Ann Petry. In high school, Ann Petry’s teacher had her read an essay she penned aloud and told her she could be a writer if she wanted to. Instead, her family pushed her to become a pharmacist, but she continued to write short stories and essays, even studying creative writing at Columbia University. During this time, she worked at an after-school program in Harlem. It was her experiences in Harlem that pushed her to write her first novel. She published her debut, The Street, to widespread acclaim and won the Houghton Mifflin Literary Fellowship. The book follows a single Black mother vying for the American dream while up against racism, sexism, and classism. Petry became the first African American woman to sell more than a million copies of a book, opening future doors for black women writers to tell their stories.

Mary Ellen Pleasant. Some believed Mary Ellen Pleasant was born free in Philadelphia. In other stories, she was born enslaved, or a daughter to a Caribbean voodoo priestess; a rich Virginian; a Hawaiian merchant. Allegedly, she often changed her stories to appeal to her audience. What is known for certain about Pleasant is that she was the most influential Black woman in Gold Rush era San Francisco. In 1820s New England, she helped expand the Underground Railroad with her abolitionist husband. After his death she made her way to California, where she invested and expanded her net worth substantially. She opened various shops, staffed mostly by Black workers, and bought properties, all while working as a housekeeper. She used her wealth to support Black libraries and churches and some have argued that she’s the first self-made African American millionaire.