Nkenge Touré

Nkenge Touré (born Anita Stroud, March 5, 1951 – August 2025)

At Eastern High School in the late 1960s, Stroud and a few girls founded an underground student activist group called the Black Voice to protest institutionalized racism in her majority white school. This time period marked the beginning of Stroud's activist life, as well as her first experiences with police brutality at the age of seventeen. The members of the Black Voice were forcibly arrested for their role in organizing what became a large-scale student strike of local schools. Stroud was given the option to receive her high school diploma only if she apologized for her activism. She refused, and later earned a GED. In her latter high school years, Stroud became involved with Baltimore's Soul School and the Black Panther Party, which she went on to join. She pioneered DC's Anti-Rape Week and Coalition for a Hassle Free Zone, an anti-street harassment campaign. Nkenge and Patrice Touré were divorced in 1979.

Touré was one of the co-founders of the Women's Section of the National Black United Front, defending women's rights within Black Nationalist politics and ensuring their issues were represented. In 1982, Touré co-founded the International Council of African Women (ICAW) with Loretta Ross to prepare a delegation of American women to attend the 1985 United Nations Conference on Women in Nairobi, Kenya. ICAW was the primary source providing information, support, and encouragement to African American women to organize delegations and attend the "Herstoric" conference. She was President of the D.C. Chapter of the National Black Women's Health Project (now Black Women's Health Imperative) from 1987-1994.

Since 1990 she worked with women substance abusers, women living with HIV/AIDS, women and children residing in transitional housing, and babies born with HIV. She has been active with SisterSong Women of Color Reproductive Justice Collective.

Media presence Since leaving the D.C. Rape Crisis Center in 1988 until 2018, Touré had hosted her own weekly radio show, "In Our Voices," which served as a platform for the voices and issues of women on D.C. radio station WPFW. She and guests discussed issues from the perspective that any issue is a women's issue. Also at WPFW, Touré served as the Executive Producer of Sophie's Parlor, the oldest women's music and politics collective in the United States.

Writing and awards Touré received numerous awards for her ongoing hard work and commitment to human rights and justice for women of color in the D.C. area and worldwide. Her writings on these subjects can be read in a number of publications including Aegis and Vital Signs. She also spoke widely at rallies, speak outs, and conferences.