Part Five

Lucy Terry Prince (1730-1821) First woman to argue before the Supreme Court

Phillis Wheatley (1753-1784) First African American to publish a book of poetry

Jarena Lee (1783-?) First woman preacher in the AME church

Elizabeth Freeman (1742-1829) First woman freed under the Massachusetts constitution of 1780

Sojourner Truth (1797-1883) First woman orator

Biddy Mason (1818-1891) First African American landowner in Los Angeles

Elizabeth Taylor Greenfield (1819-1891) First to perform for royalty

Francis Ellen Watkins Harper (1825-1911) First to publish a short story

Elizabeth Jennings (1830-?) First to challenge a bus system 100 years before Rosa Parks

Mary Fields (1832-1914) First woman stagecoach driver for the postal service

Josephine Saint Pierre Ruffin (1842-1924) First to publish a magazine for African American women

Susan King Taylor (1848-1912) First army nurse

Ida Wells Barnett (1862-1931) First to establish a black women's suffrage club

Madame C.J. Walker (1867-1919) First woman millionaire

Mary McLeod Bethune (1875-1955) First woman to head a federal agency

Sissieretta Jones (1869-1933) First to sing at Carnegie Hall

Zora Neale Hurston (1891-1960) First to write a collection of black folklore

Madame Lillian Evanti (1891-1967) First to establish a black opera company

Eva Jessye (1895-1992) First choral director for the original "Porgy and Bess"

Bessie Coleman (1892-1926) First woman international pilot

Edith Sampson (1901-1979) First woman elected a judge

Blanche Calloway (1902-1973) First woman to lead an all-male band

Willa Brown-Chappell (1906-1992) First woman commercial pilot

Victoria Regina Spivey (1906-1976) First woman to own a recording company

Patricia Roberts Harris (1924-1985) First woman Cabinet member

Shirley Chisholm (1924 -) First woman member of Congress

Althea Gibson (1927 -) First woman to win a major tennis title

Maya Angelou (1928 -) First woman to produce a screenplay

Lorraine Hansberry (1930-1965) First woman to write a Broadway play

Alice Walker (1944 -) First African American to win a Pulitzer Prize for Fiction