Name: TRAILBLAZERS Vol. 4
SKU: TBW202103-1
Availability: InStock

TRAILBLAZERS Vol. 4

Black Women Who Helped Make America Great
American Firsts/American Icons, Volume 1
NOV. 2023

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Meet The Author

TRAILBLAZERS, Black Women Who Helped Make America Great, American Firsts/Icons by Gabrielle David is a six-volume series that examines the lives and careers of over four hundred brilliant women from the eighteenth century to the present who blazed uncharted paths in every conceivable way. The lives profiled here include recognizable figures alongside some women that readers will be discovering for the first time, as well as those women who are shaping the era we live in today.

Volume 4 of TRAILBLAZERS explores the complicated relationship that Hollywood has had with Black women actors; the in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM ); and pioneering Black women journalists. David explores actors such as Hattie McDaniel, Fredi Washington, and Nina Mae McKinney who blazed trail and impacted women like Pam Greer, Halle Berry, and Viola Davis. “Hidden figures” in STEM are brought to light, such as biologist Jewel Plummer Cobb and mathematician Dorothy Vaughan, who created a path for roboticist Ayanna Howard and computer scientist Timnit Gebru. Publishing pioneers such as Ida B. Wells-Barnett, Mary Ann Shadd Cary, Josephine St. Pierre Ruffin, Charlotta Bass, and Nancy Hicks Maynard paved the way for Carole Simpson, Gwen Ifill, Yamiche Alcindor, Nikole Hannah-Jones, and Jemele Hill, who have come to embody the best of that tradition. Each TRAILBLAZERS volume is organized into several sections. Along with biographical information and powerful photographs, David provides a historical timeline for each section—written from the viewpoint of Black women—that maps out the significance of the featured women that follow.

With painstaking research, David has created an affordable, visually rich, and accessible reference book. From the foremothers who blazed trails and broke barriers, to the women who follow in their footsteps, TRAILBLAZERS offers powerful and inspiring role models for women and girls from all cultural backgrounds and for the intellectually curious. TRAILBLAZERS is a clarion call for recognition of the transformative work Black women have done and continue to do. Written in accessible prose that contains personal reflections for a broad audience, TRAILBLAZERS also serves as a vital reference guide for use in schools and libraries.

Contributors

Edited by Carolina Fung Feng

CAROLINA FUNG FENG was born and raised in Costa Rica to Chinese parents, and grew up speaking Span-ish and Cantonese before she learned English. Her interest in linguistics led her to study translation, and she earned a BA in Spanish-English translation and interpretation, and English Language Arts from Hunter College (CUNY). She also holds Cambridge CELTA certification and has taught ESL to adult immigrants, and has worked as an activist for several nonprofit organizations in New York City. Hey Yo! Yo Soy! was her first literary translation, and Fung Feng has continued to serve as copy editor and translator for 2Leaf Press, and currently serves as the editor of the TRAILBLAZERS series.

Introduction by Chandra D. L. Waring

CHANDRA D. L. WARING is an Assistant Professor at the University of Massachusetts-Lowell. Her research focuses on the growing multiracial population. Her work decenters the shortsighted, yet convenient narrative that the increasing multiracial population is evidence of a less racially contentious and more racially harmonious society. Her interest in race stems from being raised in a multiracial family in a three very different contexts: Germany, Georgia, and Connecticut. Her work has been published in Sociology of Race and Ethnicity, Sociological Perspectives, Du Bois Review: Social Science Research on Race, Social Identities, Feminist Teacher, Race, Gender & Class and Sociological Imagination. Waring earned her PhD in sociology from the University of Connecticut, where she was a Multicultural Fellow.

Foreword by Lyah Beth LeFlore

LYAH BETH LEFLORE is a television and film producer, author, and music supervisor. LeFlore has worked at Nickelodeon; Uptown Records/Entertainment; Wolf Films/Universal; Anthony Hemingway Productions; and Alan Haymon Development, where she helped broker major talent deals under the company’s lucrative partnerships with powerhouse companies like Sony Television Studios and Live Nation. LeFlore is also the author of eight critically-acclaimed books, two of which are National Bestsellers. Her novels include: Last Night A DJ Saved My Life (2006), and Wildflowers (2009). She is the co-author of non-fiction books, The Strawberry Letter: Real Talk, Real Advice, Because Bitterness Isn’t Sexy (2012) with Shirley Strawberry; and I Got Your Back: A Father and Son Keep It Real About Love, Fatherhood, Family, and Friendship (2007), with R&B music legends, Eddie Levert Sr. and Gerald Levert. She currently has various TV and film projects in development, including a limited series entitled “Ferguson,” based on her book Tell the Truth & Shame the Devil: The Life, Legacy, and Love of My Son Michael Brown (2015) co-authored with Lezley McSpadden, mother of slain Ferguson teen, Michael Brown. LeFlore is the Co-Founder and Executive Director of the literary arts-based nonprofit, The Shirley Bradley LeFlore Foundation, which honors LeFlore’s late mother, St. Louis Poet Laureate Emeritus, and 2Leaf Press author, Shirley Bradley Price LeFlore.