Lacks (1920-1951) is the source of the HeLa "immortal" cell line, one of the most important human cell lines in the history of medical research. Lacks's cells, taken without her knowledge or consent, transformed the landscape of modern medicine, while Lacks herself remained long deprived of recognition and recompense.

Sarah Louise Keys Evans' refusal to give up her bus seat led to a landmark Interstate Commerce Commission ruling that banned segregation in interstate travel. In 1952, Evans, a Women's Army Corps member on leave from Fort Dix dressed in full military uniform, boarded a Carolina Trailways bus in Trenton, New Jersey heading home to Washington, N.C. Around midnight in Roanoke Rapids, North Carolina, a new driver took over. The new driver went down the aisle to check tickets and ordered her to give up her seat to a white Marine, despite the 1946 Morgan v. Virginia Supreme Court ruling that banned segregation in interstate travel. When Evans refused, the new driver had all of the passengers except Evans depart the bus and move to a different bus.

Cartoonist whose strips and panels infused fashion and refinement with social and political elements.

Mayor of D.C.

NASA Astronaut, Electrical Engineer, and the third black woman to travel into Space.

 Dr. Shirley Ann Jackson was born on August 5, 1946, in Washington, D.C. She earned both her B.S. in Physics (1968) and her Ph.D. in Theoretical Elementary Particle Physics (1973) from MIT, becoming the first Black woman to receive a doctorate from the institution. She is also a member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. In 1995, President Bill Clinton appointed her as Chairman of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, where she served until 1999. She was the first woman and the first African American to hold that position.

Nurse and Memoirist

On August 7, 1920 the New York Age published a story about four Black women who had been accepted by the New York Public Library for training. Catherine Latimer was one of the four. She became New York Public Library's first Black librarian.

Suffragist

Owner of Rose Meta House of Beauty in Sugar Hill & A founder of NY's only black owned commercial bank, the Freedom National Bank.

The Voice!

Modernly, Cooper has been referred to as the Mother of Black Feminism after her book A Voice from the South: By a Black Woman of the South sparked a new era of Black feminist thought, challenging the prevailing narratives of race, gender, and class.

Breed (1974) was the first Black woman elected Mayor of San Francisco, California.

"It seems I was born different. At least, I always thought I was."

Elders (1933) was the 15th Surgeon General of the United States, a Pediatrician, and Public Health Administrator.

Ada Beatrice Queen Victoria Louise Virginia Smith, called "Bricktop" for her fiery red hair, led an extraordinary life and was known by many names including The Queen of Paris Nightclubs.

After suing for and being granted her freedom, Biddy became one of the first black women to own land in Los Angeles and she founded the first black church in Los Angeles, the First African Methodist Episcopal Church, in 1872. "If you hold your hand closed, nothing good can come in. The open hand is blessed, for it gives in abundance, even as it receives."

"She sanging like the rent is due!"

Grimke (1837-1914) hailed from a triumvirate of intellectual and abolitionist families: born into the prestigious Forten family, she later married into the equally renowned Grimke family, and shared familial ties with the influential Purvis family. She was an activist, educator, and a diarist whose published works gave rare insight into the life and perspective of a free Black woman in the North, pre-civil war.

“My cause was the cause of freedom and equality for myself and for my people and I’d rather be a corpse than a coward.”

Jackson was a civil rights activist, social worker, and journalist who played a significant role in the Civil Rights Movement.