North Carolina

Hill (1907-1969) was an organic and analytical chemist, educator, and one of the first Black women to earn a Master's in Chemistry. She co-authored over 40 research papers and published two textbooks with her husband, General College Chemistry and Experiments in Organic Chemistry.

Shakur (1947-2016) was an activist and community organizer who held several high-ranking roles within the Black Panther Party including Section Leader of the Harlem Branch, Communications Secretary, and Press representative. She was also the mother of rapper and actor Tupac Amaru Shakur. She is most notably remembered for representing herself while pregnant in The Panther 21 Case, where she and twenty other Panthers faced charges of conspiracy to bomb New York City police stations, department stores and railroad tracks.

Cardwell (1894-1962) was a Musician, Educator, and founder of the extraordinary National Negro Opera Company (Pittsburg, 1941), and the Cardwell School of Music.

Jacobs (1815-1897) escaped slavery, became an abolitionist, and wrote an autobiography that became one of the most significant American slave narratives - the first authored by a Black woman. Published in 1861 under the pseudonym Linda Brent, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl provides a rare female perspective on slavery and demonstrates how enslaved women faced unique forms of oppression. Although she was very close to her first mistress who taught her to read and write - advantages denied to most enslaved people - Jacobs's narrative exposes slavery's fundamental inescapable violence. Her account, corroborated by her brother John S. Jacobs and George W. Lowther (a civil rights activist and Massachusetts state representative who knew her from childhood), focuses on her personal story of enslavement and surviving physical violence and sexual harassment from one of her enslavers, Dr. Flint. While Jacobs does not dramatize slavery's brutality, the system's horrors emerge through brief, matter-of-fact mentions throughout her narrative: a mother driven to madness after all seven of her children were sold away; a man bound to a cotton gin and left to be eaten by vermin, and enslavers fathering and selling their many children from enslaved women. Her narrative also documents the impact of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, which forced her and other fugitives in the North to live in constant fear of capture and re-enslavement. These scattered references, delivered without embellishment, serve to underscore the everyday inhumanity of the "peculiar institution."

Johnson (1914-2018), performed instrumental work as an attorney in repudiating the "separate but equal" doctrine in the landmark case Sarah Keys v Carolina Coach Company (1955).

Lynch (1959) was the 83rd Attorney General of the United States, the first Black woman to hold the position.

Funk singer, model, futuristic fashionista, and second wife of Miles Davis, Betty (1944-2022) was known for her raw lyrics, powerful voice, and innovative blend of funk, soul, and rock. During their brief marriage, Betty was Davis' muse and profoundly influenced his musical direction and sense of style. “Miles was pure energy, sometimes light but also dark. He was driven inspiring and also angry. Everyday married to him, was a day I earned the name Davis.”

Sarah Louise Keys Evans' refusal to give up her bus seat led to a landmark Interstate Commerce Commission ruling that banned segregation in interstate travel. In 1952, Evans, a Women's Army Corps member on leave from Fort Dix dressed in full military uniform, boarded a Carolina Trailways bus in Trenton, New Jersey heading home to Washington, N.C. Around midnight in Roanoke Rapids, North Carolina, a new driver took over. The new driver went down the aisle to check tickets and ordered her to give up her seat to a white Marine, despite the 1946 Morgan v. Virginia Supreme Court ruling that banned segregation in interstate travel. When Evans refused, the new driver had all of the passengers except Evans depart the bus and move to a different bus.

Modernly, Cooper has been referred to as the Mother of Black Feminism after her book A Voice from the South: By a Black Woman of the South sparked a new era of Black feminist thought, challenging the prevailing narratives of race, gender, and class.

Mathematician, aeronautical engineer, "human computer", and data analyst who worked at NASA for nearly 40 years. She was one of the "Hidden Figures" who made significant contributions to NASA's space program and she became the first Black woman at NASA's Langley Research Center to be promoted to Senior Executive Service.

First African American woman to earn a Bachelor Degree. See also, Lucy Stanton.

Smith (1930) is a retired Librarian, Archivist, and Author of over 50 publications including Notable Black American Women. In 1964, Smith became the first African American to earn a Ph.D. degree in library science from the University of Illinois.

In 1942, Earley (1918-2002) became the first Black woman to be commissioned as an officer in the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC). After initially serving as a staff training officer, station control officer, and company commander at Fort Des Moines, Iowa, she was promoted to major in September 1943, coinciding with the transition from WAAC to WAC (Women's Auxillary Corps). In 1945, During World War II she commanded the 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion (The Six Triple 8) and led the only all-Black, all-female battalion to serve overseas. The 6888th was responsible for sorting and delivering mail to nearly seven million soldiers in the European Theater of Operations. She ultimately achieved the rank of lieutenant colonel, the highest rank available to women in the WAC at that time.

Burke (1900-1955) was a sculptor, educator, art school founder, and fixture in the Harlem Renaissance. Her bas relief image of President Franklin Roosevelt is permanently displayed at the Recorder of Deeds Building in Washington, D.C. and is the disputed inspiration for the American dime.