In HIST 473: Black Women in U.S. History, Dr. Laila Haidarali helps students to explore the history of black women in the United States from the late nineteenth century to the contemporary era. Positioning black women at its centre, this course situates the history of black women within the broader contexts of U.S. politics, culture and society, while also recognizing the ways that this history is distinguishable within it.
To celebrate International Women's Day, the Department of History's EDII Committee is sharing two undergraduate student essays written for HIST 473 that engage with women's history and inequality in America during the 20th century.
Hayden Sawyer's research paper reflects on the autobiography of Anne Moody, author and American civil rights activist. Sawyer explains that "holistically, Coming of Age in Mississippi represents the generational dichotomy between Anne Moody and her mother Toosweet Davis" and explores how these differing perspectives ultimately resulted in Moody's "life of determined and relentless activism for greater equality among all." Sawyer goes on to explain:
Anne Moody’s Coming of Age in Mississippi highlights the significance of “everyday” people from a diverse set of backgrounds coalescing around a movement driven to produce the same equal protections and rights to all, in turn transforming — and demanding — these people into truly extraordinary individuals. And while much of these efforts were driven by the efforts and sacrifices of youth, it is critical to also keep in mind that many older individuals, particularly in the field of education which was becoming more accessible to an increasingly urban population, played a pivotal role in enabling Moody’s generation the access to knowledge that was previously difficult to obtain in the patchwork of rudimentary, rural, church-dependent schools that dominated Black southern educational institutions before. While the Civil Rights Movement was compiled from almost all normal, average, “everyday” people, these typical individuals were brought up in an environment much different than that of their parents or grandparents, enabling their desires, beliefs, and values, and outcomes to also be different.
Read Sawyer's full paper here.
Avery Briese's research paper examines the impact of race on women's engagement in sports, and specifically, the failure of Title IX to consider the intersectionality of gender and race in collegiate athletics. Briese explains:
Title IX allowed for positive change to occur in American collegiate athletics, but this change reveals the question, who exactly has benefited from this law? After countless studies on Title IX, it has been found that white women have experienced the most amount of glory from this law, with women of colour continuously being overlooked and not given the same amount of opportunities in collegiate athletics. Studies from the late 90s have even revealed experiences of invisibility for Black women in American college athletics, as their voices had been silenced in this space. This demonstrates Title IX as a failure for all women in college sports, as it did not consider how race would impact Black women's engagement in athletics. Therefore, the period directly after Title IX's enactment, from 1974-1999, suggests the impact of race on women's engagement in college athletics, as an intersectional lens reveals the additional societal barriers that occur for those who are Black and how they are overlooked due to only the consideration of gender for the law, thus illustrating that race should have been an aspect of Title IX.
Read Briese's full paper here.
We extend our gratitude to both students for their outstanding efforts in exploring these important stories in women's history. To join ֱ's International Women's Day celebration, please visit the event page here.
