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IN THE 1950s Radcliffe College embarked on an ambitious project to produce a historical series documenting the significant achievements of American women. In 1971 the first three volumes of Notable American Women were published. These works identified American women who died during the period 1607 to 1950. The volumes contained biographies of 1,359 American women.
In 1980 the second edition of the series was published. This included biographies of 442 women who had died in the 1951 to 1975 period.
Now we have the third installment in the series. This volume of Notable American Women contains biographical entries on 442 women who died in the 1976 to 1999 period.
Often historical compendiums assembled by white historians and editors tend to shortchange the contributions of members of minority groups. But this is not the case in the publication of Notable American Women. Included among the 442 biographies of notable women who died in the 1976 to 1999 period are entries for 69 African Americans. Thus, blacks make up 15.6 percent of all the notable women profiled in this latest volume.
The editors concede that they made a special effort to include women from minority groups. Racial, ethnic, and other organizations were contacted by the editors to solicit recommendations for nominees to be included in the biographical dictionary. "At all stages a special effort was made to elicit the names of members of minority groups," write the editors in the preface to the volume. "Lists were circulated widely in an attempt to avoid regional, ethnic, or racial bias." The appendix for the book includes a list of the women profiled in the book who were members of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, the Southern Christian Leadership Council, and the National Council of Negro Women. There is also an extensive list of women who were involved in...