The 10 Most Powerful Black Women

Ebony, March, 2001

POWER is "a whirlwind among breezes," wrote author Zora Neale Hurston in Their Eyes Were Watching God. Power is the "ability to achieve purpose," wrote Martin Luther King Jr. Included in EBONY'S list of the 10 most powerful Black women are women whose purpose, passion and brains have empowered a people and whose international influence has spanned two millenniums.

Among those on the list are two queens (the "Queen of Talk" and the "Queen of Radio") and other influential women who represent a wide range of ability: A national presidential advisor, the mayor of a major American city, heads of corporations, the president of an Ivy League university, the leader of Black America's political representatives, the chief lawyer and advisor for the country's premiere and revered civil rights organization, an ardent advocate for America's children, and the chair and CEO of a major record label.

From 1920 to 1964 to 2001--from the 15th Amendment to the Civil Rights Acts of 1964--these women have leap-frogged over limited minds, limited resources and other people's low aim for their lives to not only lift themselves but to lift others as well.

Individually these extraordinary Black women are at the top of their professions, and collectively they have changed the face of power. That face is no longer automatically old, White, or even male. These hurricanes of Black womanhood are rewriting the poem to say the strong women keep coming--and their best is yet to come.

OPRAH WINFREY, CEO/HARPO ENTERTAINMENT GROUP

Hers is a local-girl-did-well story--times 10. A poor Black girl from Kosciusko, Miss., leaps to fame, fortune and stardom and, in the process becomes a one-word household name. The Oprah Winfrey Show reaches 22 million viewers every week and has received every daytime TV accolade and award. But there is so much more to this talk-show host than just talk. She also walks the walk. A philanthropist with a personal fortune estimated at $800 million, she has donated millions through her Angel Network, through personal donations and through her book club, which has propelled 38 books to the top of the best-sellers list. She is an actress, television producer and educator who is also the CEO of the Harpo Entertainment Group, the parent company of her multimedia ventures--which include Harpo Productions, Inc., Harpo Films, Oprah Winfrey Presents and Harpo Studios. Last year she started two new ventures as the co-founder of Oxygen Media, a cable and Internet company and O, The Oprah Magazine, and she is arguably the most powerful woman in America.

ANN M. FUDGE, GROUP VICE PRESIDENT OF KRAFT FOODS AND PRESIDENT OF BEVERAGES, DESSERTS & POST DIVISIONS

Ann M. Fudge has built a career on building up the bottom line. Her moxie and marketing skills have propelled her to the top of the corporate world. Known by her peers as a woman "who wears nice kid gloves that mask an iron fist," she is not willing to compromise on her core beliefs of honesty, integrity and dealing with people "as I want to be dealt with." She is currently the new group vice president of Kraft Foods, and the president of Beverages, Desserts & Post Divisions. She is also a member of Kraft's Management Committee. Fudge is responsible for a variety of products, including Maxwell House, General Foods International Coffees, Kool-Aid, Jell-O, Cool Whip, Grape Nuts and Shredded Wheat cereals. The Washington, D.C., native received a bachelor's degree in management and business administration from Simmons College in Roxbury, Mass., and an MBA from Harvard University's Graduate School of Business.

CONDOLEEZZA RICE NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISOR TO THE PRESIDENT

Born in Birmingham, Ala., a bastion of the segregated South, she is now the first woman in American history to hold the job of national security advisor to the president. She leads the White House's largest policy staff. An expert in Russian history and fluent in the language, she is no stranger to power. In the early 1990s she served as the National Security Council's senior director of Soviet and East European affairs for the elder President Bush. In 1993, she became the youngest, the first female and the first Black provost at Stanford University. She is the co-author of two books and is a sports and fitness enthusiast. Rice was able to read music before she could read words. At age 15, she enrolled in the University of Denver to prepare for a career as a concert pianist. But she abandoned her musical aspirations when she realized she would never be good enough, she says. She was a Democrat until 1982, when she became a Republican. Nicknamed Condi, her first name is derived from an Italian musical term that means to perform "with sweetness." She says her parents convinced her that despite the segregated South, she could achieve. "Our parents really did have us convinced that [even though I] couldn't have a hamburger at Woolworth's, [I] could be president of the United States," she has said.

MARIAN WRIGHT EDELMAN FOUNDER AND PRESIDENT OF THE CHILDREN'S DEFENSE FUND