Being a woman is hard enough, but being a black woman means you’ve had to fight for your rights twice over, and that deserves some serious respect.
Black history month is the time the whole world sets aside to remember the struggles African-Americans have had to face throughout the years. But it isn't all negative, this February is also time for celebrating the achievements of many who helped fight for human rights.
So in honor of this monumental month, we've put together a list of the top black women who have changed history. These women have overcome all of the limitations the world placed on them, and made their marks in the course of the world.
From conquering politics, battling the horrors of FGM, to helping change the racism and prejudice held in the modeling and acting worlds, all of these women have made a massive difference to how black men and women are treated and portrayed in our modern world.
So if you want to know just how much of a difference our First Lady, Rosa Parks and any of these other 11 women have made, here’s our round up of 13 black women who have changed the world.

HARRIET TUBMAN
Harriet Tubman was born into slavery in Maryland in 1820. She succesfully escaped to the free state of Pennsylvania in 1849, but was forced to leave many family members behind.
Over time, Harriet returned back to the South to deliver her parents, siblings and over 60 others to the freedom of the North. Harriet became known to history as the conductor of the Underground Railroad, the series of hideouts and houses leading slaves to safety.
As slavery changed with the passage of the Fugitive Slave Law in 1850, she began to help escaping slaves make it all the way to Canada, where slavery was outlawed.
Harriet was active during the Civil War as a cook and nurse for the Union Army and worked as an abolitionist throughout her life.
When she died, Harriet was buried with full military honors, and now has dozens of schools named in her honor, the Harriet Tubman Home in Auburn, and the Harriet Tubman Museum in Cambridge, to honor her memory.

HATTIE McDANIEL
Actress Hattie McDaniel was born in 1895 in Kansas and was the youngest of 13 children. By 1925, she became the very first African-American woman on the radio.
In 1934 she appeared on-screen for the first time inJudge Priest. In 1939, Hattie landed the role that she would become known for throughout history: Mammy inGone with the Wind.
Though many critics will criticize the film and Hattie's character as insulting to African Americans, the role opened doors for Hattie and she later became the first black woman to win an Academy Award, as Best Supporting Actress.
Hattie was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1952 and died soon after. She will forever be remembered and was inducted into the Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame in 1975.

TYRA BANKS
Tyra Banks is one of the most powerful supermodels and television personalities in the media today. She was born in 1973 in California.
After shooting a print piece for Seventeen magazine, she quickly rose up the fashion modeling ranks. During her first season in Paris in 1991, she booked 25 runway shows.
Tyra was the first African-American woman to appear on the cover ofGQ, theSports Illustratedswimsuit edition, and theVictoria's Secretlingerie catalogue.
She created the showAmerica's Next Top Modelin 2003, and has been producing and hosting the popular hit reality series ever since!
Tyra hosted her own ever-popular talk show,The Tyra Show, for five years until it ended in 2010. In early 2012, she finished a special cource for CEOs and top executives at Harvard Business School.

ANGELA DAVIS
Angela Davis was born in 1944 in the state of Alabama and is most famous for her activities as a communist campaigner during the civil rights movements and a member of the Black Panther movement.
Angela's Marxist and revolutionary activism saw her name figure on the FBI's most wanted list in the 1960s, on the orders of J. Edgar Hoover. And in 1972, she was sentenced to death for having participated in a fatal shooting.
Thanks to an international mobilization, she was finally acquitted and she became an icon of the struggle for black people's rights.
After her arrest, Angela Davis was openly supported by Aragon, Sartre, Prévert, The Rolling Stones (who dedicated the song Sweet Black Angel to her) and John Lennon who wrote her the song Angela.
Angela Davissoon learned that equality between white and black people would only exist if there was also equality between men and women, and she quickly became the leading figure of black feminism.
Today she is a professor of feminist studies at the University of California Santa Cruz.

ELLEN JOHNSON SIRLEAF
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf is a Liberian politician and economist. After studying in the United States at Harvard, she became Assistant Minister of Finance then Minister of Finance in Liberia.
Her now dead ex-husband used to unleash violent outbursts as he struggled to accept his wife's career...
In 2005, Ellen became the first woman to be elected president of an African state, in elections organized by the UN.
In mid-October 2011, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf came out ahead during the first round of Liberian elections.
On the 7th October 2011, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf received the Nobel Peace Prize, which she shares with two other women, Leymah Gbowee and Tawakkul Karman, for their pacifist commitment in favor of male-female equality.
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf © Sipa

WARIS DIRIE
The daughter of Somalian nomads, Waris Dirie fled her country at the age of 13 to escape an arranged marriage with a 60-year-old man and moved to London.
While in London, she was spotted in the street by a photographer and so her career as an international model and an (almost) fairytale life began...
Waris was circumcised at the age of 3 in the name of tradition, so she has made the fight against female genital mutiliation a major part of her life.
She decided to take the couragous step and talk publicly to the media about her female circumcision;she was later appointed goodwill ambassador for the United Nations by Kofi Annan.
In 2002, she created the Waris Dirie Foundation, and she continues to fight against female genital mutilation across the world.
In 2010, a film was adapted from Waris Dirie's autobiography,Desert Flower.

MADAM C.J WALKER
Madam C.J. Walker was born Sarah Breedlove, the daughter of two slaves from Louisiana in the second half of the 19th century. She was orphaned at age 7 and soon found herself in the adult world: as a servant at 10 and married at 14. She later became a formidable businesswoman a bit by chance.
The victim of a scalp disease that made her lose her hair, Madam C.J. Warker (she took the name of her third husband) developed a formula to remedy hair problems and began to commercialize it.
Success was immediate!
Madam C.J. Warkercreated a complete range of haircare products for black women, which sold throughout the country. She toured, attended conferences, and trained her representatives - such things were almost unheard of at the time.
She became the first black millionaire businesswoman. And she decided to use her influence to lobby for the rights of black Americans.
In 1998, the United States postal service even issued a commemorative stamp to honor Madam C.J. Warker!

MICHELLE OBAMA
Born in Chicago, Michelle Obama is now an figurehead. Prior to her marriage Michelle LaVaughn Robinson studied law at Princeton and Harvard before working at the law firm Sidley Austin.
While working there as the only African American woman, she met the man who would later become her husband and change the lives of millions: Barack Obama.
In 2009, when her husband was sworn in as president, Michelle Obama became the first black First Lady in the history of the United States.
Her different engagements (Red Cross, the Let's Move campaign, etc.) and her elegance make her a well-known personality around the world. She is constantly featured in magazine best dressed lists, and wears the top fashions, like the Carolina Herrera dress she recently wore to the State Dinner!
Michelle Obama has made the fight against obesity and for childhood fitness a major focus of her role as First Lady.
She has worked with celebrities like Beyonce to bring awareness to childhood fitness, and through her Let's Move campaign, she has encouraged children across America to get active.
She now works with Dr. Jill Biden on the Joining Forces initiative to help support American soldiers and military families across the nation.
Michelle Obama © Sipa

JOSEPHINE BAKER
Born into poverty in Missouri in 1906, Josephine Baker claimed both African American and Apalachee Indian heritage, and she quickly became a huge name.
Married at 13 and separated a few months later, she dedicated herself wholeheartedly to her passion, dance, which led her to the cabaret theaters in America and Paris, where she finally settled and obtained French nationality.
Josephine Baker is often considered to be the first black female star. Aside from her dancing, she was a very intelligent woman who came to run in high-class Parisian circles.
She joined the Red Cross, aided the French Resistance during the Second World War, and opened a château in the Dordogne where she welcomed children from all over the world.
When asked why she left the United States for France, it is said she responded that it was because she could no longer stand living in a country where she was "afraid to be black"

ROSA PARKS
Born in Alabama, an American state that was highly segregated in the 1950s, Rosa Parks was an unassuming seamstress who would soon become the "mother" of the civil rights movement.
On the 1st of December 1955, Rosa Parks entered the history books by refusing to give up her seat on a bus to a white man. This was considerd a violation of the segregation laws that were in place at the time, resulting in her arrest, a court appearance and a $14 fine.
Her action led to a huge protest campaign, led by 26-year-old pastor Martin Luther King: for 381 days, black citizens boycotted the bus company. The influential pacifist movement resulted in the abolition of segregation laws one year later by the Supreme Court.
Several years after her arrest, Rosa Parks confessed: "People say that I didn't give up my seat because I was tired, but that isn't true. I was not tired physically (...) No, the only tired I was, was tired of giving in."

DONYALE LUNA
Well before the wave of supermodels like Cindy and Claudia in the 1990s, Donyale Luna made her mark on the history of fashion with her extraordinary career.
Born in Detroit, she had a difficult childhood and an unusual appearance. She was spotted by photographer David McCay and became a superstar of the Seventies.
Donyale truly did it all: partying at Andy Warhol's Factory, signing an exclusive contract with photographer Richard Avedon, trying her hand at acting, before dying of an overdose in 1979.
Contrary to popular belief, the first black woman to grace the cover ofVoguewasn't Naomi Campbell; it was Donyale Luna.
In 1966, she hit the cover of the British edition of the biggest fashion magazine in the world. It was a symbolic choice for the world of fashion, which was finally opening up to African cultures.

OPRAH WINFREY
She was the richest African American person of the 20th century and the first black woman to become a multi-millionaire, but Oprah Winfrey started out in life as just a regular girl from a poor background in Mississippi.
A successful student, she obtained a full scholarship to Tennessee State University and over the years, has built up one of the most successful media empires.
After the incredible interest in her Emmy award winning talk show, The Oprah Winfrey Show, she quickly founded her own production company, Harpo and invested in helping victims of childhood sexual abuse, after confessing on her own show that she had been a victim herself during her childhood.
It doesn't stop there. in 2011, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences honored Oprah with the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award, and in 2013, Oprah was given the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
She has her own television network, OWN, and a new talk show called "Oprah's Next Chapter". To this day, she is one of the most powerful celebrities in the world.
We love you Oprah!

HALLE BERRY
Born in Cleveland, Ohio, Halle Berry is a former beauty queen and one of the biggest names in Hollywood, but this woman's story is a lot more special than that.
Halle Berry was the first African American woman to receive an Oscar for Best Actress in 2002 for her role in Monster's Ball. And judging by that acceptance speech, she knew it was a pretty big deal too.
After making her acting debut in a Spike Lee film, she landed roles in a series of high profile roles, like Storm in the X-Men films and the James Bond girl, Jinx, in Die Another Day.
Despite her successful career, she's always had quite a troubled personal life and has spoken out to the media on several occasions against domestic violence, since she has herself suffered from such violence in the past.
She is now married to fellow actor Olivier Martinez and they have a 5-month-old son named Maceo.

Great list but where is Maya Angelou?

This is really beautiful. Great and influential people with ordinary background.