Mary Ellen Pleasant, hailed as the mother of civil rights in California and one of the most powerful Black women in Gold Rush-era San Francisco, helped enslaved people in the South escape to Northern states. Pleasant later became a self-made millionaire from investments. Photo: Miriam Matthews Photograph Collection, UCLA Library Digital Collections via Wikimedia Commons

Angela Davis has a long history of political activism in San Francisco and the Bay Area. She was an active member of the Black Panther Party and is the author of several books including "Women, Race, and Class" and her latest, "Abolition: Politics, Practices, Promises, Vol. 1." In this photo, Davis speaks at a political rally in Union Square in San Francisco in August 1973. Photo: Janet Fries/Getty Images

black and white photo of woman being sworn in

Doris Ward was the first Black woman to lead San Francisco's Board of Supervisors. In this photo, Ward is sworn in as president of the board on Jan. 8, 1990. Photo: Steve Ringman/San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images

Elouise Westbrook was part of a local group called the "Big Five," women activists who fought for more resources in the predominantly Black Bayview-Hunters Point neighborhood in San Francisco in the late 1960s. Here, she's pictured at a meeting concerning funding for Bayview-Hunter's Point schools in May 1970. Photo: Bill Young/San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images

maya angelou sitting in a chair, smiling

Acclaimed poet Maya Angelou, who attended San Francisco's George Washington High School, is perhaps the city's most famous streetcar conductor. Last year, nonprofit Market Street Railway expressed its desire to name a historic streetcar after Angelou. Photo: Lonnie Wilson/Digital First Media Group/Oakland Tribune via Getty Images

Photos: Black women's history in San Francisco

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