Black History Month is already upon us, as no doubt those of you with school-aged children know. Schools are busy all this month sharing the stories of Black Americans and their historical contributions to our nation and culture. Because of the annual celebration that happens every February, thankfully most school children gain familiarity with the contributions of important figures like Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman, Dr. W.E.B.Dubois, Sojourner Truth, George Washington Carver, and of course Martin Luther King, Jr.

This year I decided to dig a little deeper, so I could bring you the seldom-told tales of some of America’s forgotten black women. Black women have been having an impact and making a difference on this continent since before the United States was officially in existence. The stories of these women are not as well-known as some of the great names mentioned above, but their contributions are nonetheless important and worth remembering. Don’t let their stories languish in books or on obscure websites! Talk about them with people you encounter this month. People are always willing to hear a good story.

Elizabeth Key Grinstead (1630- c. 1665)

The story of Elizabeth Key Grinstead is one of the most fascinating in our history. Like many slaves, Key Grinstead was the product of an interracial union; her mother was black and her father was white. She herself was considered a slave and was traded several times before suing for her freedom in an English court in Virginia. She was 19 years old when she sued, and was married by common law to William Grinstead; they had a young son. She won her case on the first try on the argument that her father was a free Englishman and she was a baptized Christian. The case was appealed and overturned, but she continued to pursue the matter and eventually won freedom for herself and her son.

Key Grinstead’s was a precedent-setting case leading, sadly, to a new law in Virginia. English common law had held for centuries that the status of a child followed the status of the father. As a result of Key Grinstead’s suit, Virginia passed a law changing established English common law, making the status of the mother the primary factor in the status of the child. This established the principle known as partus sequitur ventrem, which greatly aggravated and elongated the institution of slavery in the colonies, and eventually America. Her court ruling has been transcribed and is available online.

Sarah Parker Remond (1829-1894)

Sarah Parker Remond was born to a prominent free black family of Massachusetts, and the entire family was involved in abolition and anti-discrimination causes. Her father was responsible for desegregating Salem schools in 1841, and her brother was a prominent speaker for abolition causes. Sarah herself chose to forego marriage and business opportunities her sisters had taken advantage of, and put herself on the abolition speaking circuit as well. She was received well and lamented that she hadn’t started earlier due to what she considered an inadequate education. For several years she and various members of her family, often her brother Charles Lenox Remond, travelled and gave speeches in favor of abolition and racial equality.

Remond is most remembered, however, for her work in England during the Civil War. When the war broke out, she had already been in England for two years, giving speeches and trying to build support and raise funds for abolitionist causes in the United States. With war underway, she quickly began to build public British support for the Union blockade of the Confederacy, which, if broken, might have cost the North the war.

After the Civil War Remond remained in England and got the classic education she so earnestly desired, studying at the Bedford College for Women. She later moved to Italy and became a physician, practicing there for some 20 years. She never returned to the United States, choosing instead to settle with her Sardinian husband in Florence.

Sisters of the Holy Family (1836-Present)

The Sisters of the Holy Family is a Catholic religious order that was founded by three black women in New Orleans in 1836 and still exists today. Henriette Delille, Juliette Gaudin, and Josephine Charles started the organization after Delille was turned away from two white convents when she received her religious calling. The order was first formally recognized by the Vatican in 1837, though all three of the founding sisters had to wait until 1852 to take first vows. It was not until 1870 that Rome officially recognized them as a congregation, and 1872 before they were allowed to wear the traditional habit. The Sisters of the Holy Family was formed to assist with aging and orphaned populations among Louisiana’s black and Créole populations.

Henrietta Delille was a story unto herself. Born free into the peculiar hypodescentic system that dominated New Orleans and southern Louisiana at the time, Delille and her siblings were what was known at the time as Octoroon, and most of her family passed for white as a result. Delille alone defied the safe harbor that passing provided her, even though it meant she was turned away from her religious calling by a Catholic Church marred by the conventions of racial bigotry at the time. Her decisions to live openly as a black woman and serve the needs of poor blacks would expose her entire family, causing a permanent rift between her and her brother, who eventually moved away to escape racial persecution.

Henriette Delille sold everything she owned to fund the new order, and spent the rest of her life servicing the needs of the poor and infirm. She became a candidate for beatification, the first step to sainthood, in 1989. Pope Benedict XVI authorized her decree in 2010, bestowing upon her memory the title of Venerable.

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I’ve shared these stories with you as a way to help supplement the conversations you’re having with friends and family during this, Black History Month. The stories of these women are not as well-known as others, but as you can see, they are just as deserving of attention. Telling them may inspire another person to action, or give them a feeling of belonging and accomplishment that might be missing for them as they search the historical record for kindred spirits. I hope you’ve enjoyed them!