Women
Bella Savitzky Abzug
⚖️ Lawyer
🏛️ Politician
✊ Activist
- a leading figure in what came to be known as eco-feminism
- first campaign slogan was, "This woman's place is in the House—the House of Representatives."
- even in her youth, she was competitive
- ran the cash register at her father's deli as a young girl
- through high school she took violin lessons
- was admitted to the New York Bar in 1945
- nickname was Battling Bella
- took violin lessons throughout high school
- as a lawyer specialized in labor rights, tenants' rights, and civil liberties cases
- was an outspoken advocate of liberal causes, including the Equal Rights Amendment, and opposition to the Vietnam War as well as the military draft
- worked for the American Civil Liberties Union and the Civil Rights Congress
- was a participant in Women Strike for Peace
- was one of the first members of Congress to support gay rights, introducing the first federal gay rights bill, known as the Equality Act of 1974, with fellow Democratic New York City representative Ed Koch (later Mayor of NYC)
- was frequently verbally abusive toward staff members
- was known for her colorful and vibrant hats, and was seldom seen without one
- traveled in a wheelchair during her final years
- battled breast cancer for several years
- died from complications following open heart surgery
- applied to the Harvard Law School but she was rejected because of her gender
- was editor of the Columbia Law Review
- defended many people who had been accused of communist activities by Senator Joseph McCarthy
- she ate macrobiotically, swam regularly, and played poker
- her campaign offices almost always featured day care
- liked to say she was “born yelling,”
Born: 1920
Country: USA
Education: Hunter College BA Political Science 1942; Columbia University LLB 1944; Jewish Theological Seminary of America
Madelaine (born Marie Jana Korbelova Albright
💰 Finance
🏛️ Politics
- Immigrated to the US in 1948, became a US citizen in 1957
- Was an aide to Senator Edmund Muskie 1976-78
- Helped assemble President Clinton's National Security council after 1992 Presidential election
- 1997, reported her parents never informed her or her siblings of their Jewish heritage, they converted to Catholicism during WWIIParents originally taught her at home so she wouldn't be exposed to communist teachings in Prague, 1st attended school in Switzerland
- Changed her name to Madelaine after learning French
- Met her 1st husband when she was an intern at the Denver Post
- Worked as a picture editor at the Encyclopedia Britannica for 1 year (1960)
- 1st female Secretary of State
Born: 1937
Country: Czechoslovakia
Education: Wellesley College BA Political Science 1959; Columbia University MA, PhD 1975; Certificate in Russian from Russian Institute (now Harriman Institute)
Ella Josephine Baker
✊ Civil Rights Activist
- worked alongside some of the most noted civil rights leaders of the 20th century, including W. E. B. Du Bois, Thurgood Marshall, A. Philip Randolph, and Martin Luther King Jr.
- mentored Diane Nash, Stokely Carmichael, and Bob Moses among others
- taught courses in consumer education, labor history, and African history
- rarely discussed her private life or marital status
- advocated widespread, local action as a means of social change
- believed in egalitarian ideals
- believed that the bedrock of any social change organization is not its leaders' eloquence or credentials, but the commitment and hard work of the rank and file membership and their willingness and ability to engage in discussion, debate, and decision-making
- 1946 took in her niece Jackie, whose mother was unable to care for her
- known as the "Godmother of SNCC" (Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee)
- was a teacher and mentor to the young people of SNCC, influencing such important future leaders as Julian Bond, Diane Nash, Stokely Carmichael, Curtis Muhammad, Bob Moses, and Bernice Johnson Reagon
- her philosophy was "power to the people"
- 1996, the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, a nonprofit strategy and action center based in Oakland, California, was founded and named for her
- Ella Baker School in the Julia Richman Education Complex in New York City was founded in 1996
- 2003, The Ella Jo Baker Intentional Community Cooperative, a 15-unit co-housing community was established in Washington DC
- 2009 was honored on a U.S. postage stamp
- was nicknamed “Fundi,” a Swahili word meaning a person who teaches a craft to the next generation; died on her 83rd birthday
- was close to her grandmother, a former slave, who told Baker many stories about her life, including a whipping she had received at the hands of her owner
- often clashed with Martin Luther King and other male leaders of the SCLC
- was a powerful behind-the-scenes force that ensured the success of some of the civil rights movement's most important organizations and events.
- 1935 she pretended to be a domestic worker while researching an article about the inequity Black women workers dealt with
- Rosa Parks attended Baker's workshops in the 1940s
- was regarded as a brilliant strategist, a radical intellectual, and superb organizer
Born: 1903
Country: USA
Education: Shaw University BA 1927
![Photo of Aurora "Lola" Greene Baldwin](/women_pictures/Baldwin_Aurora "Lola" Greene.png)
Aurora "Lola" Greene Baldwin
⚖️ Law Enforcement
- grew up in Rochester New York
- was originally a school teacher
- engaged in volunteer social work related to unwed mothers and other young women in trouble
- stressed crime prevention and favored reform over incarceration
- retired from police work in 1922
- sometimes referred to as a "municipal mother"
- stopped working as a teacher in 1884 after getting married as was expected of married women at the time
- helped single mothers connect to social services, persuaded city officials to keep women out of saloons, and established an after-care system for delinquent girls
- during her retirement also assisted her husband and sons in running a bakery
- before becoming a paid police officer was an unpaid probation officer for girls in addition to her other volunteer work
- in 1905 after the city of Portland awarded $5,000 to the city dog pound for services, she petitioned to have half that annual amount to care for Portland’s straying daughters & was given the money on the condition she & anyone she hired pass a civil service test exam for police work
- as a detective she advised the Portland Vice Commission, championed the city’s Domestic Relations Court, and served as Oregon State Special Agent for vice control
- the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Portland commissioned her as an investigator for Immigration Bureau cases involving interstate prostitution
- during World War I the Federal Commission on Training Camps appointed her its West Coast supervisor for vice control near military facilities
- after her retirement in 1922 she served numerous terms on the Oregon Parole Board and the National Board of Prisons and Prison Labor
- her logbooks and other police records are held by the Portland Police Museum and are often on display
- she emphasized the importance of crime prevention and rehabilitation over punishment, advocating for a system that addressed the root causes of crime
Born: 1860
Country: USA
Education: 1877 dropped out of high school after the death of her father & later completed her high school education on her own;
Cora Agnes Benneson
⚖️ Law
✍️ Author
- was licensed to practice law in Illinois and Michigan
- 1883 to 1885 she traveled the world to learn about legal cultures and how they affected women.
- was licensed to practice law in Massachusetts in 1894
- opened a school for the "Americanization of Foreigners" in 1918
- at age 8 was writing and editing a magazine with her sisters and cousin called The Experiment
- was proficient in reading Latin at 12
- briefly worked as an editor of West Publishing's law reports in 1886
- 1887 took a history fellowship under then-professor Woodrow Wilson
- was a founder of the Unity Clubs of Ann Arbor and Quincy, a member of the College Club, and incorporating counsel for the Woman's Club House Corporation of Boston
- died the day before authorization to operate her school for the Americanization of Foreigners arrived
- applied to Harvard Law School but was rejected because she was female
- her letters, notes & diary entries of her world tour were published in 1890 in The Unitarian magazine as part of a series called "Palestine To-day"
- she held nativist beliefs and portrayed foreigners in racist & stereotypical ways
- believed women shouldn't marry until they were economically independent
- Ralph Waldo Emerson was a frequent visitor in her parents' home when she was growing up & influenced her philosophical studies
Born: 1851
Country: USA
Education: University of Michigan Bachelor of Arts 1878, Bachelor of Laws 1880, Master of Arts in Jurisprudence & German 1883; Radcliffe College MA 1902
Matilene Spencer Berryman
🔍 Oceanography
⚖️ Marine Law
- born & raised in Virginia, the 5th of 9 children
- was often the only female in her college classes & at work
- joined the US Naval Oceanographic Office in 1957
- went into private law practice in 1983
- Chair of the Department of Environmental Sciences at the University of the District of Columbia from 1970 to 1981
- only female on the Defense documentation Center council
- won 1sy place for her needlework at the Centre's Home show
- practiced civil, environmental, & marine law initially then added probate & personal injury law
- was disbarred in 2000 for comingling estate funds with her own & failing to fulfill the legal duties due to her clients
- her personal papers were donated to Mooreland-Springarn Research Center in 2010
Born: 1920 or 1926 depending on the source
Country: USA
Education: American University BA Mathematics 1957; University of Rhode Island MA Marine Affairs with a concentration in Oceanography & Sonar Engineering 1979; Howard University School of Law Law Degree 1973
Gertrude Simmons Bonnin
✊ Indian Rights Activist
- also known as Zitkala-Ša, also Zitkála-Šá (Lakota: Zitkála-Šá, meaning Red Bird
- born on the Yankton Indian Reservation in South Dakota
- father was French & abandoned the family when she was very young
- 1884-87 attended White's Manual Labor Institute where she was forced to shun her Native heritage & to pray as a Quaker and to cut her traditionally long hair but she took joy in learning to read, write, and play the violin
- 1897, six weeks before graduation, she was forced to leave Earlham College due to ill health and financial difficulties
- 1897 to 1899 studied and played the violin at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston
- called for recognition of Native American culture and traditions, while also advocating US citizenship rights to bring Native Americans into mainstream America
- 1938, the New York Light Opera Guild presented The Sun Dance Opera at The Broadway Theatre as its opera of the year
- helped initiate a government investigation into the exploitation of Native Americans in Oklahoma and the attempts being made to defraud them of drilling rights and leasing fees for their oil-rich lands
- called for the abolition of the Bureau of Indian Affairs
- 2022 an opera based on her life and work was released: Mináǧi kiŋ dowáŋ: A Zitkála-Šá Opera. It is the first opera to use Dakota language
- was adamantly against the traditional use of peyote, likening it to the destructive effects of alcohol in Native communities
- advocated for tribal self-government that liaised with the federal government, the establishment of communally-held tribal property, especially cattle herds, and education systems with competent teachers and curriculum that included law, comparative government, and treaties
Born: 1876
Country: USA
Education: White's Manual Labor Institute 1895; Earlham College
Ruby Nell Bridges Hall
✊ Civil Rights Activism
- faced racism every day at school
- had to be accompanied to & from school by Federal Marshalls for the 1st year
- was the only student in her 1st grade class because all white children were removed by their parents
- 1995 Children's Museum of Indianapolis opened an exhibit recreating her 1st grade classroom
- 1999 her autobiography "Through My Eyes" recounting her experiences in integrating the school was published in 1999
- 2014 a statue of her was unveiled outside William Frantz Elementary School, the school she integrated
- was the oldest of 8 children born to her parents who were sharecroppers in Mississippi until moving to New Orleans in 1958
- her father worked in a service station & her mother worked at various domestic jobs in the evenings
- 1st year in school she was taught b Barbara Henry a white teacher who came from Boston who was the only teacher at the school willing to teach her, they have been life-long friends & tour together speaking about their experiences & racism
- family moved to New Orleans 1958
- as a child helped care for her younger siblings & enjoyed playing jump rope, softball & climbing trees
- attended a segregated school for kindergarte
- was 1 of 6 Black children who passed the test to attend a white elementary school
- on her walk to school the 1st year a white woman threatened to poison her while another held up a coffin containing a Black doll
- due to threats she was not allowed to eat anything she didn't bring to school from home or attend recess
- spme negative consequences of her desegregation were both her parents lost their jobs, her local grocery banned the family, her grandparents were evicted from the land they had worked as sharecroppers in Mississippi, & her parents separated
- white child psychiatrist Robert Coles provided the entire family with free counseling & wrote numerous articles about them & racism which were eventually published again in book form, he donated the proceeds from his 1995 book about Ruby to her & she used the funds to help establish her foundation in 1999
- after high school she worked as a travel agent & travelled the world for 15 years before becoming a full-time mother
- a song "Ruby's shoes" & a Disney movie "Ruby Bridges" are about her
- 2010 had a 50-year reunion with Pan Foreman Testroet the 1st white child to break the boycott & go to school with her
- a school in Alameda California & one in Woodinville Washington are named for her
- 1 of Robert Coles' relatives anonymously provided the outfits she wore to school
- 1993 her brpother was murdered & she raised his 4 daughters who attended Willian Frantz elementary School
- after Hurricane Katrina in 2005 the school was set to be demolished but she fought to have it restored & it remains open
- November 14 is Ruby Bridges Walk to School Day since 2018
Born: 1954
Country: USA
Education: Has a high school education
![Photo of Harriet Elizabeth "Libby" Brown](/women_pictures/Brown_Harriet Elizabeth "Libby".png)
Harriet Elizabeth "Libby" Brown
📚 Educator
✊ Civil Rights Pioneer
- worked as a teacher in Calvert County Public Schools & was promoted to Principal for 0ver 30 years
- filed her suit against the Board of education after learning she was earning $600 monthly & her White counterparts with the same experience, education & duties were earning $1,100, the suit cited this as a violation of the 14th Amendment
- the intersection of Route 2 & Pushaw Station road where the original school she taught at was located bears a historical marker commemorating her suit against the Board of Education
- a community Center in Prince Frederick county bears her name
- enjoyed the compapy of her sister & fellow teacher & Principal, Regina Brown, & the 2 enjoyed traveling, taking a yearly trip together, following sports, going out with friends, & being active in their communities
Born: 1907
Country: USA
Education: Morgan State University BS Education; University of Maryland M ED
Anna Ella Carroll
🏛️ Politics
🔍 Lobbyist
- 1959, the Maryland state historical society unveiled a monument to Carroll with the words, "Maryland's Most Distinguished Lady. A great humanitarian and close friend of Abraham Lincoln. She conceived the successful Tennessee Campaign and guided the President on his constitutional war powers."
- The epitaph on her grave reads, "A woman rarely gifted; an able and accomplished writer."
- condemned the Emancipation Proclamation and recommended colonization of blacks
- father owned a plantation & was Governor of Maryland 1830-31
- Grandfather Charles Carroll of Carrollton was a signer of the Declaration of Independence
- family was wealthy until the financial panic of 1837
- was the oldest of 8 children & was educated by her father so she could be his aide/secretary
- established a girls school in the family home
- freed her remaining 20 slaves inherited from her father & saw they were immigrated to Canada after the election of Lincoln in 1860
- after 1879 fought with the government to collect $5,000 (approximately $120,474 in 2023 dollars) she claimed they owed her for her wartime publicationsbut never received payment
- was granted a $50 monthly pension for life in 1881 for her war efforts
- was a spokesperson for the Know-Nothing Party
- 1870 claimed she was solely responsible for the Tennessee River Campaign although she had previousl credited riverboat pilot charles M. Scott with the strategy
- 1864 painting of the Signing of the Emancipation Proclamation by Francis B. Carpenter shows a vacant chair with papers reportedly written by Carroll & is reportedly "a silent nod" to her role as an advisor to Lincoln
- 2010 The Friends of Anna Ella Carroll unveiled a new rendition of Carpenter's painting done by Laura Era depicting Carroll sitting in the chair, it is housed in an Easton MD art gallery
- scholars differ on her importance to the Tennessee River Campaign with some agreeing she devised the plan & was key to its success & others arguing she had no involvement & made the story up because she needed money & this was her way to obtain it from the government
- "The Lost River" is a film about her life
- atage 29 was living in Baltimore & writing press releases for railroad companies
- briefly dated James Buchanan when he was a Senator
- refused marriage proposals from President Willard Fillmore & Lemuel Evans, a 1-time secret service agent assigned to protect Lincoln & subsequent Supreme Court of Texas judge
Born: 1815
Country: USA
Education: Tutored by her father
Curtis Seldon "Kitty" Cone
✊ Disability Rights Activist
- diagnosed with muscular dystrophy at age 15
- originally misdiagnosed with cerebral palsy, then polio
- received numerous surgeries which she believed worsened her condition
- as a teen had walking casts to stretch out her tendons
- moved to the California Bay Area in 1972
- while attending school at Holton Arms in D.C. her cousins had to carry her up & down stairs to attend classes because the school wasn't handicapped accessible
- during her mid-teens her family moved to Kentucky where she observed overt racism for the 1st time & became involved in the civil rights movement much to the dismay of her father
- was expelled from Mt Vernon Seminary, a boarding school, after 1 semester after disobeying the rules the headmistress imposed on her because of her disability (rules included not allowing her to bathe in the tub of her 4-student suite so she wouldn't upset her roommates)
- began using a wheelchair while in college & had to endure ridiculous rules such as not having a motorized chair & not being allowed to have someone else push her in the chair
- was active as a cheerleader for the wheelchair basketball team & was elected to Student Senate in college
- mother died after her freshman year in college & she returned home to care for her younger brother
- was unaware her mother had throat cancer or was undergoing surgery for the condition
- returned to college Fall 1963 & became involved as an organizer for NAACP & the civil rights Movement
- dropped out of college 6 credit hours before graduating
- became a Marxist while in college & was placed on an FBI watch list
- early 1980's moved to Mexico with her partner, Kathy Martinez, & adopted her son Jorge
- was an alcoholic & stopped drinking in the 1970s
- 1064 was very involved with Friends of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC)
- traveled in Latin & South America & spent time in Nicaragua with the Organization of Disabled Revolutionaries
- wrote a novel with politically radical characters
- loved opera & was a fierce competitor in pinochle & bridge
- Father disowned & disinherited her after bailing her out of jail when she was arrested at a protest in college
Born: 1944
Country: USA
Education: University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Prudence Crandall
✊ Civil Rights Pioneer
📚 Educator
- opened a school to teach White girls in Canterbury CT in 1831 & admitted her 1st Black student (Sarah Harris) in 1832 thus creating the 1st integrated school in Connecticut
- was harassed by White townspeople & families began removing their White daughters
- was arrested & tried 3 times for violating Connecticut's Black Law enacted in 1933 making it illegal to teach African-American students from outside the State without the town's permission
- the Black Law was initiated & passed in an attempt to get Crandall to close her school
- when townspeople told her the school would encourage social equality & marriage between Blacks & Whites she replied, "Moses had a Black wife" (Wikipedia)
- closed her school in 1834 after backlash from the townspeople including refusal to sell them groceries or accept the students at local churches, her arrest, the arrest of 1 of her students, poisoning her well, threats, setting fire to the school & breaking most of the windows
- the Black Law was subsequently repealed in 1838
- fled Connecticut after the closure of the school & vowed to never return
- was involved in the temperance & women's suffrage movements
- ran a school in La Salle IL
- 1886 Connecticut awarded her a $400 yearly pension ($13,600 in 2023 dollars) at the urging of Mark Twain & other supporters
- 1834 her supporters commissioned a painting of her by Francis alexander that is on display at Cornell University & a printed copy hangs at the Prudence Crandall Museum in Canterbury CT that was designated a US National Historic Landmark in 1991
- 1973 the Prudence Crandall Center for Women (now Prudence Crandall Center, Inc) a domestic violence shelter opened in New Britain CT
- 1966 an elementary school in Enfield CT named after her opened
- arguments from her 3 trials were used in Brown v Board of Education in 1954
Born: 1803
Country: USA
Education: Black Hill Quaker School; Moses Brown School
Kimberle Williams Crenshaw
✊ Civil Rights Activist
🔍 Legal Scholar
- is a regular commentator on NPR's The Tavis Smiley Show
- has written 10 books & numerous articles on her theories
- has been on the faculty of UCLA since 1986
- clerked for Justice shirley Abrahamson of the wisconsin supreme court
Born: 1959
Country: USA
Education: Cornell University BA Government & African Studies 1981; Harvard University JD 1984; University of wisconsin-Madison LLM 1985
Kathleen Eagan
💰 Finance
🏛️ politics
🔍 conservation
- enjoys skiing, fly-fishing, and backpacking
- is president of the Truckee River Habitat Restoration Group, which was founded in 1997 to promote watershed restoration in the area
- works with the Truckee River Watershed Coordination Resource Management and Planning group, an effort get everyone coordinated to actively restore the watershed
- ran for City Council of Truckee against 26 other candidates in 1993, received the most votes & 5 top electees were seated as the Council
- was the 1st mayor of Truckee 1996
- was a bank vice president before retiring to Truckee in 1986 after several years of visiting there to enjoy skiing, fishing & hiking
Born: 1943
Country: USA
Education: Unknown
Crystal Catherine Eastman
⚖️ Law
- 1st job was investigating labor conditions for The Pittsburgh Survey 1907-08
- her report, Work Accidents and the Law (1910), became a crucial tool in the fight for occupation health and safety
- after 2nd marriage she kept her last name & explored family practices aimed at fostering gender equality within the realms of marriage and family life
- 1923 publication of her article, Marriage Under Two Roofs, caused an uproar as she revealed the specifics of their unconventional living arrangement, maintaining 2 residences
- was a socialist & blacklisted during the Red Scare of 1919–1920
- 1922-27 lived in London with her husband & children because she couldn't find work in the US
- the Library of congress has 7 of her publications in its collection with 4 of them published posthumously
- at Vassar was a regular contributor to the Miscellany & sang in the choir & Choral club
- at Vassar was a member of the Athletics Association, Alpha Chapter of the Philatetheis theater company, Greek Supper Club & Civitas
- was ranked 2nd in her law school graduating class
- when she divorced her 1st husband due to his infidelity she refused any alimony because it would be an admission of financial dependence on a man
- described herself as a militant idealist
- wrote for Time & Tide Magazine in London 1923-27
Born: 1881
Country: USA
Education: Vassar College BA 1903; Columbia University MA Sociology 1904; NYU Law School 1907
Clara Shortridge Foltz
⚖️ Lawyer
- 1st female admitted to the California Bar
- 1st female lawyer on the entire west coast of the US
- Authored a State bill in California known as the "Woman Lawyer Bill" which replaced "white male" with "citizen person"
- Pioneered the idea of the Public Defender
- Criminal courts Building in downtown LA was renamed the Clara Shortridge Foltz Criminal Justice Center in 2002
- Eloped at age 15 (1864)
- During her 57-year law career, pushed for several progressive legislations for women's rights in voting & the legal field
- In California was the 1st female clerk in the California State Assembly Judiciary Committee, 1st female appointed to the Board of Corrections, 1st female licensed Notary Public, 1st female named the director of a major bank, 1st female to run for Governor of California (at age 81).
- 1910, 1st female Deputy DA in the US
- Raised 5 children as a single parent after her husband abandoned the family in 1876
- Founded the San diego Daily Bee & the New American Women Magazine
- 1881, 1st female to prosecute a murder case
Born: 1849
Country: USA
Education: nothing formal-studied law at her father s law practice
![Photo of Sonia "Sunny" Pressman Fuentes](/women_pictures/Fuentes_Sonia "Sunny" Pressman.png)
Sonia "Sunny" Pressman Fuentes
⚖️ Lawyer
✍️ Author
- was a Holocaust refugee escaping from Germany to Belgium then the US (1934) at age 5
- author of a memoir, Eat First—You Don't Know What They'll Give You, The Adventures of an Immigrant Family and Their Feminist Daughter (1999)
- was the first woman to address the Rotary Club of Chiang-Mai,Thailand on Women's issues
- was considered an “American specialist” on women’s rights for USIA
- is a breast cancer survivor
- testified in Congress in favor of passage of the 1963 Equal Pay legislation
- served as an attorney with the DOJ, NLRB, and HUD
- was at GTE Service Corporation and TRW as an attorney and executive
- retired in 1993 & subsequently moved to Sarasota Fla
- graduated first in her class at the University of Miami School of Law
- stood for the aggressive enforcement of the gender discrimination prohibitions of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964
- one of six permanent exhibits at the Red Star Line (RSL) Museum, dedicated to immigration and the RSL, that opened in Antwerp, Belgium, on September 28, 2013, is about her
- English was her 4th language
- was the staff person who was identified with enunciating the EEOC’s interpretations of the sex discrimination prohibitions of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the law that prohibits employment discrimination
- was a consultant to the Women’s Department and the Department of Labour for the Province of Ontario when Ontario was considering the passage of such legislation, which legislation was also subsequently passed
Born: 1928
Country: Germany
Education: Cornell University BA Liberal Arts or Psychology 1950; University of Miami School of Law LLB 1957
Fannie Lou Townsend Hamer
✊ women's rights activist
🔍 community organizer
✊ and leader of the civil rights movement
Fannie Lou Townsend Hamer
✊ women's rights activist
🔍 community organizer
✊ and leader of the civil rights movement
- known for her use of spiritual hymns and biblical quotes
- was threatened, harassed, shot at, and assaulted by racists, including members of the police, while she was trying to register to vote
- ran for the U.S. House in 1964 but lost
- ran for the Mississippi State Senate in 1971
- 1970 led legal action against the government of Sunflower County, Mississippi, for continued illegal segregation
- was the youngest of 20 children born to her parents
- from the age of 6 lived on a farm where her family & she were sharecroppers & they all picked cotton
- winters of 1924 through 1930, she attended the one-room school provided for the sharecroppers' children, open between picking seasons
- loved reading and excelled in spelling bees and reciting poetry
- left school at age 12 to help support her aging parents
- 13 would pick 200–300 pounds of cotton daily while living with polio
- 1961, a white doctor subjected her to a hysterectomy without her consent while she was undergoing surgery to remove a uterine tumor
- she & her husband subsequently adopted & raised 4 children
- 1 of her daughters died at age 22 of internal hemorrhaging after she was denied admission to the local hospital because of her mother's activism
- became interested in the civil rights movement in the 1950s
- 1972 was elected as a national party delegate
- 1963 spent 3 days in jail in Mississippi where she was beaten with a baton, it took a month for her to recuperate and suffered permanent damage as a result of a blood clot over her left eye and permanent damage on one of her kidneys
- worked on grassroots-level Head Start programs and Martin Luther King Jr.'s Poor People's Campaign
- adamantly opposed abortion, & believed it & birth control were tools used by Whites to control Blacks & limit their population growth
- part of her mission to make land more accessible to African Americans
- the Freedom Farm had three main objectives: to establish an agricultural organization that could supplement the nutritional needs of America's most disenfranchised people; to provide acceptable housing development; and create an entrepreneurial business incubator that would provide resources for new companies as well as retraining for those with limited education but manual labor experience
- the farm disbanded in 1975 due to lack of funding
- is credited with coining the phrase "Mississippi appendectomy", a euphemism for involuntary or uninformed sterilization of black women, a common practice in the South during the 1960s
- her tombstone is engraved with one of her famous quotes, "I am sick and tired of being sick and tired."1994 the Ruleville post office was named the Fannie Lou Hamer Post Office by an act of Congress
- The Fannie Lou Hamer National Institute on Citizenship and Democracy was founded in 1997 as a summer seminar and K–12 workshop program
- is one of 28 civil rights icons depicted on the Buffalo, New York Freedom Wall
- 1964, she announced her candidacy for the Mississippi House of Representatives but was barred from the ballot
- famed singer Harry Belafonte was among the donors who provided enough funds to purchase the 640 acres for her farm & the coop store, boutique, and sewing enterprise that grew from it
- 1964, U.S. Pres. Lyndon B. Johnson attempted to block the television broadcast of her testimony at the Democratic National Convention by scheduling a news conference for the same time but the networks then broadcast it during prime time, giving her speech the ability to reach many more people
- opposed the Vietnam War
- diagnosed with breast cancer in 1976
- Cheryl L. West wrote the play Fannie: The Music and Life of Fannie Lou Hamer, which premiered at the Actors Theatre of Louisville in 2022
- 1st learned she had the right to vote at age 44
Born: 1917
Country: USA
Education: dropped out of school after the 6th grade to help support her family
Frances Ellen Watkins Harper
✊ Civil Rights Activist
✍️ poet
✍️ author
- published her first book of poetry, Forest Leaves, or Autumn Leaves, at the age of 20
- 1850 taught domestic science at Union Seminary in Columbus, Ohio
- 1851 started to write anti-slavery literature
- was born free
- Her parents who were both free died when she was 3 leaving her an orphan & she was raised by her maternal uncle & aunt
- 13 became employed as a seamstress and nursemaid for a white family that owned a bookshop so she dropped out of school but continued her education by reading books from the bookstore
- several of her works were published under her maiden name of Watkins
- a single copy of her 1st book of poems was discovered at the Maryland Historical Society in the 2010s
- 1858 refused to give up her seat or ride in the "colored" section of a segregated trolley car in Philadelphia & this was 97 years before Rosa Parks
- published 80 poems
- was a strong supporter of abolitionism, prohibition and woman's suffrage
- was active in the Unitarian Church
- numerous African-American women's service clubs are named in her honor
- an excerpt from her poem "Bury Me in a Free Land" is inscribed on a wall of the Contemplative Court, a space for reflection in the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture. The excerpt reads: "I ask no monument, proud and high to arrest the gaze of the passers-by; all that my yearning spirit craves is bury me not in a land of slaves."
- was the first woman instructor at Union Seminary, a school for free African Americans in Wilberforce, Ohio
- generally written in conventional rhymed quatrains, her poetry was noted for its simple rhythm and biblical imagery
- earned a reputation as the mother of African American journalism
- was the first Black woman lecturer for the American Anti-Slavery Society
- served as a mentor to Mary Ann Shadd Cary, Ida B. Wells, and Victoria Earle Matthews
- was sometimes referred to as the "bronze muse"
- was a key participant in the Cincinnati Colored Convention of 1858, serving as the only woman delegate
- was active with the Underground Railroad in Pennsylvania
- Reverend William Watkins, the uncle who helped raise her, was the single most influential person in youth, exposing her to the value of education, the importance of spirituality, and the human right of freedom
- would frequently give three lectures in a day
- experimented with dialect in the speech of her characters to express the sensibilities of the oppressed
- taught at a school run by abolitionist John Brown
- the home where she lived in Philadelphia from 1870 until her death is now a National Historic Landmark
- severl of her books have been restored & are available through the Smithsonian Library
- was educated at her uncle’s Academy for Negro Youth in Baltimore where she studied Classical and Modern languages, the Bible, geography, philosophy, mathematics, music, and rhetoric
- became involved in the abolitionist movement after the passage of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 which prohibited her from returning to Baltimore, the city of her birth
- she supported a movement called Free Produce, which encouraged people to boycott all products tied to slave labor
Born: 1825
Country: USA
Education: dropped out at age 13 to work
![Photo of Shamayim "Mama Shu" Harris](/women_pictures/Harris_Shamayim "Mama Shu".png)
Shamayim "Mama Shu" Harris
✊ Activism - Urban Renewal
- her nickname, "Mama Shu", is a reference to Shu, the Egyptian god of air
- 2007 her two-year-old son, Jakobi Ra, was struck by a car in a hit and run accident while crossing the street with his older brother, Chinyelu & the following year she opened Avalon Village in his honor
- January 2021 her 23-year-old son, Chinyelu Geb Kahero Humphrey, was sitting in his car in the Avalon Village doing neighborhood watch when he was shot and killed &, as of this writing (2025) his murder has not been solved
- she was a school administrator in the Detroit Public Schools for 27 years, a chaplain for the Highland Park Police Department, chairwoman of Highland Park Charter Commission, Vice President of the Highland Park Housing Commission, President of the Highland Park Board of Education, Wayne Metro Regional Advisory Council, and was appointed by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer as a member of the Michigan Commission on Community Action and Economic Opportunity
- the Village Hall is located inside a pre-fab Cocoon 9 home donated by Ellen Degeneres
- the Goddess Marketplace is a storefront for women entrepreneurs to sell their goods
- the Homework House is a learning space for youth where they can study, get tutoring, or attend learning activities & is equipped with computers, 3D printers, a music studio, a library, a refrigerator and table for dining, a washer and dryer
- the community garden provides food for locals and teaches the youth how to garden
- future goals for Avalon Village include building a school, café, greenhouse, and a healing center
- The Avalon Village is the prototype for distressed and neglected communities that aim to become eco-friendly, resilient, and self-sufficient, thus transforming that community from “Blight to Beauty.®”
- 2015 lost her step-son, Pili Humphrey, who was 34 years old
- 2022 purchased a billboard asking for help solving the murder of her son Chinleyu
Born: 1965
Country: USA
Education: Unknown
Anna Roselle Johnson Julian
🔍 Sociology
✊ civil rights activist
Born: 1903 (or 1901)
Country: USA
Education: University of Pennsylvania BS Education 1923, MS Sociology 1925, PhD Sociology 1937
Christine Madeleine Odette Lagarde
💰 Finance
⚖️ Lawyer
- none
Born: 1956
Country: France
Education: Institut d'Etudes Politiques MA; Science Po Aix MA; Paris Nanterre Universite Law Degree
Lilly Ledbetter
✊ Activist for Women's Rights
- The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009, which bolsters worker protections against sex-based pay discrimination, was President Barack Obama’s first piece of legislation that he signed into law.
Janet Wood Reno
⚖️ Law
- 1st female Attorney General (1993-2001)
- Established 1st Drug Court in the US in Florida
- Pioneered the "Miami Method," a technique for eliciting intimate details from young child abuse victims & inspired the passage of a law allowing them to testify by CCTV
- Her mother wrote a weekly home improvement column for the Miami News under a male pseudonym
- As a child helped her family churn butter which they sold to make ends meet
- When she was 8 the family moved to a home on 21 acres near the Everglades that was completely built by her mother; some of the property was later sold to pay for the higher education of the 4 children
- After completing middle school in 1951, she was sent to live with an uncle who was a military judge in Germany for 1 year; travelled in Europe during school breaks
Born: 1938
Country: USA
Education: Cornell University BS Chemistry 1960; Harvard Law School LLB 1963
Adolphine Fletcher Terry
✊ social Activism
- most remembered for her role on the Women's Emergency Committee to Open Our Schools (WEC) that was primarily responsible for reopening the Little Rock, Arkansas, public school system and bringing to a close the school district closing in 1958, following the Crisis at Little Rock Central High
- her other was highly protective of her own children ( typically overdressing them in layers of heavy cotton fabric, even in the heat of summer, and discouraging them from adventurous play for fear they would be injured) and encouraged educational achievements
- entered college at the early age of 15
- she and other members of the juvenile court board for Pulaski County took delinquent children into their own homes to keep them out of the state reform school
- fought for the creation of the Boys Industrial School and the Girls Industrial School in 1917
- helped to form the African-American branch of the Young Women's Christian Association (YWCA) in Little Rock which subsequently opened in 1921
- her sister Mary created the Political Equality League in 1911 & she was very active in the organization
- was a leader at both the state and national level in the campaign for women's suffrage
- she and her sister Mary Fletcher Drennan deeded the Pike–Fletcher–Terry House to the City of Little Rock in 1964 for use by the Arkansas Arts Center which opened as the Decorative Arts Museum on March 24, 1985
- was an avid writer and published many works throughout her lifetime including: "Courage!" (1938), "Cordelia, Member of the Household" (1967), "Charlotte Stephens, Little Rock’s First Black Teacher" (1973), "Life is My Song" unpublished
- wrote her book "Courage!" (1938) under the pseudonym Mary Lindsey
- was 1 of the founders of the Little Rock Housing Association to secure federal funds under the 1937 Housing Authority Act to combat slum housing
- was active in historic preservation and the arts
- her brother John Gould Fletcher received the Pulitzer Prize in 1938 for his poetry
Born: 1882
Country: USA
Education: Vassar College 1902
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