To teach her daughter about inspiring African American women, Chauncia Boyd Rogers dressed Ava Noelle up as some of the most influential ladies in American history. Despite the fact that they’re just taken with a cellphone, these photos give us all an adorable HER-story lesson.
Phillis Wheatley is both the second published African-American poet and first published African-American woman.
Elizabeth “Bessie” Coleman was the first black, female pilot. She was also the first African-American to hold an international pilot license.
Mary Eliza Mahoney was the first African-American to study and work as a professionally trained nurse in the United States. In 1908, she co-founded the National Association of Colored Graduate Nurses (NACGN) with Adah B. Thoms.
Michelle Obama is an American lawyer and writer. And, she is the first African-American First Lady of the United States.
Angela Davis is an American political activist, scholar, and author. She emerged as a prominent counterculture activist and radical in the 1960s. And she was actively involved in the #CivilRightsMovement.
Zora Neale Hurston was an American folklorist, anthropologist, and author. Her most celebrated work is Their Eyes Were Watching God.
Ella Fitzgerald was an American jazz vocalist. She was the first African-American woman to win a #Grammy and she earned 13 throughout her career.
Fanny Jackson Coppin was an African-American educator and missionary. She was born into slavery, but was able to read and study after her freedom was purchased at age 12. In 1860, she enrolled in Oberlin College, she graduated with a Bachelors degree in 1865. In 1869, she became the first African-American woman to become a school principal.
Condoleezza Rice served as the 66th United States Secretary of State. Rice was the first female African-American secretary of state. And she was President Bush’s National Security Advisor during his first term, making her the first woman of any race to serve in that position.
Ida B. Wells was an African-American journalist, editor, suffragist, and sociologist. She was also an early leader in the civil rights movement who documented lynching in the United States.
Harriet Tubman was an African-American abolitionist, humanitarian, and a Union spy. Born into slavery, Tubman escaped and subsequently made about thirteen missions to rescue approximately seventy enslaved people. She later helped struggle for women’s suffrage.
Marian Wright Edelman is an activist for children. She was the first African-American woman admitted to the Mississippi Bar and she has been an advocate for disadvantaged Americans her entire career. She is president and founder of the Children’s Defense Fund.






