Teréz Karacs was a writer, educator, memoirist and women’s rights activist. She was a leader of Hungary’s early feminist movement, as well as the general social reform movement, and a famous literary writer of contemporary Hungary. A pioneer of women’s education, she founded the Zrínyi Ilona Grammar School in the northeastern Hungary.
An important figure in organising the March 1st Movement against the Japanese colonial rule in Korea, Yu Gwansun became a symbol of her country’s fight for independence through peaceful protest. Often called “Korea’s Joan of Arc”, Yu was only 17 when she was arrested by Japanese police during an independence demonstration in 1919. Both of her parents were killed at the demonstration.
Sentenced to seven years’ imprisonment, she continued to fight for Korean independence in jail, which led to beatings and other forms of torture at the hands of Japanese officers. A year later, she died in prison at age 18, reportedly as the result of the torture. She was posthumously awarded the Order of Independence Merit, which is awarded for “outstanding meritorious services in the interest of founding or laying a foundation for the Republic of Korea” in 1962.
Kartini was an Indonesian national hero, a pioneer in the area of education for girls and women’s rights for Indonesians. Her birthday is celebrated as Kartini Day in Indonesia.
Born into an aristocratic Javanese family in the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia), she attended a Dutch-language primary school. She aspired to further education but there was no opportunity available to girls in Javanese society.
Kartini wrote letters about her ideas and feelings, and they were published in a Dutch magazine and later as Out of Darkness to Light, Women’s Life in the Village, and Letters of a Javanese Princess. Although she died at only 25, her advocacy for the education of girls was continued by her sisters. Kartini Schools in Bogor, Jakarta, and Malang were named for her and a fund established in her name to support the education of girls.
Andrea Villarreal was a teacher, poet, feminist, labor organizer, and revolutionary. Along with her sister Teresa, Andrea published the feminist newspaper La Mujer Moderna (The Modern Woman, 1910) supporting the liberal-radical activities of the Partido Liberal Mexicano (opposing the Mexican dictatorship of President Porfirio Díaz (1876–1911)) in San Antonio and the Mexican Revolution (1910–17). She publicly opposed the imprisonment of Mexican men during the Revolution and was referred to by members of the press as the Mexican Joan of Arc.
Lula Parrish risked her job and her life by marching for civil rights with more than 100 other African-American teachers in the Selma Teachers March on January 22 1965. Her daughter Joyce O’Neal, described her mother’s bravery and her own fear when her mother left for the march: “She hugged us and didn’t say much. But she was thinking ‘will I have a job when I get back?’ and “will I get back?’” Her other daughter, Phyllis Parrish Alston, published a book about Lula, Lessons From The Front Porch Swing. Both of her daughters also participated, marching with the students.
Katharine Susannah Prichard was an Australian author and co-founding member of the Communist Party of Australia. Over her more than 50-year career, she published novels, volumes of poetry and short story collections.
Delta Sigma Theta, a service sorority for black women, was founded at Howard University in Washington, DC in 1912, with Myra Davis Hemmings of San Antonio elected as its first president. At the time she was also president of Alpha Kappa Alpha, the first Greek-named sorority for African American women.
Hemmings was active in amateur theater and directed productions for the San Antonio Negro Little Theater. She and her husband helped to organize the city’s Phyllis Wheatley Dramatic Guild Players. In addition to acting on stage, she appeared in three films: 1941 tragic drama film Go Down Death: The Story of Jesus and the Devil, starring as the martyr Sister Caroline (she also co-produced and co-directed the film), Marching On (1943) and In Girl in Room 20 (1946).
As a drama teacher, Hemmings directed plays from the 1920s through the 1950s at San Antonio’s Carver Community Cultural Center. She taught in San Antonio for more than 50 years. Hemmings was elected as the national vice-president of Delta Sigma Theta in 1933 and became the organization’s historian in 1948. She was also a member of the NAACP, the National Council of Negro Women[13] and the Alpha Phi Literary Society.
Urani Rumbo was an Albanian feminist, playwright and teacher who founded several associations promoting Albanian women’s rights, including the Lidhja e Gruas (English: Woman’s Union), one of the country’s first major feminist organizations. In 1919, while teaching at the De Rada school of Gjirokastër, she started an initiative against female illiteracy and the tradition of restricting women to certain parts of the household. In 1920 she opened the Koto Hoxhi school, a five-year primary school for girls from all parts of Gjirokastër and of all religions. There is an elementary school in Gjirokastër named after her. On March 1, 1961, she posthumously recieved the Mësuese e Popullit (Teacher of the People) medal.
Born: July 29 1887, Japan Died: 10 July 1980 Country most active: Japan Also known as: 木村 駒子, Komaku Kimura or Komago Kimura (misspellings in American newspapers) Komako Kimura was […]
Born: March 19 1882, United States Died: 9 December 1964 Country most active: United States Also known as: NA Minnie Fisher Cunningham was an American suffrage activist, who was the […]