Source: Bob Self / The Florida Times-Union
Pioneering Black feminist, child welfare advocate and lifelong community activist Dorothy Pitman Hughes has passed away at the age of 84.
With Gloria Steinem and other feminist visionaries, Hughes co-founded Ms. magazine in the 1970s — “the first national magazine to make feminist voices audible, feminist journalism tenable and a feminist worldview available to the public,” according to the publication’s website.
Before the magazine’s inception, Steinem profiled Hughes’ West 80th St. Community Childcare Center in NYC for New York Magazine.
Born in 1938 in Lumpkin, Georgia, Hughes moved to NYC at 19 and worked many jobs, including as a house cleaner and nightclub singer, before opening the daycare cooperative in the ’60s according to CNN.
Hughes and Steinem later collaborated in 1971 to co-found the Women’s Action Alliance, “a pioneering national information center that specialized in nonsexist, multiracial children’s education.”
Hughes’ foothold in feminist activism was rooted in her foundation of community-based work, reported the Associated Press.
The outlet further highlighted that the activist “organized the first shelter for battered women in New York City and co-founded the New York City Agency for Child Development to broaden childcare services in the city.”
An obituary shared by the funeral home that facilitated Hughes’ services, detailed that the activist passed away in Tampa, Florida, in the home of family members.
The activist died on Dec. 1, and is survived by her three daughters and two grandsons.
Gloria Steinem Remembers Dorothy Pitman Hughes
One of the most famous photos of Hughes captures her and Steinem holding their right arms in the air as they give the Black Power salute.
The image, taken in October 1971, now resides in the National Portrait Gallery.
“Dorothy Pitman Hughes’ time was too short,” Steinem penned on Instagram earlier this month. “But, you’d never know it: from creating the West 80th Community Childcare Center, an innovative and ahead of its time multiracial childcare center, to Harlem’s first bed & breakfast, nothing stopped her.”
“I have been lucky to call Dorothy a friend and lifelong co-conspirator. She encouraged me to speak in public, and we spent years traveling across the country,” Steinem reflected. “Her devotion to children’s welfare, racial justice and economic liberation means that she left the world in a better place than she found it.”
See the post down below.
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