# First Ladies: Historical Fiction About Pioneering Black Women

In honor of Women’s History Month, three novelists who have written new historical fiction about pioneering Black women reveal their characters’ stories and how they came to write about them. Victoria Christopher Murray’s latest novel, “The First Ladies” (written with Marie Benedict), brings to life the extraordinary partnership between first lady Eleanor Roosevelt and civil rights activist Mary McLeod Bethune. Joshunda Sanders’ debut novel “Women of the Post” is based on the real-life 6888th Central Postal Battalion, the only unit of Black women to serve overseas during World War II. Ruth P. Watson’s “A Right Worthy Woman” tells the story of Maggie Lena Walker, the daughter of a formerly enslaved woman who became the first Black woman to run a bank in the United States.

- Kind: Talk
- Year: 2024
- Runtime: 1 h 3 min
- By: Sanders, Joshunda
- Genres: History
- Archive: [Library of Congress](https://www.loc.gov/item/video-9862/)
- Licence or status: Rights statement at the Library of Congress (as the archive states it)
- Credit: Library of Congress
- Who can watch: Teens profiles and older (the archive gives no rating; placed by Invisible Network from its collection and subjects)

[Watch now](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/watch/archive/loc/video-9862?play=1)