UPDATE: There just wasn’t enough interest to have a blog hop at this time, but I encourage you to talk about your favorite historical woman in the comments if you wish. If you’ve made a blog post about her, recently or in the past, please feel free to include the link to it. It is probably best to avoid link-only comments, though, as those tend to get caught in the spam filter.
Lugenia Burns Hope
Though I grew up in Georgia, it wasn’t until I was an adult doing research into the Georgia suffrage movement (and living outside of Georgia) that I ever heard about her. She had a fascinating life. She was active in politics and higher education at a time when African Americans weren’t supposed to be either. She worked for woman suffrage, secured benefits for World War I veterans, and generally spent her life fighting prejudice of all kinds. Learn more about her at the New Georgia Encyclopedia or Georgia Women of Acheivement.
Growing up, we were never taught about her in school, though we learned about white suffrage activists who had national prominence and other more widely known Civil Rights leaders who lived and worked after Hope’s death. When I think about it, while I did get some State History, the personalities who dominated our learning were white men. We heard little about people of other races or the Civil Rights movement as it affected Georgia specifically. I certainly don’t recall learning Georgia Women’s history. Yet there were many influential people like Hope, who shaped the state as surely as did James Oglethorpe or Robert Toombs. The history we did learn was important, but it was just the surface of a much bigger story.
That is so wonderful! You know, it’s lame, but I’m grateful for my mother and my grandmother who fought for their rights. We have a long way to go still!
Not lame at all! It’s great that you honor and respect the women in your family!