In 1945, Lieutenant Alene B. Duerk, registered nurse, stood on the deck of the USS Beneoolence, one of the Navy's large hospital ships. It had taken many years of hard work for her to become a capable nurse and an independent woman, as her mother had hoped. Now she was headed for the coast of Japan in a fleet of 600 ships. It was wartime, and the future looked uncertain. But Alene Duerk's dedication would lead to a long and productive career with...

Born into slavery, Elizabeth Hobbs Keckley (ca. 1824-1907) rose to a position of respect as a talented dressmaker and designer to the political elite of Washington, D.C., and a confidante of First Lady Mary Todd Lincoln. In this unusual memoir, Keckley offers a rare, behind-the-scenes view of the formal and informal networks that African Americans established among themselves, as well as an insider's perspective of the men who made Civil War politics...

Based on her popular Instagram posts, debut author/illustrator Vashti Harrison shares the stories of 40 bold African American women who shaped history.

Zitkala-Ša finds that she can sing through her music, but also by writing stories and giving speeches and being an activist for Native American rights.

White Like Her: My Family's Story of Race and Racial Passing is the story of Gail Lukasik's mother's "passing," Gail's struggle with the shame of her mother's choice, and her subsequent journey of self-discovery and redemption.
In the historical context of the Jim Crow South, Gail explores her mother's decision to pass, how she hid her secret even from her own husband, and the price she paid for choosing whiteness. Haunted by her mother's...

Film critic and food writer Alissa Wilkinson sits down with a hypothetical table of smart, engaging, revolutionary women of the twentieth century to explore the ways food centered each woman's creative work. As we meet these multifaceted women, we learn how to live with courage, smarts, saltiness, and sometimes feasting--even in uncertain times.

Includes stories about Katherine Johnson, Miriam Mann, Mary Jackson, Dorothy Vaughn, Annie Easley, and Christine Darden.

A biography of Laura Ingalls Wilder, author of the "Little House" books, from her Wisconsin childhood until her death at the age of ninety.

“An incredible book about the strength of women . . . an important book and a read that is nothing if not timely with current politics.” —FangirlNation
A #1 Bestseller in 21st Century U.S. History for Teens
Still I Rise takes its title from a work by Maya Angelou and it resonates with the same spirit of an unconquerable soul, a woman who is captain of her fate. It embodies the strength of character...

"Even by 1800s standards, Ada Byron Lovelace had an unusual upbringing. Her narcissistic mother worked hard at cultivating her own role as martyred ex-wife of bad-boy poet Lord Byron and had Ada tutored at home by some of the brightest minds. Ada developed a hunger for mental puzzles, mathematical conundrums, and scientific discovery that kept pace with the breathtaking advances of the industrial and social revolutions taking place in Europe. At seventeen,...