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Portraits
Emily Kame Kngwarreye
Emily Kame Kngwarreye (1910-1996) was an indigenous Australian artist. She was from the Utopia community in the Northern Territory. In 2007, her 1994 painting “Earth’s Creation” sold for over a million dollars, making a record ad the highest price ever fetched for a female artist in Australia. She started painting in her seventies and was amazingly prolific, producing about 3,000 paintings within less than two decades. In deference to the traditional values of her community, she distributed her wealth among her kinsfolk and did not contribute to or participate in any European-based concepts of material wealth.
Marie Van Britton Brown
Marie Van Britton Brown (1922-1999) and her husband patented the first closed-circuit television security system on December 2, 1969. She was inspired by how long it took for the police to respond to calls from her neighborhood. Closed-circuit TV security systems are still very much in use today.
Bessie Coleman
Bessie Coleman (1892-1926), also known as “The Brave Bronze Aviatrix of the Roaring Twenties,” was the first black woman in the United States to make a public flight. Being barred from aviation school due to her heritage, she overcame racial prejudices by teaching herself French to attend the Fédération Aèronatique Internationale. In 1921, she became the first woman, first person of color, and first American to be awarded an international pilot license. She made a living by barnstorming and performing aviation tricks, which ultimately led to her death at the age of 34
Mama Africa
Miriam “Mama Africa” Makeba (1932-2008) was a civil rights activist, UN Goodwill Ambassador, singer/songwriter, and actress. She is the first African woman to have won a Grammy. Her most popular song is “Pata Pata;” you can find it on YouTube.
Mary Church Terrell
Mary Church Terrell (née Mary Eliza Church, 1864-1954) was the daughter of two former slaves. Her father was one of the first black men in the south to become a millionaire, and her mother owned a hair salon. She earned a bachelor’s degree and master’s degree from Oberlin College and spent some time as a a teacher. In 1892, and old friend was lynched and she turned her outrage into activism. She founded the NACW (National Association of Colored Women) in 1896 and penned it’s motto “lifting as we climb.” She was among the founding members of the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) and picketed for women’s suffrage.
Mary Eliza Mahoney
Mary Eliza Mahoney (1845-1926) became the first African-American professionally trained registered nurse in the United States. She strove to eradicate racial prejudice in the nursing field. The Mary Mahoney Professional Nurses Organization was created in her honor in 1949. Their historic mission is “to provide financial aid and scholarships to students of African heritage who pursue studies leading to careers in professional nursing.” (http://www.marymahoney.org)
Ella Baker
Ella Baker (1903-1986) was the national director of the NAACP. She was committed to economic justice as well as racial justice, and had influential roles Martin Luther King's Southern Christian Leadership Conference, and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. A foundation called the Ella Baker Center for a human Rights has been established in her honor, with the mission to end mass incarceration of people of color.
Mary Ellen Pleasant
Mary Ellen Pleasant (1814-1904) is remembered as “The Mother of Human Rights in California.” 89 years before the arrests of Claudette Colvin and Rosa Parks, Ms. Pleasant won a case against the San Francisco public transit system. She was denied service by the city street car, sued and won, which led to the 1893 statute that banned segregation on public transportation. There is a park in San Francisco built in her honor, and some people say it’s haunted by her ghost
Mourning Dove
Christine “Mourning Dove” Quintasket (1880’s - 1936) was an ethnographer and writer best known for authoring Cogewea, The Half-Blood: A Depiction of the Great Montana Cattle Range, published in 1927. She was dedicated to preserving the culture of Native Americans, and wrote in an effort to transcribe the folklore of the tribal people through the Colorado Plateau.
Maggie Lena Walker
Maggie Lena Walker (1864-1934, née Maggie Lena Draper) was the first Black woman in the United States to serve as the president of a bank. She chartered the Saint Luke’s Penny Savings Bank near the turn of the 20th century. As a teenager, she joined a fraternal order called the Independent Order of Saint Luke. This organization promoted various humanitarian causes, including tending to the sick or aged and encouraging self-help. As years went by, she served in many different positions in the Order, eventually becoming Grand Secretary, a position she held for 35 years. She was an active member of the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) and the NACW (National Association of Colored Women). She also founded a newspaper called the Saint Luke’s Herald and opened a department store called the Saint Luke’s Emporium. Her home in Jackson Ward, Virginia has been declared a Historic Site by the National Park Service and is now a museum. ⠀
Ameena Matthews
Ameena Matthews gained notoriety after a lead role in the 2011 film “The Interruptors,” a documentary about an anti-gang-violence foundation now known as Cure Violence Chicago (called Ceasefire at the time). She is a street-conflict resolver who routinely stepped in between potentially deadly conflicts to prevent shootings. She is challenging Rep. Bobby Rush’s congressional seat in the 2020 election.
Gladys Elphick
Gladys Elphick (1904-1988) was the founding president of the Council of Aboriginal Women of South Australia, and was named South Australian Aborigine of the Year in 1984. Her nickname was “Aunty Glad.”
Mary Winston Jackson
Mary Winston Jackson was the first black female engineer at NASA. She is described as a “gentle lady, wife and mother, humanitarian and scientist” who believed that service and science went hand in hand. Sometimes you need to know when to leave well enough alone, and I think I made the right choice when I stepped away from this drawing before the timer went off. Her smile in my picture does not have the same pinched quality as in the photo but overall I’m okay with this one.
Lucy Hicks
Lucy Hicks Anderson (1886-1954) is remembered as one of the earliest documented cases of a black transgender person in the United States. She was born physically male but, starting at a very young age, could not be dissuaded from insisting that she was female. Her mother brought her to a pediatrician for advice, and the doctor concluded that she should be raised as a woman. She grew up to become a great philanthropist and pillar of her community, while concurrently running a lucrative brothel under the auspices of a boarding house. But also this hat. It’s like a cloche and a top hat had a baby.
Theresa Kachindamoto
Theresa Kachindamoto is the chief of a district in Malawi. She is credited with undoing almost a thousand marriages involving children.
Mary McLeod Bethune
Mary McLeod Bethune founded the Daytona Normal and Industrial Institute for Negro Girls, started the National Council of Negro Women, and directed the Division of Negro Affairs of the National Youth Administration. After she passed away in 1955, she was inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame. One thing about historical figures is that you sometimes come up against obsolete lingo that makes people uncomfortable. Glossing over that vocabulary would not only be disgenuine and compromise my artistic integrity, it would insult my audience’s intelligence. That being said, I didn’t want to type out the names of her organizations and I’m trying to own that instead of acting like something else happened.
Sister Rosetta Tharpe
Sister Rosetta Tharpe (1915-1973) was a hugely influential musician who was popular during the 1930s and 1940s. She was referred to as “the original soul sister” and “the godmother of rock n roll.” She was inducted into the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame earlier this year. .I tend to favor head shots but this is such a fetching image. 20 minute sketch, 5H pencil on vellum.
Claudette Colvin
Claudette Colvin (1939-present) was a civil rights pioneer who was arrested in 1955 for refusing to give up her seat on a bus to a white person. Rosa Parks followed suit about nine months later. Ms. Colvin worked for 35 years in the health care industry. The story is interesting but I chose this image bc I like her glasses
Marsha P Johnson
Marsha P Johnson was a gay rights activist. She identified as a drag queen and liked to wear flowers in her hair. She co-founded Street Transgender Action Revolutionaries and the Gay Liberation Front. People called her “the mayor of Christopher Street.” This picture was probably taken in the 80’s (that’s my guess, from the neckline of the dress/top she’s wearing) AKA those happy carefree days before everyone’s eyebrows had to be on fleek all the time.
Olufunmilayo Ransome-Kuti
Olufunmilayo Ransome-Kuti (1900-1978) was a Nigerian political activist who unflinchingly and repeatedly went into battle to secure women’s right to vote. Her devotion to elevating the political and financial status of Nigerian women has been legendary. These accomplishments were not always well-received by the general populace, and she died of injuries after being thrown through a window by soldiers.
Fannie Lou Hamer
Fannie Lou Hamer (1917-1977) was a fearless and unshakable civil rights activist who rose to the front lines of the fight for ensuring black people could exercise their right to vote in 1962. She served in the 1968 Democratic National Convention, and is credited with coining the phrase “I am sick and tired of being sick and tired.” Another non-headshot - what makes this image arresting is the other hand holding her radio; support from this unseen, impassioned listener. 30 minutes, 2B pencil on vellum.
Willie Mae
Willie Mae “Big Mama” Thornton was the first person to successfully record “Hound Dog.” This is her studio portrait. It must have been taken early in her career, because this is not the style of clothing she preferred.
Ida Wells
Ida Wells was a journalist who launched an extensive investigation of lynching in the southern United States in the late 1800s. She wrote books and pamphlets, established the British Anti-Lynching Society, and was a founding member of both the NACW and NAACP. The only thing that stopped her writing was when she passed away; she was an activist up to the grave.
Dorothy Height
Dorothy Height (1912-2010) held the following offices: founding member of the Council for United Civil Rights Leadership, national president of the Delta Sigma Theta sorority (Rho chapter), and national staff for the YWCA. Her most prominent position was as the president of the National Council of Negro Women, a job she kept for 40 years. She also set up a recurring event in the 1960s called “Wednesdays in Mississippi,” which was meant as a place to encourage dialogue between women of different backgrounds. Her favorite fashion statements were fancy hats.
Bell Hooks
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