Achebe Betty Powell was an activist with the Astraea Lesbian Foundation for Justice and the National LGBTQ Task Force. She was one of the first Black women to have a leadership role in what was then called the lesbian and gay liberation movement in the 1970s. She was a “founding mother,” of the Astraea Lesbian Foundation for Justice and remained active in the organization for the last 45 years. She was among the small group of multiracial, multiclass, feminist activists who came together in 1977 to create a new way of bringing resources to movements led by lesbians and women of color, to, in her words, “generate the justice that our communities need, right here, right now.”
Powell was the first Black lesbian to serve on the board of directors of the National Gay Task Force and was co-chair of that board for several years. She attended the historic meeting of lesbian and gay leaders at the Carter White House in 1977, and served as the director of the Kitchen Table Press. In the last few decades, Achebe also participated in events organized around United Nations World Conferences on Women and did diversity and social justice trainings for several international feminist groups, such as the Center for Women’s Global Leadership (at Rutgers University) and the International Solidarity Network of Women Living Under Muslim laws.