For twenty years she researched Black women as she worked, recording information she came across.
She developed this information into a list of 1,000 women and over the course of two years built the first volume, with more than two hundred people helping.
The first volume of Notable Black American Women was completed in December 1991 and published by Gale.
[1][2][3] She condensed the volume into Epic Lives: One Hundred Black Women Who Made a Difference, which was published by Visible Ink Press.
The third book included an index divided geographically and by occupation and subject covering all three volumes.