Spanning over 400 years, this book prioritizes all voices: from poor and working-class domestics to middle-class reform women to sex workers and female convicts. The book challenges historical stereotypes and myths but also offers a contemporary understanding of Black women in America, highlighting diverse lives--from activists to athletes to rappers. Focusing on the unique and expansive experience of Black women, Berry and Gross reach far beyond a single narrative of Black women in America. The result is a book that centers race, gender and sexuality in the North, as well as the South, and in both rural and urban areas, to show that Black women are--and have always been--foundational to America.

“Remarkably comprehensive and accessible, introductory and sophisticated, two ground-breaking historians have come together to produce a ground-breaking new history of Black women in the United States. To know the story of the United States is to know this indispensable story.”—Ibram X. Kendi, author of Stamped from the Beginning and How to Be an Antiracist

“A powerful and important book that charts the rich and dynamic history of Black women in the United States. It shows how these courageous women challenged racial and gender oppression and boldly asserted their authority and visions of freedom even in the face of resistance. This book is required reading for anyone interested in social justice.”—Keisha N. Blain, author of Set the World on Fire: Black Nationalist Women and the Global Struggle for Freedom

“Black women have always been at the front line of change, and A Black Women’s History of the United States shows us in no uncertain terms that our DNA will have us here sculpting and writing the next chapters. Tell your sisters, mothers, and daughters to get this book for someone they love, because we owe it to ourselves, our daughters, our sons, and our future, to know the history that isn’t being taught in our schools. And it starts with us.”—Anika Noni Rose, actor, producer, and singer

If history belongs to the winners, then it is no surprise that the voices of African American women have generally been ignored in accounts of U.S. history. Berry and Gross are determined to redress that injustice with this captivating, highly readable account. Rather than a straight textbook presentation, Berry and Gross convey the range of the Black female experience through the narratives of 11 mostly unknown women who either had a significant impact on American history or whose stories are emblematic of Black life at a certain historical moment. For example, they use the story of Belinda, who sued her enslaver’s heirs for the freedom she had been promised, to introduce the many women who “self liberated.” Berry and Gross illuminate the long tradition of Black female resistance as they portray Patricia Okoumou, who was arrested in 2018 for scaling the Statue of Liberty to call attention to immigrant detention. “As with all black women clapping back against power, as well as organizing against its corrupt and bigoted applications, Patricia spoke truth to it.” A timely and much-needed restoration.— Lesley Williams, Booklist

I thoroughly enjoyed this challenging revisioning of American History through the lives of black women that have shaped, prodded and endured America as it is today.  The stories related by Professors Berry and Gross provide an overview of incredible paradigms of black women throughout American history, while at the same time providing the depth of narrative to stoke further curiosity and study into the brave, amazing women depicted and others within their orbit.  The context, details and layers of community throughout the book lay plain the incredible contributions and sacrifices black women have made to and for this country.  I was left inspired and disturbed, and of the resolute view that this book should be required reading for all of us.—Greg Barbee, The Daily Kos

Hear the many voices of black women, from the enslaved, to religious leaders, artists and activists, in A Black Women's History of the United States. Be enchanted by their determination and grit, and humbled by their bravery in the face of oppression. This not-to-be missed non-fiction book reveals women who were instrumental in developing our country, and celebrates their spirit and courage.—Popsugar

WINNER

2021 Susan Koppelman Award for Feminist Studies.

What Reviewers Are Saying

“This book is a font of inspiration . . . A compact, exceptionally diverse introduction to the history of black women in America.”
—Kirkus Reviews, Starred Review

2021 NAACP Image Award, Outstanding Literary Work, Non Fiction, Nominee

African American Intellectual History Society - 2020 Best Black History Books

Goodreads Best of History and Biography 2020 Nominee

Kirkus Best Books of 2020: Black Life in America

Kirkus Best-Big Picture History Books of 2020  

A Black Women’s History of the United States

Revisioning American History Series

Beacon Press 2020

A vibrant and empowering history that emphasizes the perspectives and stories of African-American women to show how they are--and have always been--instrumental in shaping our country.

In centering Black women’s stories, two award-winning historians seek both to empower all African-American women, and to show their allies that Black women’s unique experience with combatting centuries of oppression is an essential component in our continued resistance to systemic racism. Daina Ramey Berry and Kali Nicole Gross offer an examination and celebration of Black womanhood, beginning with the first African women who arrived in what became the United States, until African American women of today.

A Black Women's History of the United States reaches far beyond a single narrative to showcase Black women’s lives in all their fraught complexities. Berry and Gross prioritize all voices: enslaved women, freedwomen, educators, athletes, religious leaders, artists, queer women, activists, and also those women who lived outside of the law. The result is a starting point for exploring Black women’s history and a testament to the beauty, richness, rhythm, tragedy, heartbreak, rage, and enduring love that abounds in the spirit of Black women in communities all across the nation.

Praise For A Black Women's History of the United States (ReVisioning American History #5)…

“This book is a gift to anyone interested in a more complete—a more truthful—story about the United States. By starting the history about Black women on this land with us as free people and as people agitating for our freedom, by prioritizing all Black women’s voices and coming up to the present day, Dr. Gross and Dr. Berry illuminate greater possibilities for our collective freedom dreams and struggles for collective liberation.”—Charlene A. Carruthers, author of Unapologetic: A Black, Queer, and Feminist Mandate for Radical Movements

“A Black Women’s History of the United States is an extraordinary contribution to our collective understanding of the most profound injustices and equalities, as well as the most committed struggles to realize true justice and equality, that have shaped this nation since its birth. Through the courageous and complex voices of black women, and with deft attention to the lives that black women have led from the earliest moments of conquest and colonialism to the dawn of the 21st century, historians Kali Gross and Daina Ramey Berry have utterly upended traditional accounts of the American past in ways most desperately needed in our American present.”—Heather Ann Thompson, Historian and Pulitzer Prize winning author of Blood in the Water: The Attica Prison Uprising of 1971 and its Legacy

“As the authors flesh out the chapter with wide-ranging and deeply researched information, they weave the featured story into the narrative to illustrate the topic under discussion. Chapter topics include black women’s presence in the Americas prior to the Atlantic slave trade, enslaved black women’s rebellions and legal battles for their freedom, the formation of black women’s organizations working for political and social justice, black women choosing to live outside the law and their carceral experiences, the Great Migration and black nationalism, and black women’s roles in contemporary protest movements. Most stories are about women who were assigned female at birth, but some trans women’s stories are included as well. 

VERDICT A substantial addition to popular history. Will likely be well-received by black women seeking better historical representation and by allies looking to educate themselves about black history.”—Library Journal

Two powerhouse historians give the black women who have been part of our country’s history their due. Their book addresses injustices, of course, but perhaps more important, it shows the many varied roles black women have inhabited, from artists to stateswomen and more.—The Washington Post

The latest addition to Boston-based Beacon Press’s ReVisioning History series, in which scholars of note “reconstruct and reinterpret U.S. history from diverse perspectives,” is Daina Ramey Berry and Kali Nicole Gross’s “A Black Women’s History of the United States.” The book opens in 1832 in Boston when Maria Stewart became “the first American woman of any race to give public remarks” urging the women in the audience to fight against biases of race and gender. Following the call of Stewart, who said, “There are no chains so galling as the chains of ignorance,” Berry and Gross were moved to create a “new, dynamic history survey” which “aims to paint a richly textured portrait of Black womanhood.” And so they’ve done. Beginning “Before 1619,” and moving through the present day, in this accessible and wide-ranging book, Berry and Gross have written invaluable new chapters on the under-explored impact Black woman have had on this history of this country.—The Boston Globe