Zaida Ben-Yusuf

Ben-Yúsuf was one of the “New Women” who joined the paid labor force in the 1890s. She was in the vanguard of women who became professional photographers as magazines reached massive circulation figures, and photographs supplanted drawn illustration art.

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Alice Ballard

Alice Ballard was the youngest of seven children born to John and Amanda Ballard, the first African Americans to own a home above the Malibu coastline.

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Ethel Ray Nance

Ethel Ray Nance was an African American activist and writer. During the 1920s, she broke various racial and gender barriers in Minnesota, participated in the Harlem Renaissance movement, worked as a secretary for the National Urban League, and contributed to Opportunity magazine.

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Emily Grey

Best known for initiating the effort to free an enslaved woman named Eliza Winston in 1860, she weathered mob violence for her efforts. She rebuilt her home and business after the incident and lived in Minneapolis for the remainder of her life.

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Nellie Stone Johnson

Nellie Stone Johnson was an African American union and civil rights leader whose career spanned the class-conscious politics of the 1930s and the liberal reforms of the Minnesota DFL Party.

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