March 31, 1945

(1848–1919)
Physician | Educator
“I am tired of being so situated as to accomplish so little either for myself or anybody else.”

(1897–1993)
Concert Singer
“I don’t think I had much to say in choosing it; I think music chose me.”

(1846–1923)
Teacher | Principal | Abolitionist | Transportation Integrationist
“Colored children should be taught by their own.”

(1898–1977)
Educator | Author | Activist/Organizer
“I therefore urge that we have decent low-cost housing by the United States government.”
—Testimony by Nellie R. Bright to the U.S. Congress Joint Committee on Housing, 1947

(1916–1998)
Civil Rights Activist | Organizer
“We will throw a picket line around the PTC office and keep it there until company executives decide to practice this democracy there has been so much talk about.”