Emerita university professor of History and author.
She earned a bachelor's degree in history from Queens College in 1963. She received a master's in history from George Washington University and a Ph.D. in history from Howard University.
She was a professor of history at Morgan State University in Baltimore, Maryland. She carried out influential research on the role of black women in the women's suffrage movement.
Her father was a jazz guitarist who also worked as a porter at New York airports.