1970s: During the Civil Rights Movement era of the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s, African Americans sought freedom to vote, work, and obtain an education equal to white Americans. Women, almost exclusively white women, began the women's liberation movement in the 1960s. But both groups excluded black women, who had even more difficulty than black men in finding an equitable place in society.

Today: Louis Farrakhan's 1995 Million Man March in Washington, D.C. acknowledged that black men must step up to greater responsibility in the black American family, providing the respect to black women for which the women of Shange's play hoped.

1970s: Opportunities for black women were limited by societal restraints and a culture that was slow to accept them in arenas such as business, politics, and the arts. Following Lorraine Hansberry's bow on Broadway, it was nearly twenty years before Shange, the second...