Freedom’s Daughters

This cycle of paintings by Cedar Rapids, self-taught artist
Kathy Schumacher depicts largely unknown Black heroines
from the Suffrage to Civil Rights in United States. The 24
women represented span from the late nineteenth century to present
day. Sojourner Truth, Harriet Tubman, and Rosa Parks are
names many people have heard, fewer are familiar with
Josephine St. Pierre Ruffin, cofounding editor of the Woman’s
Era, the first national newspaper published by and for Black
Women; Nannie Helen Burroughs founder of the first Black
owned and operated school for girls; Unita Zelma Blackwell,
first Black woman elected mayor in Mississippi; Daisy Bates,
the force behind the first high school integration in
Little Rock, Arkansas.

Freedom’s Daughters also features quotes from each woman read by Cameroonian-American artist Akwi Nji, along with a companion exhibit entitled, We Still Rise | Black Voices from the Collection