In her landmark appraisal of black women's unsung contributions to the struggles for racial and sexual equality, Giddings draws on speeches, diaries, and letters of influential black women, including Zora Neale Hurston, Ida B. Wells, and Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm, to reveal how black women have transcended the double discrimination of being both black and female. "A triumphant study".--Publishers Weekly.

“History at its best--clear, intelligent, moving. Paula Giddings has written a book as priceless as its subject”--Toni Morrison

Acclaimed by writers Toni Morrison and Maya Angelou, Paula Giddings's When and Where I Enter is not only an eloquent testament to the unsung contributions of individual women to our nation, but to the collective activism which elevated the race and women's movements that define our times. From Ida B. Wells to the first black Presidential candidate, Shirley Chisholm; from the anti-lynching movement to the struggle for suffrage and equal protection under the law; Giddings tells the stories of black women who transcended the dual discrimination of race and gender--and whose legacy inspires our own generation. Forty years after the passing of the Voting Rights Act, when phrases like “affirmative action” and “wrongful imprisonment” are rallying cries, Giddings words resonate now more than ever.