Dorothy Pitman Hughes, a pioneering black feminist, child care advocate and activist who co-founded Ms. Magazine with Gloria Steinem, with whom she formed a powerful speaking partnership and appeared with her in one of the most iconic photographs of the feminist movement. She was 84 years old.
Hughes died Dec. 1 in Tampa, Florida, at the home of his daughter and son-in-law, said Maurice Sconiers of the Sconiers Funeral Home in Columbus, Georgia. The funeral home said it did not know the cause of death.
Hughes was not as well known as Steinem, but the two formed an important partnership at a time when feminism was viewed simply as a white middle-class movement. Steinem credited Hughes with helping her feel comfortable speaking in public.
In one of the most famous photos of the movement, taken in October 1971, both raised their right arms in the style of the Black Power salute.
A pioneer in childcare, Hughes organized the first shelter for battered women in New York City and co-founded the New York City Agency for Child Development.
She met Steinem in 1968, according to a biography on the Ms. Magazine website, when Steinem, then a journalist, was writing an article for New York Magazine about the Pitman Hughes Child Care Center.
From 1969 to 1973, they gave speeches on gender and racial issues at universities, community centers, and other venues around the country.
Hughes’ real name was Dorothy Jean Ridley and she was born on October 2, 1938 in Lumpkin, Georgia, her family wrote in an obituary posted on the funeral home’s website.
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