Virginia Estelle Randolph

Virginia Estelle Randolph, born of formerly enslaved parents in Richmond, was a pioneering educator, community health advocate, organizational leader, and humanitarian.

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Mary Richards Bowser

Mary Richards Bowser was born into slavery and later became a missionary to Liberia, a Union spy in the Confederate White House during the American Civil War (1861–1865), and a teacher at freedmen’s schools.

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Suzanne Louverture

Wife of Haitian Revolution leader Toussaint Louverture; she was tortured when captured by Napoleon. They demanded information about the whereabouts of her husband which she never divulged.

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Barbara Rose Johns

Barbara Rose Johns Powell conceived and executed a 1951 student walkout at the all-Black Robert Russa Moton High School in Farmville, precipitating one of five legal cases that would be consolidated into the 1954 U.S. Supreme Court decision Brown v. Board of Education, which overturned segregated public schools.

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