Amazons, Abolitionists, and Activists: A Graphic History of Women’s Fight for Their Rights, written by Mikki Kendall,  author of Hood Feminism, and illustrated by A. D’Amico, is the perfect book to bridge the gap between Black History Month and Women’s History Month.

The book starts with a diverse group of young women discussing the question of who won women’s rights. Their discussion, which is edging toward an argument, is interrupted by the dramatic arrival of a slightly androgynous purple-skinned woman in futuristic attire who announces “This will never do. One question…so many answers.” She then takes them on a tour through “the history you clearly never learned.”

The first two chapters introduce the group of young women, and the reader, to the role of women in antiquity and to a panoply of powerful women from the past, drawn from across the globe. The purple-skinned instructor/tour-guide tells stories that illustrate big ideas, one page at a time. The young women ask questions, squabble among themselves, and have aha moments. Much of this was familiar to me because I’ve spent a lot of time in this world over the last decade or so.* It might be familiar to those of you who have been along for the ride. But my guess is that it is new material for many of the books intended readers, especially in 2019 when the book came out.

Things picked up with the third chapter, titled “Slavery, Colonialism, and Imperialism: The Rights of Women Under Siege.” Our purple-skinned instructor begins with the statement that “Although some queens had to power to change lives, they weren’t always making those changes for the better.  And the women their decisions harmed had to find a way to fight back.” For the next five chapters and 130 pages, Amazons, Abolitionists, and Activists tells stories** of women’s fights first for freedom, then the vote, and finally equal rights across time, beginning with Queen Nanny’s leadership of against slavery in Jamaica in the Maroon Wars and ending with the modern world. While the book never uses the phrase intersectional, the stories illustrate the concept clearly. Kendall and D’Amico chose stories about Black, White , Indigenous, and Latinx activists, whose goals are not always the same. They make it clear that white suffragists often were not in favor of Black equality. They introduce us to women who fight for disability rights, labor rights, LBGT rights and environmental rights. They show that sports and the arts are also political forums.

At the end of the book, the group of young women and their instructor end up at place they began, with the question that started them on their journey: Women’s rights: who won them? They now share an answer. Every one has to work for women’s rights. And everyone will have to keep working for them.

Amazons, Abolitionists, an Activists is a good place to begin thinking about the broader issues of civil rights for all. And it is a powerful call to action.

*Hard though it is to believe, I started work on Women Warriors in 2014.  Time flies when you’re writing stuff.

**As Kendall and D’Amico make clear, it is never just one story and it is never a single march forward.