1619: The First Enslaved Africans are Brought to the English Colony of Virginia
August of 1619 marks the beginning of the slave trade, an industry colonist and their descendants profited from for centuries. Slave traders used myths about physical racial differences to justify the enslavement of abuse of Black bodies.
Enslaved Black people are subjected to all forms of violence, including sexual and physical violence.
Learn more:
Hampton History Museum: The 1619 Landing — Virginia's First Africans Report & FAQs | Hampton, VA - Official Website: https://hampton.gov/3580/The-1619-Landing-Report-FAQs
The New York Times Magazine: The 1619 Project: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/08/14/magazine/1619-america-slavery.html
1800s: Reproductive Violence against Enslaved Women
“Colonial laws did not protect enslaved people from sexual violence. Enslavers were free to sexually exploit, abuse and control their enslaved property.” Black people were treated as property.
Learn more:
Black Resistance: Reproductive Justice – National Underground Railroad Freedom Center) : https://freedomcenter.org/voice/black-resistance-reproductive-justice/
National Museum of African American History and Culture: Exhibition: Slavery & Freedom 1400–1877 - Chapter 4 Section 5: To Be a Woman: Bill of sale for a 17 year old girl named Mary https://www.searchablemuseum.com/to-be-a-woman#section-start
1826: Cesareans without Consent
1840s: Dr. James Marion Sims – The “Father of Gynecology”
1865: 13th Amendment
Late 1800s - Early 1900s: Black Codes
Early 1900s: Erasure of Black Midwives
1900s - 1970s: Forced Sterilization
1920: 19th Amendment
1932 - 1972: Tuskegee
1934: Redlining
1935: Title V
1950 - 1960s: Civil Rights Movement
1951: Henrietta Lacks
1956: Puerto Rico Pill Trials
1960s: “Mississippi Appendectomy”
1965: The Supreme Court's decision in the Griswold v. Connecticut case legalizes contraception for married couples on the basis of marital privacy.
1966: National Organization for Women
1968: The Fair Housing Act
1968 - 1974: Ongoing Forced Sterilizations in California
1968: Black Women Organized for Political Action (BWOPA)
1973: Roe v Wade - Right to Privacy
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Roe v. Wade, establishing that the specific guarantee of “liberty” in the Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution protects individual privacy. The Constitution reaffirmed Liberty as the right to make personal decisions about family, relationships, and bodily autonomy.
Learn more:
1980s - 2023: Black Lives and Public Health
1981: Title V was converted to a Block Grant program
1989: Rebirth of Black Feminism or Afro-feminism
1994: The International Conference on Population and Development
1997 - 2023: Ongoing Forced Sterilization
1999 - 2023: Title V Equity for CA MCAH Action
2000s: Rebirth of Black Birthwork
2018: Black Maternal Health Week National Campaign Launches
2019: BLACK Wellness & Prosperity Center Launches
2019: Black Maternal Health Caucus
2019: SB 464
2021: SB 65
2022: Roe v. Wade Overturned
2020: AAC Launches
2021: BLACK Doula Network (BDN) Launches
2023 - 2024: BDN Continued Growth- Certifying First Two Cohorts
Glossary - Reproductive Health Definitions
Afrofeminism, Black feminism
A movement within feminism that focuses on the African American women's experiences. It recognizes how classism, racism and sexism shape the experiences of the BLACK WOMAN, and how these experiences make Black women's worldviews fundamentally different from those of the Black man and White woman. It believes that racism, classism and sexism must be addressed simultaneously in order to bring equity for Black women.
National Museum of African American History and Culture: The Revolutionary Practice of Black Feminisms:
https://nmaahc.si.edu/explore/stories/revolutionary-practice-black-feminisms
Epidemic, Pandemic, and Endemic
Informed Consent
Intersectionality
IVF (In Vitro Fertilization)
Liberty
Reproductive Justice or Birth Justice
Right to Privacy
Sterilization
Learn more: