Winner of the Dartmouth Medal for Outstanding Reference Publication of 1994, the first edition of Black Women in America broke ground--pulling together for the first time all of the research in this vast but underrepresented field to provide one of the strongest building blocks of Black Women's Studies. Hailed by Eric Foner of Columbia University (for a Lingua Franca survey) as "one of those publishing events which changes the way we look at a field," it simultaneously filled a void in the literature and sparked new research and concepts regarding African-American women in history.

Since the first edition was published, a new generation of American black women has flourished, demanding this landmark reference be brought up to date. Women such as Venus and Serena Williams, Condoleezza Rice, Carol Mosley-Braun, Ruth Simmons, and Ann Fudge have become household names for their remarkable contributions to sports, politics, academia, and business. In three magnificent volumes, Black Women in America, second edition celebrates the remarkable achievements of black women throughout history, highlights their ongoing contributions in America today, and covers the new research the first edition helped to generate.