Women’s History Month has begun, bringing everyone together to honor women’s accomplishments and their contributions to many communities. North Carolina has a great deal of extraordinary women who have changed the world for the better. Well-known or not, these women have made a significant impact on our state and society.
Susie Marshall Sharp
Sharp was North Carolina’s first female Supreme Court Justice, her success stemmed from her hard work and perseverance against her peers’ doubts. Born in 1907 in Rocky Mount, N.C., Sharp enrolled in the University of North Carolina Greensboro in 1924 and then attended the University of North Carolina School of Law in 1926. Although she was the only woman in her class and was told that “women were not fit for law,” Sharp’s diligence was rewarded in the summer of 1949, when Governor Kerr Scott nominated her to the N.C. Supreme Court. In 1962, Governor Terry Sanford approved her appointment. During her term, Time Magazine recognized Sharp as one of the “12 Women of the Year,” but Sharp’s success didn’t stop there. After she commended an amendment that required all judges to be lawyers, which was passed in 1980, after she faced fire extinguisher salesman, James Newcomb, for the Chief Justiceship. Her ambition to alter an unjust system proves that Sharp’s perseverance led to extreme success and paved the way for other women who aspired to be in the government.
Pauli Murray
Dr. Anna Pauline “Pauli” Murray was best known as an American civil rights activist. After her mother died in 1913, Murray lived with her grandparents in Durham, N.C., where she eventually began a campaign for the then-white-only University of North Carolina Chapel Hill to start accepting people of color. Although this campaign failed at the time, that didn’t stop her from advocating for equality. In 1940, Murray was arrested for resisting segregation laws, as she refused to move from her seat to the back of the bus. After being released, Murray enrolled as the only woman in Howard University’s Law School, later using her degree in law to write “States’ Laws on Race and Color” about segregation in America. Murray also worked closely with Philip Randolph, Bayard Rustin and Martin Luther King Jr. Being the only female among these significant figures inclined her to believe that there weren’t enough female leaders, prompting her to assemble the National Organization for Women, which was the NAACP (The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) for women. The activism that Murray displayed not only contributed to the removal of segregation laws in North Carolina, but also inspired women to fit into and desire leadership roles.
Maya Angelou
Marguerite Johnson, known to the world as Maya Angelou, inspired many people worldwide with her poems and speeches discussing topics such as economic, racial and sexual oppression. She was born on April 4, 1928, in St. Louis, MO., and moved to Winston-Salem, N.C., in 1981. Before she moved to Winston-Salem, Angelou had numerous achievements. She wrote several poems, with works “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” being nominated for the National Book Award and “Just Give Me a Cool Drink of Water ‘fore I Diiie” being nominated for the Pulitzer Prize. In 1959, Angelou became the northern coordinator for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference at the request of Martin Luther King Jr. In 1974, she was nominated to attend the Bicentennial Commission and Commission for the International Woman of the Year. After accepting the award, Angelou undertook a lifetime service as Reynolds Professor of American Studies and World Dramatic Poetry at Wake Forest University in 1982. While teaching at Wake Forest, she helped students embody the media they were reading, requiring her students to memorize the poems and recite them during class. Her course allowed students to feel the power of the literature they read, which was Angelou’s overall purpose when creating her poems.
These important women went through countless struggles to earn what they achieved, showing how women have persevered through hardships and struggles throughout the years. Even though it was a difficult path for them, these women helped reshape many peoples’ lives for the better and motivated others to follow in their footsteps.
