Photo by Dan Wynn, 1971

Photo by Dan Bagan, 2014

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Dorothy Pitman Hughes is a feminist, child-welfare advocate, African-American activist, public speaker, author, pioneering African-American small business owner, and mother of three daughters. She was a co-founder of Ms. Magazine in 1971. She organized the first shelter for battered women in New York City and co-founded the New York City Agency for Child Development (now the New York City Administration for Children’s Services). Hughes also co-founded with Gloria Steinem and others the Women’s Action Alliance in 1971. The two women toured together speaking about gender, class and race throughout the 1970s.

Hughes was born 1938 in Lumpkin, Georgia. Her father was beaten when she was ten years old and left for dead on the family’s doorstep, the family believes it to be a crime committed by Ku Klux Klan members. Hughes decided as a child in reaction to her family’s experiences she would devote her life to improving the circumstances of people through activism.

As an adult, she became an activist in an attempt to stop abuse and violence from happening to other people. Pitman Hughes moved from Georgia to New York City in 1957 where she worked in entertainment as a singer through the 1960s. She began her activism by raising bail money for civil rights protesters. She was a co-founder of Ms. Magazine in 1971. She organized the first shelter for battered women in New York City and co-founded the New York City Agency for Child Development pioneering child-care noting “too many women were being forced to leave their children home alone while they worked to feed their families”. Hughes also co-founded with Gloria Steinem the Women’s Action Alliance, a pioneering national information center that specialized in nonsexist, multiracial children’s education, in 1971. The two women toured together speaking about race, class and gender throughout the 1970s. (Wikipedia)