February
Black Women's History Calendar
The Black Women's History Timeline is a dynamic and empowering resource that highlights the monumental contributions of Black women throughout history. From trailblazing leaders and activists to innovators in science, culture, and business, this timeline offers a curated journey through their achievements and legacy. Each month, we spotlight key figures, events, and movements that have shaped the course of history and continue to inspire future generations. This timeline not only celebrates Black women's resilience, brilliance, and leadership but also educates and empowers communities to honor their invaluable impact on the world.

February 1, 1941
Mildred Louise Hemmons Carter becomes one of the first women to earn a pilot’s license through the first graduating class of the Civilian Pilot Training Program at Tuskegee Institute (now Tuskegee University). In February 2011, Carter was declared one of the original Tuskegee Airmen.
February 1, 1978
First postage stamp to honor a black woman, Harriet Tubman, is issued in Washington, DC

February 2, 1983
Malou Mercedes Hansson, Miss Sweden of 2002 , born in Järfälla, a Stockholm suburb.
February 3, 1945
The 6888th left the United States sailing on the IIe de France, and arrived at Glasgow, Scotland, on February 14, 1945.

February 3, 1948
Rosa Lee Ingram, a Black woman, and two of her children, Wallace, 17, and Sammie Lee, 14, were convicted by an all-white jury in a one-day trial in Ellaville, Georgia. The three family members were sentenced to death by electric chair for killing an armed white man in self-defense after he violently assaulted and threatened them.
February 3, 1956
Autherine Lucy enrolls as the first African American student at the University of Alabama.
February 4, 1913
Rosa Parks, “Mother of the Civil Rights Movement,” who sparked Montgomery bus boycott, born.
February 5, 2015
Anne Moody, writer and civil rights activist best known for her memoir, Coming of Age in Mississippi (1968), transitions to the ancestors.
February 6, 1945
Bonnie Watson Coleman, U.S. House of Representative for New Jersey’s 12th Congressional District since January 3, 2015, is born.

February 6, 1947
Barbara Lee from The Chiffons, a premier all-female American group, is born.

February 8, 1962
Lisa Perez Jackson, the first African American Administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), is born.
February 9, 1944
Alice Walker, writer, first African-American woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for fiction, for The Color Purple (1983) is born.
February 9, 1960
Just four weeks before the Little Rock Central High School graduation, a bomb exploded at the home of Carlotta Walls, the youngest of the Little Rock Nine—Black students who integrated the school in 1957.
February 11, 1989
Rev. Barbara Harris became the first woman bishop in the American Episcopal Church and in the Anglican Communion worldwide.
February 11, 1958
Ruth C. Taylor became the first African-American flight attendant in the US.
February 11, 2012
Whitney Houston was found dead in her Beverly Hills hotel room on the eve of the 2012 Grammy Awards.
February 18, 1931
Toni Morrison, Pulitzer Prize winning novelist, first African-American to win the Nobel Prize for Literature (1993) is born.


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February 1965
Alberta Jones was appointed prosecutor for the Domestic Relations Court in Jefferson County (Louisville), a first for a woman or a person of color.
February 1855
Anna R. Woodbey, an early suffragist and minister, was the first known African American woman to be nominated on a state ticket by a political party is born.
February 18, 1934
Audre Geraldine Lorde, writer, authored a book of poetry or essay almost every year, fought sexism and homophobia, joined the struggle for civil rights and feminism, created Kitchen Table Women of Color Press with others in 1988, and wrote A Burst of Light to highlight her response to liver cancer is born.
February 20, 1956
Local officials issued warrants for the arrests of civil rights activists, including Rosa Parks, for organizing the Montgomery Bus Boycott.
February 20, 1988
Robyn Rihanna Fenty, multitalented singer, actress and fashion designer from Barbados, is born in Saint Michael, Barbados.
February 24, 1864
R. L. Crumpler became the first Black woman to receive an M.D. degree from New England College.
February 27, 1897
Marian Anderson, opera singer, first African-American member of the New York Metropolitan Opera (1955) is born.
February 27, 1988
Debi Thomas becomes first Black to win an Olympic medal in figure skating.