Racism and Resistance: African-American Labor and Housing Discrimination During the 1940s

Abstract

Maya Angelou said in her famous autobiography, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, “I would have the job. I would be a conductorette and sling a full money changer from my belt. I would.”1 Her steadfast determination and resilience against centuries old racial barriers allowed her to become the first black streetcar conductor in San Francisco. Angelou’s feat was one of many firsts for black women. Shirley Chisholm became the first black woman to run for president in 1972. In 2013, Black Lives Matters became one of the first mainstream racial activism groups and was founded by three African-American women. Both today and historically, black women have been the most underprivileged group in America, through hundreds of years of racialized misogyny. Throughout much of the country’s history, the majority of its historians have been white and racist. Black women as a result have been systematically erased and ignored from America’s narrative.