Dovey Johnson Roundtree grew up in the Jim Crow era South and carried her grandmother’s philosophy of “find a way or make one” as her armor into every challenge she faced. She became one of the first Black women in the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps during World War II, then earned her law degree at Howard and built dual careers as a civil‑rights attorney and as a minister in the AME church. In 1955, she helped win a landmark bus‑desegregation case before the Interstate Commerce Commission, which was a quiet but powerful blow to the concept of “separate but equal.” She spent decades fighting for justice in Washington, D.C., and lived to 104, leaving behind a legacy of unshakable purpose and inspiration for future generations.
With Mary Bethune 1943 in Iowa, via Library of CongressEarly 1950s, via Smithsonian
Dovey talking about dealing with a segregated legal system:
Time Travel With The History Chicks
Books!
Dovey’s memoir with Katie McCabeMemoir Junior editionBiography, middle grade by Tanya BoldenDovey and Katie McCabe, children’s book
Web!
Like true crime podcasts? There is a series with journalist Solidad O’Brien called Murder on the Towpath that covers that case Dovey argued (and won).
If you haven’t yet listened to our 2023 coverage of the life of Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune, now might be a good time to fix that! We covered her in two parts: Episode 223 and Episode 224!
The Visionary Project has a series of interviews with Dovey from 2010 (as well as with other African American leaders from the 20th century.)
There is a movie, we can’t give it a review because neither of us saw it, but we do know that Dovey’s story needs a big-budget, high-production-value film.
Odetta was one of the defining voices of American folk music. Though she had been trained in classical music, she was drawn to spirituals, work songs, traditional ballads, and blues. These songs told the stories of true life – of struggle and of those who overcame oppression. Odetta used her theater training and deep resonant voice to bring these messages to life. Her work inspired later artists like Bob Dylan and Joan Baez, served as a soundtrack for the social reforms of the 1960s, and led to her honorary title as “The Voice of the Civil Rights Movement” and “The Queen of Folk Music.
Anna Mary Moses spent the last twenty years of her life as a beloved and celebrated artist after a hobby became an occupation in the most astonishing way.
Anna Mary Moses was born when Abraham Lincoln was president and died when John Kennedy was; she lived through one Civil, and two World wars, and was one of the first women in the US to legally vote. Because her life was so full, she didn’t take up painting as her primary hobby until she was in her 70s, and was on a rocketship of world fame as a celebrated artist until she was in her 80s.
Mother Jones lived one of the most dramatic second acts in American history. Though her early life was shaped by poverty, immigration, and repeated personal tragedies, she reinvented herself in middle age as a warrior for justice.
