Known as the “Godmother of Title IX,” Bernice Sandler fought for women’s rights in education. After being denied equal access to teaching jobs at her university, Sandler took matters into her own hands. In addition to starting a social revolution for women’s rights, she became the first woman ever appointed to a Congressional committee to work specifically on women’s issues.
On May 2, 1963, 9 year old Audrey Faye Hendricks became the youngest known person arrested during the Civil Rights Movement. She was one of hundreds of children who took part in marches against segregation in the city of Birmingham, Alabama.
Felisa Rincón de Gautier, affectionately known to the public as Doña Fela, became the first female mayor of a capital city in the Americas when she was appointed mayor of San Juan, Puerto Rico in 1946. She went on to win reelection four times, serving in office until 1969. Doña Fela devoted herself to public welfare, working to improve housing, public health, and employment for the city’s most vulnerable residents.
Pauli Murray was breaking barriers from a young age. Held back by what Murray dubbed “Jane Crow,” s/he* was a staunch advocate for the rights of women and people of color and fought tirelessly for civil rights. As a poet, writer, activist, organizer, legal theorist, and priest, Murray was directly involved in, and helped articulate, the intellectual foundations of two of the most important social justice movements of the twentieth century.
Teacher, lecturer, and author, Grace Frysinger supported rural communities throughout her career. She was known for her diverse work in home economics and active leadership of agricultural organizations nationally and internationally.
As a Chilean author and educator, Gabriela Mistral became the first Latin American author to receive the Nobel Prize in literature. She boldly advocated for the rights of women, children, the poor, and many other disadvantaged groups in her community.
Although it was very dangerous for African Americans to speak out against white people during the Jim Crow era, Recy Taylor refused to remain silent about sexual violence. She bravely testified against the group of white men that kidnapped and raped her.
Maria de Lopez rallied the crowd gathered at Los Angeles Plaza on October 3, 1911 by giving a speech in favor of woman’s suffrage entirely in Spanish, an unprecedented event for the time. An educator, translator, and clubwoman, Lopez helped win the vote for Californian women with her oratory and the writings she translated into Spanish. In addition to her suffrage work, Lopez fought for decades to preserve Spanish- and Mexican-American cultural heritage.
Poet and author Audre Lorde used her writing to shine light on her experience of the world as a Black lesbian woman and later, as a mother and person suffering from cancer. A prominent member of the women’s and LGBTQ rights movements, her writings called attention to the multifaceted nature of identity and the ways in which people from different walks of life could grow stronger together.
Adelina Otero-Warren, the first Hispanic woman to run for U.S. Congress and the first female superintendent of public schools in Santa Fe, was a leader in New Mexico’s woman’s suffrage movement.