This Week in Women’s History – Los Angeles Sentinel

Lyda Newman is an African American beautician and women’s rights activist from Ohio. In 1898, Newman applied for a patent to improve the style of the hairbrush. Newman’s hairbrush design allowed for better efficiency and hygiene. The brush had evenly spaced bristles with open slots to help move the grease and build-up away from the hair and into a compartment that could be opened with the touch of a button. Aside from her inventions, Newman was heavily involved in activism work. In fact, she was one of the organizers of an African-American branch of the Women Suffrage Party. (courtesy of google.com)

Mary McLeod Bethune was born in Maysville, South Carolina and is the daughter of former slaves. In 1894, she graduated from Scotia Seminary. Later she attended Dwight Moody’s Institute for Home and Foreign Missions in Chicago Illinois. But, Bethune was having a hard time finding a church to sponsor her as a missionary. Eventually, Bethune opened a boarding school called, the Daytona Beach Literary and Industrial School for Training Negro Girls. Her school eventually became a college and began expecting males after partnering with the all-male Cookman Institute. In 1929, the school was named Bethune-Cookman College. Bethune believed in racial and gender equality. Her passion led her to found many organizations. In 1924, she was elected president of the National Association of Colored Women’s Clubs. In 1935, she became the founding president of the National Council of Negro Women. Bethune also fought discrimination, lynching, was a leader of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s unofficial “black cabinet” and was the former vice president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored Persons. (courtesy of biography.com)

Paulette Brown is the partner and co-chair of the firm wide Diversity and Inclusion Committee at Locke Lord LLP and the immediate past president of the American Bar Association (ABA). In August 2015, she became the first African American woman to be named president of the ABA. Throughout her career, Brown has helped many positions including in-house counsel to a number of Fortune 500 companies and a municipal court judge. Brown has also been recognized as one of “The 50 Most Influential Minority Lawyers in America” by the National Law Journal and one of the “prominent women and minority attorneys” in the State of New Jersey. She has also received the New Jersey Medal from the New Jersey State Bar Foundation. (courtesy of American Bar Association)

Halle Berry is an award-winning actress and former model and beauty queen from Cleveland, Ohio. In 2001, Berry won an Academy Award for best actress for her performance in “Monster’s Ball”. Berry is the first African-American woman to win the award. (Invision/ AP)

Shonda Rhimes is a television producer, screenwriter and author. Rhimes is best known for medical drama television series, “Grey’s Anatomy” and her hit political series “Scandal”. She has also worked as the executive producer of the ABC television series, “Off the Map”, “How to Get Away with Murder”, and “The Catch” making her the first Black woman to create and executive produce a top 10 network series. In 2007, Rhimes was named “100 People Who Help Shape the World” by TIME magazine. Rhimes is also an author. In 2015, she published a memoir titled, “Year of Yes: How to Dance it Out, Stand in the Sun, and Be Your Own Person”. (Photo by Charles Sykes/Invision/AP)

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