Sister Ancestor Frances E. W. Harper was a bad, bad woman.
In 1858, ~100 years before Rosa Parks and Claudette Colvin (clock it!), she refused to give up her seat and ride in the “colored” section of a Philly trolley.
Born in 1825 in Baltimore, Ancestor Frances was an abolitionist, suffragist, poet, author, organizer and leader. A prolific writer, she was the 1st Black woman in the United States to publish a short story, “Two Offers” (1859). In fact, her most famous poem was Bury Me in a Free Land, where she shares her deep conviction to die free.
