Pioneering Black feminist Dorothy Pitman Hughes has died at the age of 84 years old after spending her life advocating for child welfare and being a community activist.
Hughes was the co-founder of one of the most prominent feminist magazines, Ms. Magazine, and was said to have shared her last moments on Dec. 1, in Tampa, Florida. The news of the personality's death was announced by Sconiers Funeral Home.
Dorothy Pitman Hughes
In a statement, the obituary said that Hughes passed away peacefully at the home of her daughter and son-in-law, Delethia and Jonas Malmsten. The lifelong activist was born in Lumpkin, Georgia, in 1938 and later moved to New York when she was 19 years old, working several jobs, such as being a house cleaner and a nightclub singer.
In the late 1960s, Hughes was able to organize a multiracial cooperative daycare center, which got the attention of the future co-founder of Ms. Magazine, Gloria Steinem. The latter wrote a profile of the business in New York Magazine, as per CNN.
Shortly after the two's meeting, Hughes and Steinem began publicly speaking about the Women's Movement, said the obituary. The latter remembered her friend in a verified Instagram post this week.
She said that she had been lucky to be able to call Hughes a friend and lifelong co-conspirator. Steinem added that her friend encouraged her to speak in public and that they spent years traveling across the United States. She also praised the late feminist's devotion to children's welfare, racial justice, and economic liberation.
According to Aljazeera, Hughes and Steinem forged a powerful speaking partnership in the early 1970s where they toured the country at a time when feminism was seen as predominantly white and middle class. The latter also credited the former with helping her become comfortable with speaking in public.
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Pioneering Black Feminist
A photograph, which was considered one of the most famous images of its era, and was taken in October 1971, showed the two feminists raising their right arms in the Black Power salute. The photo is currently on display in the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, DC.
Hughes, at a young age, organized the first shelter for battered women and co-founded the New York City Agency for Child Development to broaden childcare services in the city. Furthermore, she also established a community center on Manhattan's West Side, which offered daycare, job training, advocacy training, and many more to families in the area.
The lifelong feminist also became involved in the civil rights movement and other causes in the 1960s, working with Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, and several other prominent figures. Hughes founded the Women's Action Alliance in the early 1970s with the help of Steinem, which was a broad network of feminist activists who sought to coordinate resources and push for equality on a national level.
In the 1980s, Hughes moved to Harlem where she opened Harlem Office Supply, which is a rare stationery store that was, at the time, run by a Black woman. However, she was forced to sell the store when a Staples opened nearby, which was part of former President Bill Clinton's Upper Manhattan Empowerment Zone program.
Malmsten said that her mother took families off the street and gave them jobs to help them earn a living. During an interview on Sunday, the late feminist's daughter reflected on what she felt was her mother's most important work, the Associated Press reported.
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