Famous and Notable Black Women Posters, “S...-”
for the social studies classroom, home schoolers and theme decor.

Betye Saar
Edith Spurlock Sampson
Augusta Savage
Mary Seacole

Ntozake Shange
Nina Simone
Bessie Smith
Anne Spencer

Betye Saar

Betye Saar
b. 7-30-1926; Los Angeles, CA

Artist Betye Saar is best known for her work in the field of assemblage and collage. Saar collected stereotyped African-American images from advertising and folk culture, combining them into political and protest statements.

Edith Spurlock Sampson
b. 10-13-1898; Pittsburgh, PA
d. 10-8-1979

Edith Spurlock Sampson, a social worker, lawyer and judge, was the first African-American appointed to represent the U.S. at the United Nations and to NATO. She served both Presidents Truman and Eisenhower, and at a high school career day in Houston inspired a young Barbara Jordan to become a lawyer.

Edith Spurlock Sampson quote ~
• “The question is, quite bluntly, ‘Do Negroes have equal rights in America?’ My answer is no, we do not have equal rights in all parts of the United States. But let's remember that 85 years ago Negroes in America were slaves and were 100 percent illiterate. And the record shows that the Negro has advanced further in this period than any similar group in the entire world. You here get considerable misinformation about American Negroes and hear little or nothing that is constructive.” 1951

In Her Hands: The Story of Sculptor Augusta Savage

Augusta Savage, née Fells
b. 2-29-1892; Green Cove Springs, FL
d. 3-26-1962; NY

While Augusta Savage is mostly known as a sculptor, she was also a wonderful art teacher and a tireless supporter of the rights of all artists, expecially black artists. But she was lucky that she was able to pursue her art at all. She grew up in Florida with thirteen brothers and sisters. Her father was a strict Methodist minister who believed that the Bible forbade creating “graven images.” He punished Augusta whevever he found any of the small clay figurines she made as a child. But she did not let that get in her way. As she got older, she won awards for her work – and she also won her father's approval. She headed north to Harlem in 1921.

Savage's talent won her scholarships and friends among Harlem's elite. She was hired to sculpt the likenesses of some of the major black political figures of the time, including W.E.B. Du Bois and Marcus Garvey. Then, in 1923, she applied for a special summer arts program in France. When the selection committee found out Savage was black, however, her application was rejected. The controversy became front-page news in New York, as many scholars and community leaders rallied to her cause. But it wasn't until six years later that she was finally able to study in France.

In her later years, Savage spent more of her time teaching than sculpting. She founded a school that became the Harlem Community Art Center, the largest art center in the United States. One of her students, Jacob Lawrence, went on to become perhaps the most successful African American painter of all time. The art world lost a major figure when Augusta Savage died in 1962. [Text from an out-of-stock Stars of the Harlem Renaissance poster.]

• more Artist/Art History posters
• more women artists posters
• more Stars of the Harlem Renaissance posters

Mary Seacole
b. 1805; Kingston, Jamaica
d. 5-14-1881; London

Mary Seacole, who was taught basic remedies and herbal medicine by her mother, spent her own money to travel to Crimea to help treat wounded soldiers after being rejected by Florence Nightingale's nursing program.

• Mary Seacole: The Black Woman Who Invented Modern Nursing
• Health posters

Ntozake Shange
née Paulette L. Williams
b. 10-18-1948; Trenton, NJ

Playwright and poet Ntozake Shange is a self proclaimed black feminist whose work addresses issues relating to race and feminism. Her best know play is For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow Is Enuf.

Nina Simone
née Eunice Kathleen Waymon
b. 2-21-1933; Tryon, NC
d. 4-21-2003; Mississippi

Singer, songwriter, pianist, arranger, and civil rights activist Nina Simone is most often associated with Jazz.

Bessie Smith
b. 4-15-1894; Chattanooga, TN
d. 9-26-1937; Mississippi

Bessie Smith is a key figure in the development of American blues and jazz. She was a protege of the great “Ma” Rainey and made her first recording, “Downhearted Blues”, in 1923 which established her as the most successful black recording artist of the day.

• Bessie Smith at Amazon.com

Anne Spencer
née Annie Bethel Scales Bannister
b. 2-6-1882; Henry Co., Virginia
d. 7-27-1974; Lynchburg

Anne Spencer was the first African-American (and Virginian) to have her poetry included in the Norton Anthology of American Poetry. She was also a noted teacher and civil rights activist.

Spencer's home was a center for the meeting of people such as Langston Hughes, Marian Anderson, George Washington Carver, Thurgood Marshall, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., James Weldon Johnson and W. E. B. Du Bois.

“White Things”
Most things are colorful things-the sky, earth, and sea.
Black men are most men; but the white are free!
White things are rare things; so rare, so rare
They stole from out a silvered world — somewhere. [read more]

• Anne Spencer House & Garden Museum - Lynchburg - a Virginia Landmark
• Anne Spencer Revisited

Mavis Staples
b. 7-10-1939; Chicago, IL

Mavis Staples, rhythm and blues and gospel singer, and civil rights activist, recorded with her family's band, The Staple Singers.

Susan McKinney Steward
née Smith
b. March, 1847; Brooklyn, NY
d. 3-7-1918; Wilberforce, OH

Susan McKinney Steward, the third Aftrican-Amercian woman to earn a medical degree, taught school in Washington, DC and New York in order to earn her tuition to medical school. She was also an author.

Maria W. Stewart
née Miller
b. 1803; Hartford, CT
d. 12-17-1879; Washington, DC

Maria Stewart, a public speaker, abolitionist, and feminist, was the first black woman to lecture about women’s rights.