Despite facing significant obstacles in their own lives, black women in the United States were at the forefront of campaigns for human rights at home and abroad. Historian Keisha N Blain tells the stories of some of these women who, in the 19th and 20th centuries, worked outside the corridors of power to fight for freedom across the globe. She was joined in ... Show More
Dec 2024
Gloria Steinem: The start of Ms. Magazine
In 1972, feminist campaigner Gloria Steinem co-founded the first magazine in the US which was owned, run and written by women.Called Ms. Magazine, it covered issues including equal rights, abortion and domestic violence. The glossy covers helped bring feminism into the mainstream ... Show More
10m 15s
Oct 13
Voices of Thunder: Radical Women of the 17th Century
In 17th-century England, women weren’t asked what they believed, they were generally told to obey. But amid civil war, revolution, and religious upheaval, a remarkable group of women risked everything to speak out. They preached, prophesied and published their defiance, surviving ... Show More
46m 58s
Aug 2024
Tisha Brooks, "Spirit Deep: Recovering the Sacred in Black Women’s Travel" (U Virginia Press, 2023)
What would it mean for American and African American literary studies if readers took the spirituality and travel of Black women seriously?
With Spirit Deep: Recovering the Sacred in Black Women’s Travel (U Virginia Press, 2023), Tisha Brooks addresses this question by focusing ... Show More
35m 23s
Jun 2025
Honorée Fanonne Jeffers, "Misbehaving at the Crossroads: Essays and Writings" (Harper, 2025)
The New York Times-bestselling, National Book Award-nominated author of The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois and The Age of Phillis makes her nonfiction debut with this personal and thought-provoking work that explores the journeys and possibilities of Black women throughout American ... Show More
42m 47s
Nov 2024
41 | Lord Give Me a Sign | It’s the Senate, and We in It
The Civil War’s over, countless Black people are making their way in a new and dangerous world, and their fight for equality and representation ain’t over. Two Black men – preacher Hiram Revels and the formerly enslaved Blanche Bruce – rise up during U.S. Reconstruction with diff ... Show More
38m 53s
Feb 2024
Encore: History fails when it ignores the BIPOC women who made it
In honor of Black History Month, Untextbooked is sharing a favorite episode from our archive. Women of color have been at the forefront of many movements, yet are often neglected, demonized, or ignored. Your history class probably didn’t teach you about Josephine Baker, who was n ... Show More
35m 9s
Aug 2023
Karima K. Jeffrey-Legette, "Speculative Film and Moving Images by or about Black Women and Girls" (Lexington Books, 2022)
Karima K. Jeffrey-Legette's book Speculative Film and Moving Images by or about Black Women and Girls (Lexington Books, 2022) examines depictions of African-descended women and girls in twentieth and twenty-first century filmmaking. Topics include a discursive analysis of stereot ... Show More
1h 48m