Five Best Books on Black Women’s Political Leadership

Essential reading on the courage, vision and enduring impact of Black women who shaped American politics and fought for equality.

In times of great political turmoil, it can be instructive and reassuring to read about people who have been in similar situations, and have persevered in fighting for something better. While writing my new book about the contributions Black women have made in the global struggle for human rights, I was humbled to see, over and over, how many of these women did not come from rich families, or hold positions of great power, or even have all that much education. But they did the hard and dangerous work required, day in and day out, because they believed in equal rights for everyone, around the world.

Closer to home, I’m recommending here five books that everyone should read about Black women in the United States who have persevered against great and terrible odds, to try to make the world better for the next generation. Their stories are just the inspiration we need today.

By Martha S. Jones, 2020

Martha S. Jones’ Vanguard is one of my favorite books and one that has inspired me to explore new approaches to Black women’s political history. Vanguard covers 200 years of Black women’s activism and organizing, and it provides a lesson on Black women’s expansive vision for American democracy. Rather than pursue selfish gains, Black women have been at the forefront of political movements, advocating for the rights and liberation of all people.

As Jones explains, these women “could not support any movement that separated out matters of racism from sexism, at least not for long.” These overlapping systems of oppression have been recognized for centuries by the Black women covered in Vanguard, but Jones’s triumph is in providing a compelling narrative of how these ideas evolved over time—and how they spurred Black women into action. She also makes clear how this activism “pointed the nation toward its best ideals” by asking the United States to follow the principles enshrined in its founding documents and the Reconstruction Amendments. Much like Jones, I am deeply invested in highlighting what these earlier struggles can teach us about Black women’s roles in politics today.

By Tera W. Hunter, 1998

Tera W. Hunter’s phenomenal book examines the lives of Black domestics and washerwomen in Atlanta after the Civil War. As she succinctly states, “Here was a group of black women, a decade and a half removed from slavery, striving to achieve freedom, equality, and a living wage against tremendous odds.” While she details the fragility of these women’s freedom as white Americans attempted to limit Black women’s economic opportunity as well as their social and political lives, Hunter also describes their intense struggle to claim and maintain their political rights.

Her work also helps center Black women within labor history, a field that had primarily focused on white workers. Through an in-depth analysis of primary sources, Hunter beautifully captures how Black women’s labor helped shape the city. It offers a glimpse into Black working women’s engagement in politics on the grassroots level. I cannot overstate the influence of this book on my life and career—it confirmed my commitment to becoming a historian of the Black experience. And it even convinced me to pursue graduate study at Princeton University, where I worked with Hunter.

By Barbara Ransby, 2003

Another book that inspires me is Barbara Ransby’s phenomenal biography of civil rights activist Ella Baker. With her background as an activist and her skill as a writer, Ransby explores Baker’s life as her distinct leadership philosophy influenced the NAACP, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee.

Baker knew that change “had to involve oppressed people, ordinary people, infusing new meanings into the concept of democracy and finding their own individual and collective power to determine their lives and shape the direction of history.”

Twenty years after its release, it is still one of the best biographies of a Black woman ever published. Ella Baker and the Black Freedom Movement is a refreshing and stirring read. As Ransby writes, “Baker criticized unchecked egos, objected to undemocratic structures, protested unilateral decision making, condemned elitism, and refused to nod in loyal deference to everything ‘the leader’ had to say.” 

By Tomiko Brown-Nagin, 2023

Tomiko Brown-Nagin’s remarkable book Civil Rights Queen sets out to broaden our understanding of how Black women contributed to the expansion of United States’ democratic principles. The book is a compelling and in-depth biography that gives Constance Baker Motley the long overdue recognition she deserves.

“One of just a few women lawyers and the first Black woman lawyer known to appear at the Supreme Court, she won nine of the 10 cases that she argued before the nation’s highest court,” Brown-Nagin explains. Indeed, Motley was a towering figure of the Civil Rights Movement even though she is not as recognized in mainstream historical narratives as some of her contemporaries.

After years as an activist, Motley then went on to become a politician, and in 1966, she became the first Black woman appointed as a federal judge. As Brown-Nagin writes, “She wielded the law like a sword of justice.” Her unique contributions as a lawyer and later, as a judge, exemplify one significant avenue Black women employed to shape 20th century American politics.  

By Mary Ellen Curtin, 2024

Focusing on the pioneering life of former United States Rep. Barbara Jordan, this groundbreaking biography provides not only an in-depth examination of the experiences that shaped Jordan’s worldview, but also places Jordan within a larger history of civil rights activism, feminism and the shift in the political party that held the allegiance of the white power structure in the South.

Curtin offers an important corrective to political histories of this period by explaining how Jordan “drew more Black women in the new, essential work of party-building for the Democrats.” This study of Jordan’s life and legacy—as well as the detailed exploration of the context from which she emerged—helps explain the nature and character of her politics as well as her public image. As Curtin explains, “Her methods may not have seemed radical, but her goals often were.” Even more, She Changed the Nation documents the important role Black women play in building the local institutions that enabled Jordan’s political success. “Leaders could come and go,” Curtin explains, “but women’s networks remained.”