Sue Kunitomi Embrey
Sue Kunitomi Embrey understood the need to recognize and protect places that are powerful parts of our national memory and used her civic voice to advocate for those places.
Category Archives: Activism
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Emma Tenayuca
Emma Tenayuca was a Mexican-American labor organizer and civil rights activist who led strikes by women workers in Texas in the 1930s.
Dawn Langley Simmons
One of the first individuals to receive gender-affirming surgery in the United States, Simmons was also well-known in Charleston society for her marriage to John Paul Simmons. Theirs was reportedly the first documented interracial marriage in South Carolina.
Frances Perkins
American workers-rights advocate, first women in the US Cabinet, fourth US Secretary of Labor from 1933 to 1945, the longest serving in that position.
Eliza Scidmore
Eliza Scidmore traveled through Alaska’s Inside Passage in 1883. Her articles and travel logs shared the grandeur and adventure of Alaska with western tourists, ushering in a new era of travel and tourism to the Alaska territory.
Rose Schneiderman
Rose Schneiderman’s fierce advocacy for women and workers earned her a reputation as “a tiny, red-haired bundle of social dynamite.” She was a leading voice in the trade union movement for over fifty years, organizing on the shop floor, the street corner, and in the halls of Congress and the White House.
Rosika Schwimmer
Rosika Schwimmer was a Hungarian peace activist, suffragist, and feminist.
Katharine Lee Bates
Katharine Lee Bates was a professor and writer best remembered as the author of the lyrics to the song “America the Beautiful.” She shared a home for almost three decades with her companion, fellow academic and social reformer Katharine Coman.
Dr Katie John
In 2019, the Alaska State Legislature designated May 31st as an official state holiday in honor of Dr Katie John for her contributions in defense of Alaska Native customary and traditional hunting, fishing, and gathering rights.
Agnes Baker-Pilgrim
Before her death in 2019 at age 95, Agnes Baker-Pilgrim was the oldest living member of the Takelma Tribe. Better known as Grandma Aggie, Baker-Pilgrim was deeply committed to her role as a tribal elder. She mentored Indigenous youth in Oregon while traveling the world well into her eighties as an activist for Indigenous and environmental rights.