GREENSBORO, NC (August 20, 2024) Learn about African American women’s struggle for political equality with historian Martha S. Jones at 6 pm, Wednesday, August 28 at the Greensboro History Museum, 130 Summit Ave. Jones is the author of Vanguard: How Black Women Broke Barriers, Won the Vote, and Insisted on Equality for All.
Vanguard recounts how black women defied both racism and sexism to fight for the ballot, and how they wielded political power to secure the equality and dignity of all people. From the earliest days of the republic to the passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act and beyond, Jones excavates the lives and work of black women — Maria Stewart, Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, Fannie Lou Hamer, and more — who were the vanguard of women’s rights.
Jones is the Society of Black Alumni Presidential Professor, Professor of History, and a Professor at the SNF Agora Institute at The Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland. She is a legal and cultural historian whose work examines how black Americans have shaped the story of our democracy.
The program is free and open to the public. Scuppernong Books will have copies of Vanguard available for purchase and signing after the program.
This event is sponsored by the Dortch Endowment and the Women’s Professional Forum Foundation of Greensboro. This year’s Dortch Endowment program supports the museum’s award-winning exhibition NC Democracy: Eleven Elections, which explores choices and change across 11 elections between 1776 and 2010 that shaped what democracy means in our state today.
The Greensboro History Museum, an AAM-accredited Smithsonian Affiliate, is a division of the City of Greensboro Library Department and operates as a public-private partnership with the nonprofit GHM Inc. In partnership with the community, the Greensboro History Museum collects the city’s diverse history and connects people to that history and one another through engaging exhibits, educational programs and community dialogue. Located in Downtown Greensboro’s Cultural District, the museum is open Tuesdays–Saturdays 10 am to 5 pm and Sundays 2-5 pm. Admission is free. Learn more at www.greensborohistory.org.
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