Inventor and women’s rights advocate Lyda Newman is best known for a newly-designed hairbrush patent and her effort to fight for women’s rights; particularly, women’s suffrage. Newman was born in 1885 to a steelworker and a housewife in Ohio. Little is known about her childhood. … Read MoreLyda Newman (1885- ?)
Lisa LaTrelle Blunt Rochester has served in the cabinet of two Delaware governors, including five years as Deputy Secretary of Health and Social Services and three years as the Secretary of Labor for Governor Tom Carper, and as State Personnel Director for Governor Ruth Ann … Read MoreLisa Blunt Rochester (1962- )
Kristine Reeves has been a representative in the 30th Legislative District of Washington, which includes Southwest King County as well as Northwest Pierce County, since 2016. She is known for her advocacy on behalf of working moms and for her commitment to veterans and their families, … Read MoreKristine Reeves (1981- )
María Isabel Urrutia Ocoró, Olympic champion weightlifter and politician, was born in Calendaria, Department of Valle del Cauca, Colombia, on March 25, 1965. Her mother, Nelly, was a homemaker and her father, Pedro Juan, was an industrial mechanic. Sources differ, but Urrutia had at least … Read MoreMaría Isabel Urrutia Ocoró (1965- )
Ida Gray Nelson Rollins, the first African American female dentist, was born in Clarksville, Tennessee, on March 4, 1867. She became an orphan when her mother, Jennie Gray, died in her early teens. Rollins’ white father, who name is unknown, played no role in her … Read MoreIda Gray Nelson Rollins (1867-1953)
Actor Samuel Leroy Jackson was born on December 21, 1948 in Washington, D.C. to factory worker Elizabeth Jackson. His father abandoned his mother shortly after Jackson’s birth and then died of alcoholism. Jackson and his mother moved to Chattanooga, Tennessee, where they lived with her … Read MoreSamuel L. Jackson (1948- )
Mary Frances Berry is a scholar, professor, author, and civil rights activist who served on the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. Berry was born in Nashville, Tennessee on February 17, 1938 to parents Frances Southall Berry and George Ford Berry. Due to her mother’s poverty … Read MoreMary Frances Berry (1938- )
Elmer “Geronimo” Pratt was a high ranking Black Panther Party (BPP) leader in Los Angeles who was targeted by the United States federal government’s domestic surveillance COINTELPRO program. He was accused and convicted of a murder and spent twenty-seven years in prison but the conviction … Read MoreGeronimo Pratt (1947-2011)
Michele Wallace, a feminist scholar, writer and educator, was born on January 4, 1952 in New York City to Robert Earl Wallace, a musician, and Faith Ringgold, a well-known artist and author. In 1978, at age 26, she published her first book, Black Macho and … Read MoreMichele Faith Wallace (1952- )
Visual artist, storyteller and feminist activist, Faith Ringgold was born on October 8, 1930 in Harlem Hospital, New York City to Andrew Louis Jones, Sr. and Willie Edell Jones (Willi Posey), a fashion designer and dressmaker. An arts graduate from City College in New York … Read MoreFaith Ringgold (1930- )
