In 1968 Shirley Chisholm became the first African American woman to serve in Congress.

Although raised on a slave-owning plantation, Angelina Grimké Weld became an ardent abolitionist.

Phillis Wheatley was the first African American woman to publish a book of poems.

Harriet Tubman escaped enslavement and helped others reach freedom.

A former slave, Sojourner Truth was an advocate for abolition, temperance, and civil and women’s rights in the 19th century.

A vocal leader of the 20th century women’s suffrage movement, Alice Paul advocated for and helped secure passage of the 19th Amendment.

A prominent essayist of the American republic, Judith Sargent Murray was an early advocate of women’s equality, access to education, and the right to control their earnings.

Considered one of the earliest American feminists, Anne Hutchinson was a spiritual leader in colonial Massachusetts who challenged male authority.

Co-founder of the United Farm Workers Association, Dolores Huerta is one of the most influential labor activists of the 20th century.

Julia Ward Howe was a writer, lecturer, abolitionist and suffragist.

Prudence Crandall bravely defied prevailing patterns of racial discrimination when she opened one of the first schools for African American girls in Connecticut in 1833.

Carrie Chapman Catt was a suffragist and peace activist who helped secure for American women the right to vote

Ruby Bridges was only six years old when she became the first African American to attend her elementary school.

Elizabeth Blackwell was the first American woman to receive a medical degree.

Mary McLeod Bethune was one of the most important Black educators, civil and women’s rights leaders and government officials of the twentieth century.

Catharine Esther Beecher was a nineteenth century teacher and writer who promoted equal access to education for women.