Celebrate Women’s History month with these five books from the library selected by Librarian Allyson Mower.

Shine Bright by Danyel Smith

Sara Cody from the U of U Black Cultural Center got me on track to finding this book, an excellent history of Black women in music and part memoir of a cultural critic.

Slavery in Zion by Amy Tanner Thiriot

Gain perspective on the lives of women who came to Utah enslaved and how they built lives for themselves, such as Biddy Mason, Mary Ann Perkins James, and others.

Ordinary Equality by Kate Kelly

Kate Kelly talked about this impactful book in a special event with U of U archivist Betsey Welland last April.

Golden Ax by Rio Cortez

How Free Speech Saved Democracy by Christopher Finan

One might not normally think that a book on free speech would also be a work on women’s history, but this title shows how women have used the first amendment to fight for their rights, such as Maria W. Stewart who used a public speech in 1817 to combat a racist organization called American Colonization Society, the brave women of Standing Rock Sioux, and many others.