Black women’s contributions to human’s rights history are too often overlooked in our nation’s history books. Yet these women played a vital role in the fight to secure rights and protections for all people—regardless of race, gender, class, and nationality. During the 20th century, a cadre of Black women in the United States were at the forefront of the struggle for human rights. Their demands for citizenship rights were tied to their calls for human rights, which extended well beyond the borders of the United States.

Consider for example the story of Aretha B. McKinley. Although not widely known in American history, she left an indelible mark on the nation’s capital as a savvy lobbyist and human rights activist. During the 1960s, she worked at the grassroots level to advocate for rights for Black Americans as well as other marginalized groups. Her life’s work helped to illuminate how Black women in the 20th century viewed the fights for civil and human rights as inseparable. As a result, women like McKinley were not only involved in efforts to expand civil rights at home but they were active in the fight to extend human rights to all people across the globe.

Though born and raised in Virginia, McKinley’s commitment to human rights was shaped by decades of social and political engagement in New York City. She had relocated to Harlem in the 1930s, where she became active in the Alpha Kappa Alpha (AKA) sorority and later in the Consumers’ Protective Committee, an organization established in 1947 to challenge high prices Harlem stores often charged residents for poor-quality goods. Two years later, she was elected recording secretary for the New York chapter of the NAACP and later headed its National Emergency Civil Rights Mobilization, which worked to convince others of the need for civil rights legislation.