Black Texas Women: 150 Years of Trial and Triumph

Book excerpt: “Enriches and complicates African American and women’s history by connecting threads of race, gender, class, and region.” —Darlene Clark Hine, John A. Hannah Professor of History, Michigan State University Winner of the Liz Carpenter Award from the Texas State Historical Association Women of all colors have shaped families, communities, institutions, and societies throughout history, but only in recent decades have their contributions been widely recognized, described, and celebrated. This book presents the first comprehensive history of Black Texas women, a previously neglected group whose 150 years of continued struggle and some successes against the oppression of racism and sexism deserve to be better known and understood. Beginning with slave and free women of color during the Texas colonial period and concluding with contemporary women who serve in the Texas legislature and the United States Congress, Ruthe Winegarten organizes her history both chronologically and topically. Her narrative sparkles with the life stories of individual women and their contributions to the work force, education, religion, the club movement, community building, politics, civil rights, and culture. The product of extensive archival and oral research and illustrated with over 200 photographs, this groundbreaking work will be equally appealing to general readers and to scholars of women’s history, black history, American studies, and Texas history. “Occasionally a book comes along that is monumental in scope, overwhelming in amount of research, and so powerful in its impact as to be categorized at once as a lasting contribution to our knowledge of humankind. Black Texas Women is one of those rare books.” —The Journal of American History