IWD 2021 Mary Shadd Cary (1823–1893)
First black woman newspaper editor in North America. Mary Ann Shadd was a tireless advocate for universal education, black emancipation, and women’s rights. Born in Delaware, Shadd moved to Windsor in Canada West (now Ontario) to teach in 1851. She soon founded the Provincial Freeman, which was dedicated to abolitionism, temperance, and women’s political rights. During the American Civil War, she went back to the United States as a recruiter of African American soldiers for the Union army. After the war, she moved to Washington, D.C., to teach and to study law, becoming, at age sixty, the second black woman in the United States to earn a law degree. In 1994, Shadd Cary was designated a Person of National Historic Significance in Canada.
Although IWD is celebrated on March 8th, there are so many women whose work has improved numerous lives throughout the world, some of who are our very own, within the IAM. Throughout the month of March we will feature women from different parts of the world and historical eras to remind us that the women’s movement indeed has deep and long roots. Follow us as we learn together about women who have left a mark on history and society.
Text and image from:
https://www.canadashistory.ca/explore/women/canada-s-great-women
