Historian, Public speaker and Author
Historian, Public speaker and Author
Singer | Actress | Speaker | Attorney
From the earliest days of America to today, African American women have been at the forefront of movements against racial and sexual violence. From Celia to Recy Taylor to Anita Hill to Tarana Burke, who founded the #MeToo movement a decade ago, to Kimberle Crenshaw, who started the #SayHerName campaign: Black women have been torchbearers for equal justice and human dignity by speaking out and standing up against intersectional, systematic oppression. But for too long, their lived experiences and candid testimonies have been ignored, silenced, or disappeared. And too often, when Black women and girls today say “Me, too” they are STILL met with a ‘No, Not you.” Girls and women of color, especially those who are poor or working class or who have other interesting vulnerabilities remain the most susceptible to sexual and racialized violence and are least likely to get justice. That remains as true today as it was decades ago and it is why Black women and girls remain at the forefront of movements for radical change today.
Danielle McGuire
Danielle McGuire is an award-winning historian, public speaker and author of At the Dark End of the Street: Black Women, Rape and Resistance-a New History of the Civil Rights Movement from Rosa Parks to the Rise of Black Power (Knopf), which won the Frederick Jackson Turner Award and the Lillian Smith Book Award. She is the recipient of the Lerner Scott Prize for best dissertation in women’s history. Her Journal of American History article, “It was Like We Were All Raped: Sexualized Violence, Community Mobilization and the African American Freedom Struggle,” won the A. Elizabeth Taylor Prize for best essay in southern women’s history and was reprinted in the Best Essays in American History. McGuire is a Distinguished Lecturer for the Organization of American Historians and has appeared on PBS, CNN, MSNBC, Headline News, National Public Radio, BookTV, and dozens of local television and radio stations throughout the United States. Her popular essays have appeared in the Los Angeles Review of Books, the Detroit Free Press, Bridge Magazine,Washington Post, Huffington Post, TheGrio.com,TheRoot.com and CNN.com. She serves as a consultant on documentary films such as The Rape of Recy Taylor and You Belong to Me: The Ruby McCollum Story. She helps curate educational historical tours and civil rights related curricula for secondary schools and serves on the advisory board of History Studio. She is an adjunct Associate Professor of History at Wayne State University and is currently at work on a book about police violence in Detroit in 1967, to be published by Knopf.
Click here to learn more about Danielle McGuire
Yolanda Rabun
Yolanda is a well-known songstress and North Carolina based recording artist who is versatile enough to handle all styles of music, although she favors jazz and soul. She’s released several albums and has performed at venues and festivals all over the world. She headlines with her own band and has also opened for and sung with such iconic artists as Jennifer Holiday, and Ron Isley and the Isley Brothers, drummer Shelia E. and more. Yolanda has also performed with the NC Opera, the Durham Symphony Orchestra and appeared on a number of TV and radio programs. A proud member of Actor’s Equity, Yolanda has achieved notoriety on regional theatre stages with magnificent reviews alongside Tony-award winning actors.
She is also an award-winning senior corporate attorney for IBM, a mentor to young women, and an often requested motivational speaker.
We’ll be talking to her about her music career, her upcoming performances and her interest in the politics of race, sex, and class.
Ms. McGuire’s book, At the Dark End of the Street: Black Women, Rape and Resistance-a New History of the Civil Rights Movement from Rosa Parks to the Rise of Black Power, is available for order from McIntyre’s Books.
When purchased through McIntyre’s Books, enter code HIGHERGROUND at check-out to receive a 20% discount.