Women have been at the forefront of civil rights and human rights movements throughout history. Yet, their stories are left untold and forgotten.

Dr. Keisha N. Blain is a historian, speaker, advocate, and social justice activist who is a best-selling author. She is a professor of Africana studies at Brown University.  Her most recent book “Without Fear: Black Women and the Making of Human Rights” takes a historical look back at various civil rights movements and the Black women behind the scenes who created global change. 

Dr. Blain spoke at Wayne State University as part of the university’s annual Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. commemoration. She joined The Metro to talk about the women who helped progress human rights, often leading to systemic change.

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The Civil Rights Movement is largely remembered for its actions in the South, but segregation was a nationwide issue. Dr. King experienced this first hand.

Jeanne Theoharis is professor of political science at Brooklyn College of the City University of New York. In her new book “King of the North: Martin Luther King Jr.’s Life of Struggle Outside the South” she writes about King’s time in Pennsylvania and Boston as a student and his return to the Midwest, East, and Western regions of the U.S. at the height of the Civil Rights Movement.

She joined the show to discuss the book and what it teaches us about social movements in America today.

Subscribe to The Metro on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, NPR.org or wherever you get your podcasts.

Listen to The Metro weekdays from 10 a.m. to noon ET on 101.9 FM and streaming on demand.

More stories from The Metro