Despite being twice included on lists of influential Black Britons, Olive Morris is still frequently overlooked in British history. Still, she achieved much in her tragically short life and her legacy remains alive today.
Activists
Women Who Fought Back: Madres de Plaza de Mayo
To quote Stephen King: “There’s no bitch on Earth like a mother frightened for her kids.” The Madres de Plaza de Mayo more than prove this, still fighting today for the return of their 'disappeared' children.
Suffrage Around the World: Clara González
During the early 1900s, women all around the world were mobilising to fight for their rights, and it was no different in Latin America. Clara González spent her whole career fighting for women and their rights.
Suffrage Around the World: Nüzi canzheng tongmenghui
China’s ‘first wave’ of feminism took place between 1911-1913 when the new constitution contained no mention of women's suffrage. Women's groups across China came together to form the Women's Suffrage Alliance - the first of its kind in the country.
E is for… Eleanor Marx
Karl Marx is known throughout the world for his political theory, but it was his youngest daughter, Eleanor, who put that theory into practice. Fiercely intelligent and quick-witted, she was heavily involved with socialist movements and early trade unionism, and she was a strong campaigner for the rights of working-class women and Jews.
Josephine Baker – Experiment in Brotherhood
Josephine Baker dedicated herself to breaking barriers and tackling injustice. One of the most famous performers in Europe, she also worked as a civil rights activist and was a spy for the French Resistance during World War II, a task she accomplished with ease despite her great fame.
Sophia Duleep Singh – Socialite to Suffragette
Goddaughter of Queen Victoria and a member of the British aristocracy, Sophia Duleep Singh would go on to become one of the most prominent members of the British suffrage movement. She was passionately devoted to the cause, and never hesitated to do whatever she thought she must for the 'advancement of women'.
Miriam Makeba – Mama Africa
Posthumously labelled by Nelson Mandela as ‘South Africa’s first lady of song’, Miriam Makeba has been credited with bringing African music to the West. She was a vocal campaigner against apartheid and often used her songs to spread awareness internationally, though she maintained that her music was not political.
Claudette Colvin – The Girl Who Came Before
The name ‘Rosa Parks’ is one that has been - deservedly - heralded globally as one of the first voices in the 1950s American Civil Rights Movement. Not many people know, however, that she was not the first; a girl named Claudette Colvin had been arrested for the same act nine months prior.
Frida Kahlo – Painting Her Own Reality
Though her image is easily recognisable today, Frida Kahlo spent her lifetime in relative obscurity. Now an icon of the feminist, Chicano, and LGBT movements, many aspects of Kahlo's life are often overlooked, including her disability and bisexuality.