Biographies

Poet, activist, and musician Joy Harjo became the first Native American United States Poet Laureate in history.

Frances Ellen Watkins Harper was the first African American woman to publish a short story and was also an influential abolitionist, suffragist, and reformer.

Kamala D. Harris became the first woman, the first African American woman, the first Indian-American, the first person of Asian-American descent, and the first graduate of an HBCU to become the Vice-President Elect of the United States of America.

A symbolic figure in the American Revolutionary War, the woman known as “Molly Pitcher” reportedly brought water to the troops at the Battle of Monmouth and worked the cannon after her husband was wounded.

Throughout her long life, Hedgeman advocated for civil rights, education, social justice, poverty relief, and women.

Dorothy Height was the president of the National Council of Negro Women for 40 years and a leader in the Civil Rights Movement.

On May 2, 1963, 9 year old Audrey Faye Hendricks became the youngest known person arrested during the Civil Rights Movement. 

According to Antonia Hernández, she “went to law school for one reason: to use the law as a vehicle for social change.” Decades later, she can claim numerous legal victories for the Latinx community in voting rights, employment, and education.

Abstract painter, sculptor, and minimalist Carmen Herrera influenced a generation of artists.

Judith Heumann has improved accessibility and opportunities for the estimated 56 million people in the United States and one billion people around the world with disabilities.

Oveta Culp Hobby served as the director of the Women’s Army Corps and first secretary of the Department of Health, Education and Welfare.

A leading advocate for culturally sensitive mental health care, Dr. Reiko Homma True is dedicated to improving mental health treatment for the Asian-American community and other minority populations.

Rear Admiral Grace Hopper helped to outline the fundamental operating principles of computing machines.

Jazz singer and pianist Shirley Horn was one of the leading jazz musicians of her generation.

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

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

Civil rights pioneer and campaigner, Ruby Hurley is most known for her work with the NAACP in the 1950s and 1960s.

Zora Hurston was a world-renowned writer and anthropologist.

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

Mexican-American journalist, activist, and suffragist, Jovita Idár often faced dangerous situations, however she bravely fought the injustices in her time.