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.

Mercy Otis Warren was a published poet, political playwright and satirist during the age of the American Revolution.

Harriet Tubman escaped enslavement and helped others reach freedom.

Sojourner Truth, once an enslaved woman, became a fearless advocate for abolition, temperance, and civil and women’s rights in the nineteenth century. Her work during the Civil War earned her an invitation to meet President Abraham Lincoln in 1864.

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.

Undeterred by deafness and blindness, Helen Keller rose to become a major 20th century humanitarian, educator and writer.

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

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.

Abigail Adams was an early advocate for women's rights.

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