As we move through the beginning of a new decade in the 21st century, we should continue to celebrate the legacy of the women of the 19th and 20th centuries and who paved the way for us all.
So here are links to audio profiles of just three inspiring trailblazers; trombonist/composer/arranger Melba Liston
jazz singer/bandleader Betty Carter
and abolitionist/Civil War freedom fighter Harriet Tubman
I produced the Melba Liston and Betty Carter shows for NPR’s award-winning series Jazz Profiles in the mid-1990s. In 1948, pioneering writer Richard Durham created a dramatic portrait of Harriet Tubman in “Railway to Freedom,” just one of the more than 90 episodes his historic Destination Freedom series on WMAQ radio in Chicago.
Please enjoy them all!