Without Fear: Black Women and the Making of Human Rights

Longlisted for the 2026 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction One of Essence's "7 Political Books By Black Women Authors To Read Now" • A Library Journal Best Book of the Year • One of Bookbub's Best Nonfiction of 2025 • One of the African American Intellectual History Society's Best Black History Books of 2025 “Without Fear tells the stories of Black women who, like Deborah in the Bible, have engaged in social justice agitation, refusing to simply suffer by engaging in the redemptive work of challenging injustice while in the midst of it. Each of us can and must learn from these women if we are to reconstruct America and build a just world.” —Reverend Dr. William J. Barber II, coauthor of White Poverty Even before they were recognized as citizens of the United States, Black women understood that the fights for civil and human rights were inseparable. Over the course of two hundred years, they were at the forefront of national and international movements for social change, weaving connections between their own and others’ freedom struggles around the world. Without Fear tells how, during American history, Black women made humans rights theirs: from worldwide travel and public advocacy in the global Black press to their work for the United Nations, they courageously and effectively moved human rights beyond an esoteric concept to an active, organizing principle.