Black Women Will Save the World

black-woman-will-save-the-world

By: April Ryan

April Ryan’s Black Women Will Save the World: An Anthem is equal parts memoir, history lesson, and rallying cry—and it’s a joy to read from the first page to the last. Drawing on three decades in the White House briefing room, Ryan folds intimate reminiscence into sweeping cultural analysis, tracing how Black women—from Kamala Harris and Stacey Abrams to nurses, poll workers, and grandmothers—held America’s fraying democracy together during the pandemic-scarred, protest-roiled year of 2020.1, 2

Structurally, Ryan alternates behind-the-scenes journalism with vivid portraits and first-person interviews, creating a kaleidoscopic view of resilience. Her chapter on the 2020 election is a standout: she pairs her own reporting on the Biden campaign with ground-level stories from Georgia canvassers, connecting local door-knocks to global headlines in a way only a veteran correspondent can. Throughout, she threads in the larger historical arc—from Sojourner Truth to Shirley Chisholm—reminding readers that 2020’s victories rested on centuries of collective labor.3, 4

What makes the book sing is Ryan’s voice: conversational yet authoritative, brimming with gratitude but unafraid to challenge the nation to do better.
Critics have rightly called it a “rousing praise song” and an “impassioned
celebration,” and those descriptors are spot-on—the prose pulses with admiration for everyday heroines and famous trailblazers alike.5

If there’s a quibble, it’s one raised by a few early reviewers: certain themes
can feel repetitive. Yet even those readers note that the repetition underscores Ryan’s central point—that Black women’s labor is too often overlooked, and saying thank you once is nowhere near enough. In that sense, the echoes work: they drive the praise home.6

At 288 brisk pages, Black Women Will Save the World is both a history primer and an invitation—to recognize, uplift, and stand beside the Black women who keep the democratic experiment alive. Whether you come for the political insight, the personal stories, or simply a dose of hard-won optimism, you’ll close the book feeling wiser, grateful, and, above all, galvanized.1

Sources

  1. “Black Women Will Save the World: An Anthem” product page, Amazon.com.
  2. Black Women Will Save the World: An Anthem listing, MahoganyBooks.
  3. Paul Thomas, “Trumpism Isn’t Going Anywhere: April Ryan’s Black Women Will Save the World,” Chicago Review of Books, Oct 10 2024.
  4. Review of Black Women Will Save the World: An Anthem, Shelf Awareness, Sep 19 2022.
  5. “BLACK WOMEN WILL SAVE THE WORLD,” Kirkus Reviews, Oct 18 2022.
  6. Member reviews for Black Women Will Save the World, NetGalley.