Celebrate Women’s History with The Mount!
Journalist Julie Scelfo is hosting conversations about extraordinary women from the nineteenth century who have helped shape the American story with their achievements.
March 29 at 7-8 pm ET
Free
A journalist, a suffragist, and co-founder of the NAACP, Ida B. Wells, was a trailblazer committed to the needs of those who did not have power. A century after her death, Wells’s genius is being celebrated in popular culture through song, public artwork, and landmarks. Writer Michelle Duster’s latest book, Ida B. the Queen: The Extraordinary Life and Legacy of Ida B. Wells, pays tribute to this transformational leader, who also happens to be her great-grandmother. Join Duster and Scelfo as they discuss the enduring legacy of this civil-rights icon.
Michelle Duster is a writer, speaker, professor, public historian, and champion of racial and gender equity. She co-wrote the popular children’s history book, Tate and His Historic Dream; co-edited Impact: Personal Portraits of Activism; Shifts: An Anthology of Women’s Growth Through Change; Michelle Obama’s Impact on African American Women and Girls; and edited two books that include the writings of her great-grandmother, Ida B. Wells. She has written articles forTIME, Essence, HuffPost, Teen Vogue, Refinery29, The Hill, Daily Beast, and The North Star. Her advocacy has led to street names, monuments, historical markers, and other public history projects that highlight women and African Americans, including Wells.
Her many awards include the 2019 Multi-Generational Activist Award from the Illinois Human Rights Commission and the 2019 Martin Luther King Jr. Social Justice Award from Dartmouth College. She is a native Chicagoan who earned her B.A. in Psychology from Dartmouth College, and M.A. in Media Studies from The New School in New York City. She also completed MFA coursework in film and video production at Columbia College Chicago.
Julie Scelfo is a journalist, author and justice advocate who helps people discover the forces that help shape human thinking. Previously, Scelfo was a staff writer for The New York Times, and a Correspondent at Newsweek where she covered breaking news. Scelfo is the author of The Women Who Made New York, a collection of intersectional biographies that reveal how it was women — and not just men — who built one of the world’s greatest cities.
Scelfo earned a Bachelor of Arts, cum laude from Barnard College, Columbia University, and a Master’s degree in Media Ecology from New York University. She lives in New York City, is a frequent public speaker and has made numerous appearances on television, radio and podcasts.