Elizabeth Harden Gilmore

Civil rights leader who pioneered efforts to integrate her state’s schools, housing, and public accommodations and to pass civil rights legislation enforcing such integration.

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Maria W Stewart

Abolitionist and women’s rights advocate Maria W. Stewart was one of the first women of any race to speak in public in the United States. She was also the first Black American woman to write and publish a political manifesto.

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Lorraine Hansberry

In 1959, Lorraine Hansberry made history as the first African American woman to have a show produced on Broadway—A Raisin in the Sun. As a playwright, feminist, and racial justice activist, Hansberry never shied away from tough topics during her short and extraordinary life. an American artists. Her commitment to racial justice inspired countless more.

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Unita Zelma Blackwell

Born to sharecroppers in the Mississippi Delta, Blackwell rose from humble beginnings to become one of many unsung Black female heroines of the modern Civil Rights Movement.

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Maria Louise Baldwin

Educator and activist Maria Louise Baldwin belonged to a generation of Bostonian Black women highly connected to circles of educated Black and White activists.

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Marian Anderson

Civil rights icon and African American contralto, who had a ground-breaking career in classical music from the mid-1920s through the late 1950s.

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