New book by National Press Club member documents Black women who fought for justice
National Press Club member Gloria Browne-Marshall, a writer, civil-rights attorney, playwright and professor of Constitutional Law at John Jay College, offered an account of Black women who fought racial prejudice and gender oppression throughout the centuries at a Virtual Book Rap sponsored by the Book & Author Group on Thursday, Feb. 18.
Browne-Marshall was promoting her latest book, She Took Justice, The Black Woman, Law, Justice and Power, 1619 - 1969 at the event.
By researching colonial statutes and case law, and compiling information for more than 10 years, Browne-Marshall asserts that Black women, who advocated for social justice while facing centuries of danger and oppression, need to be recognized today.
“The spark of life remained even when the laws didn’t protect them,” said Browne-Marshall, explaining that with intelligence and vision, faith and courage the Black woman succeeded.
The book takes the reader from Queen Nzingha, a fierce warrior, diplomat and military leader who resisted the Portuguese invasion and slave raids of Angola in the 1620’s, up through the arrival of Africans in the Jamestown, Virginia colony in 1619, the Salem Witch trials, slavery, women’s suffrage and civil rights concluding with Shirley Chisholm, the first Black woman elected to Congress.
These true stories show how the Black woman created a platform to lift others up over time, Browne-Marshall said, to become organizer, leader, activist, lawyer, and judge.
Faced with the same consequences as men ─ hostility, the threat of death and lynching ─ these women forever thinking about how they could survive, had a sense of self, Browne-Marshall said. “They wanted you to know who they were, what they represented,” she said.
They defied and conquered barriers that sprang up across generations, Browne-Marshall said. As she wrote in her book, “She took justice. No one gave it to her.”
The Black woman seeded the path towards social justice against tremendous odds, and as that path continues. “The message they leave us with is: If these women rose up, what can’t you do? You need to have faith beyond yourself,” Browne-Marshall said.
Since she ends her book with Rep. Chisholm's (D-New York) election in 1968, Browne-Marshall was asked during the question-and-answer session whether she planned a sequel. She definitely does, she answered but could give no timeline since she is currently involved with a number of other projects including her play, "SHOT: Caught a Sole" which was the recipient of a Pulitzer Center grant.
Browne-Marshall, who has litigated cases for the Southern Poverty Law Center and the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, is also the author of Race, Law and American Society: 1607 to Present, The Voting Rights War, and The Constitution: Major Cases and Conflicts.
The Book & Author Group produces events by Club members to feature their recently published books. The group meets (currently virtually) the second Tuesday each month at noon. For more information or to join, please email Joe Motheral at [email protected].