Welcome to A Little HerStory

Anna Dickinson was born on October 28, 1842, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Her parents, John and Mary Dickinson’s ancestors were ardent Quakers and Abolitionists who had immigrated to the United States from England. She was the youngest of five children and the family home was a stop on the Underground Railroad. When she was only two years old, her father died leaving the family in abject poverty. Her mother took in boarders and opened a school in their home to help suppor

Now, I don’t know much about rap. My first real listen was to Tupac Shakur because I had read his powerful book of poetry, The Rose That Grew from Concrete. I loved it. When I learned about Sylvia Robinson, I was curious. Here is a little of what I found. Sylvia Vanderpool Robinson was born on May 29th, 1935 in Harlem, New York. Her father, Herbert, was an immigrant from the Virgin Islands who worked for General Motors. Her mother, Ida, dropped out of school at the age of

Prudence Crandall 1803-1890 Edited by Debra Michals, PhD From the National Women's History Museum A Quaker abolitionist and teacher, Prudence Crandall bravely defied prevailing patterns of racial discrimination when she opened one of the first schools for African American girls in Connecticut in 1833. Though supported by leading anti-slavery activists—among them William Lloyd Garrison—Crandall, a white woman, faced legal harassment and social ridicule for her efforts to educa

She wrote more than 850 songs for popular artists, some of the most famous musicians of the day. Over sixty years she composed or collaborated on songs for Elvis, Aretha Franklin, Nat King Cole, Ike and Tina Turner, Ray Charles, Bette Midler, Etta James, James Taylor, Faith Hill, and more. Who is this woman? The odds are, you have not heard of her. Marie Hinton was born in Oneida, Arkansas, very near the Mississippi Delta, on April 19, 1922. Her father was a farmer working

We all remember Amanda Gorman from the Inauguration. I love the change she is helping bring about. Enjoy! At the age of 22, she is the youngest inaugural poet in U.S. history and an award winning writer. She was born in 1998, and raised in Los Angeles where her single mother, Joan Wicks, is a middle school teacher in Watts. She has two siblings, one of which is a twin, Gabrielle, who is also an activist and makes films. Amanda describes herself as kind of a “weird child” wh