A Shining Thread of Hope: The History of Black Women in America

Encompassing both the panoramic story of black women in America and the intimate, evocative details of the lives of individual women, this landmark history offers a new perspective on a long-neglected area of our country's history.

At its greatest moments and in its cruelest times, black women have been a crucial part of America's history. Now, in A Shining Thread of Hope, the inspiring story of black women in America is explored in vivid detail by two experts in the fields of African American and women's history. In this engagingly written narrative history, coauthors Darlene Clark Hine and Kathleen Thompson illuminate the roots of the present-day black community and make evident that our understanding of women's history, and indeed of American history, must begin with an understanding of black women's history.

A Shining Thread of Hope chronicles the lives of black women from indentured servitude in the early American colonies to the cruelty of antebellum plantations, from the reign of lynch law in the Jim Crow South to the triumphs of the Civil Rights era. Tracing the accomplishments, as well as the suffering, of black women through the Great Migration, the Harlem Renaissance, the Depression, the Civil Rights movement, and the present day, Hine and Thompson challenge preconceived notions and move black women from the fringes of American history to a central position in our understanding of the forces and events that have shaped this country.

More than a story of struggle, black women's history is very much a story of hope. In the face of great obstacles, black women strengthened their communities through the development of women's groups, charitable organizations, and political groups, and contributed to the larger community as writers, activists, educators, artists, and leaders. A Shining Thread of Hope reveals this history, presenting the strength and courage of black women, both as individuals and as a collective force for positive change.