National Museum of African American History and Culture Library

This September, the National Museum of African American History and Culture celebrates its sixth anniversary. When it first opened, our National Museum of African American History and Culture Library, housed on the second floor, displayed a noteworthy selection of highlights from its collection. The library has just unveiled a new exhibit featuring another set of books and materials significant to the African American story.

An activist, a teacher, a poet — Frances Ellen Watkins Harper was an extraordinary figure in American history. She was born free in the city of Baltimore in 1825, orphaned at the age of three, and grew up under the tutelage of her uncle Rev. William Watkins.

In a society that largely relies on motor vehicles for transportation, or even for sport, it may seem difficult to understand why it was so monumental for a plucky twenty-year-old woman to be allowed to participate in bicycle races, meets and other activities involving the sport.

I wrote what I did because as a woman, as a mother, I was oppressed and broken-hearted with the sorrows and injustice I saw, because as a Christian I felt the dishonor to Christianity – because as a lover of my country, I trembled at the coming day of wrath.