“A Black Women’s History of the United States”

Guests: Daina Ramey Berry, Kali Nicole Gross

Since colonial times, black women been shaping America, but their stories have often been left out of history. In the new book, A Black Women’s History of the United States, historians DAINA RAMEY BERRY and KALI NICOLE GROSS celebrate the lives and the contributions of black women who have left their mark on the nation but have too often been overlooked or forgotten. Berry and Gross highlight women like Isabel de Olvera, the first black woman to arrive in North America in 1600, Milly and Christine McCoy, enslaved conjoined twins, Gladys Bentley, the gender-bending blues musician, Shirley Chisholm, the first black woman elected to the U.S. Congress and many others who struggled and fought of racial and gender equality.