{"id":598,"date":"2026-07-27T18:01:57","date_gmt":"2026-07-27T18:01:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mjw.ua.edu\/?page_id=598"},"modified":"2026-07-27T18:11:43","modified_gmt":"2026-07-27T18:11:43","slug":"quiet-campuses-586-598","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/mjw.ua.edu\/?page_id=598","title":{"rendered":"The Women Hidden in Plain Sight"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Role of Women in Social Movements<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Story and Header Photo By: Mariam Faruqi<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When the bartender slid a Gin Rocky & Southside across the counter, she didn\u2019t tell him that she hadn\u2019t come for rum or tiki-style cocktails.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Her legs swung back and forth from the barstool; whether from anxiety or adrenaline, she didn’t know. The aroma of alcohol in the atmosphere cocooned her and the occasional bump on the shoulder from men and women pressed against each other gave her a bruise. Her eyes wandered across the Black and Tan club, meeting with the lead jazz singer who snapped at the beat, then with women in dance routines exploding with energy on each turn, and later with those taking a long smoke in the corner while discussing something much too serious for the jazz tracks to accompany.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Glancing through the window across the room, she noticed an African American man getting pushed to his knees and handcuffed on the dark street after he drank from the wrong fountain. She watched as his shouts of protest were only met with more violence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The bartender cleared his throat, and the untouched Gin Rocky pulled her attention back to the bar. But even with the bebop music and fast-paced dancing tugging at her heart, she knew she wasn’t there to socialize. Taking a long chug of her drink and slipping off her barstool, she sauntered in between whispers of illegal arrests on the dance floor and drunk complaints of the local sheriff\u2019s violence against other African American women, just like them, and it was clear that everyone had noticed the commotion outside.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She knew this was her chance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was only one of many nights Ella Baker went to her local bar as field officer of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), in hopes of finding like-minded African American men and women to become new members and fight against the Jim Crow laws in the South discriminating against black people. Traveling across the South for the organization and staying in homes of hundreds of Black people especially allowed her to create strong relationships as well as larger support for the civil rights movement. As someone who deeply believed in the power of community, her unique grassroot-style of recruitment allowed the organization to see a double in membership in 1944, reaching over 400,000 people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Later, in 1957, Baker attended a conference in Atlanta aimed to foster lasting energy from the Montgomery bus boycott. One month later, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) was created to collectivize various church-based leaders in civil rights struggles. As one of the main founders of the organization, Baker became the SCLC\u2019s first full-time staff member, and later executive director. She had everlasting effects on the civil rights movement as a whole, launching voter registration drives, creating surges in membership, and much more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yet, despite all her accomplishments, Baker remains one of the most unknown Civil Rights Activists and is rarely included in the United States History curriculum.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even during the civil rights movement itself from the 1950s to the 1970s, she was rarely recognized and received significantly less news coverage than her male activist counterparts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Martin Luther King Jr., for example, was also a co-founder with Baker of the SCLC and worked alongside her in the organization\u2019s nonviolent initiatives, yet was given substantially more news coverage. Many of the press releases from the SCLC were even written by Baker, yet released under King\u2019s name.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Baker\u2019s experience is not one of uniqueness, either. Dianne Nash, who organized the Nashville Sit-In Movement, the first successful campaign in the city, also is overlooked. Pauli Murray, who argued that the 14th Amendment protected marginalized communities against discrimination, had her arguments used in the Brown v. Board of Education court case without proper credit. Gloria Richardson, a leader of the Cambridge Nonviolent Action Committee, who led the massive anti-segregation movement campaign, is also rarely spoken about.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chances are, there are hundreds of other female activists integral to the success of the Civil Rights Movement. But by never being the focus of the media, there is no opportunity for documentation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In an analysis of \u201cinvisibility\u201d of African American Women in the Civil Rights Movement, published in the Journal of Black Studies, Martha Lott dives deeper into this concept.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWomen, specifically African American women, were not allowed to be in formal leadership positions,\u201d she said. \u201cSexism and authoritarianism were among factors that prevented women from assuming public leadership roles in the Civil Rights Movement.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lott later discusses the specific effect of Malcolm X, a key Black nationalist leader in the civil rights movement, who in his early years, \u201cbelieved women were frail and weak.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She further states, \u201cIf the male leaders of the Civil Rights Movement who were constantly in the public view held these views about African American women, there is no wonder why these women remained ‘invisible’ to the public.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dianne Bragg, a media law professor in the Department of Journalism & Creative Media at the University of Alabama, gives more insight on the lack of coverage and involvement of women in the Civil Rights Movement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere are some names that we are familiar with that are involved who were women, but a lot of the success of that really came from getting men on board because they had the power\u2026it\u2019s not uncommon for women to be sort of in the background of those things.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lack of news coverage on female activists and protesters in the civil rights movement continues to affect society and government today, especially in terms of the American education system. After authors with the National Women\u2019s History Museum analyzed K-12 educational standards in social studies for every U.S. state, they found that out of 737 specific historical figures mentioned in standards in 2017, only 178 were women.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Specifically in terms of the civil rights movement, Lott evaluates the results of a survey answered by \u201c39 respondents between the age range of 18 to 67+ years.\u201d She explained that participants were asked the question, \u201c\u2018Apart from Rosa Parks, are you able to name any women who were involved in the civil rights movement in America?\u2019\u201d nine people skipped the question and 22 answered that they didn\u2019t know any other women involved. Lott stated that, \u201c43% of the six people that ould in fact name an African American woman involved in the movement reasoned that it was only through their own research\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The American educational system excludes hundreds of women and their contributions, continuing the cycle of a lack of coverage. In the standardized social studies curriculum today, students are not taught about figures such as Ella Bakers, limiting awareness on the civil rights movement\u2019s true widespread effects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Elisha Autor, the 2026 valedictorian at Harmony School of Advancement in Houston, provided a more insider view on how female activism is taught in high schools.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“When people think of certain things in history, if the event doesn’t revolve around women, they don’t think women have a great impact in those movements.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This idea is more prevalent than ever as various state governments are aiming to restrict conversations of race and sex in public places, such as in Florida\u2019s House Bill 7 (2022), also known as the Stop WOKE Act. In early 2023, Studies Weekly, a publisher of K-6 educational materials used in thousands of Florida schools, altered its textbooks with drafts to remove references of race from Rosa Parks in the curriculum, and many removed her altogether.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Autor discusses her thoughts on House Bill 7, as well as how it may affect women in history, stating, \u201cWe shouldn\u2019t be ignoring key things in history\u2026There\u2019s already a lack of coverage of women in history and I think this will only amplify that…and women in activism and politics will be even less known.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Baker is not mentioned in most high school textbooks. According to Bragg, she is often not discussed in college classes focusing on First Amendment rights either. The impact she had on the Civil Rights Movement was undoubtable, and yet her memory lives in the shadows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon, everyone\u2019s eyes were either glued to the window to watch the altercation between the officer  and the Black man on the floor or to her as she handed out pamphlets with the letters \u201cNAACP\u201d in bold.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fists bunched on their sides. Brows furrowed. Quiet murmurs. She knew exactly what they were thinking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That this had gone on too long.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But she also knew something else. That with her help, this could be start of something new.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Check out Mariam’s spread design<\/strong> below!<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\"\"<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Role of Women in Social Movements Story and Header Photo By: Mariam Faruqi When the bartender slid a Gin Rocky & Southside across the counter, she didn\u2019t tell him that she hadn\u2019t come for rum or tiki-style cocktails. Her legs swung back and forth from the barstool; whether from anxiety or adrenaline, she didn’t […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-598","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mjw.ua.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/598","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mjw.ua.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mjw.ua.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mjw.ua.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mjw.ua.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=598"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/mjw.ua.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/598\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":604,"href":"https:\/\/mjw.ua.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/598\/revisions\/604"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mjw.ua.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=598"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}