EP 988 Black Women at the Forefront of Social Justice: Then and Now

Our guest has resurrected the word ‘instigators’ and given it a powerful and positive connotation. In this case, she is bringing attention the historical importance of Black women, ages 18 to 45, whose role continues to be that of pushing our society forward for social justice and historic reforms of all kinds.  Atima Omara, author of “The Instigators: How Black Women Have Been Essential to American Democracy and What We Can Learn from Them”, challenges us to consider any progressive movement–be it abolition, voting rights, labor justice, the environment, the rights for LGBTQ and those advances relating to persons with disability–to recognize the central role the ‘instigators’ have played throughout our history.  Even the Flint, Michigan water crises and the attention and action brought to it came about because of these brave young Black women.  We revisit some of the history and current day impacts that these women have had and continue to on our society as they resist being pushed to the margins with a range of creative efforts to bend the nation’s moral compass toward justice.

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