Biblical women like Huldah and Deborah authorized black women’s public teaching roles.

Evidence

Again, the Baptist women found biblical precedents to bolster their convictions and to inspire the women of their own day. Cook and Broughton pointed to the biblical woman Huldah, wife of Shallum. Huldah studied the law and interpreted the Word of God to priests and others who sought her knowledge. In the Book of Judges another married woman, Deborah, became a judge, prophet, and warrior whom God appointed to lead Israel against its enemies. — Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, Righteous Discontent, 623

Categorization

• XREF: The same move - mining a canon for counter-precedents - used across traditions of resistance to authority. — connects to: The virgin birth was read as female self-sufficiency, needing no male intercession; Black Baptist feminists built their claims on biblical women like Deborah and Huldah — Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, Righteous Discontent: The Women’s…, 623; Black Baptist feminists cited Deborah and Huldah to sanctify female public leadership — Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, Righteous Discontent: The Women’s…, 672