This paper profiles the lives of four Black female adult educators whose leadership, power, and activism influenced the educational and political advances of the Black community. While it is not the author's intention to marginalize the stories of the women presented in this manuscript, Anna Julia Cooper, Charlotte Forten Grimke, Ida B. Wells, Septima Clark, and Fannie Lou Hamer made significant contributions as activists and educators who embodied teaching as a leadership style that focused on the development of others. Their struggles and lessons learned remain relevant even today. The biographical summaries presented on these remarkable female adult educators are an important reminder of how education became and remains the vehicle for social mobility and economic success that Black women used to not only improve their lives but also the quality of life for the Black community as a whole.
Keywords: Forten Grimke; Ida B. Wells; Septima Clark; Fannie Lou Hamer; Adult Educators; Black Women; Adult/Continuing Education; Women and Gender Studies; Race, Ethnicity and Class