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Born as a third generation Washingtonian, to a Superior Court Judge. She lost her mother before turning 5 years old and was raised with her sister by their grandmother. Her father encouraged her to follow his footsteps towards a career in public service. She studied Political Science and later Law at Howard University. There, at the age of 18, she met Arrington Dixon, a fellow student, who will become her first husband. She gave birth to their first daughter in 1968, the same year that she graduated with her Law degree. She took motherhood as a priority and worked part-time until their two daughters were at school age – at her father’s law firm and lecturing at a law college. She then started setting a list of firsts – in her activity in the Democratic Party until becoming first female Democratic National Committee Treasurer; and in her work, as she climbed the corporate ladder at PEPCO, Washington’s utility company, until becoming company’s vice president – the first female and first black in the position. Her most notable public achievement was in 1989 when she decided to run for the mayor position of the Columbia District, winning with a record of 86%, becoming the first African-American woman to serve as mayor of a major American city. She served in the office only one term, in which she faced challenges of internal resistance of the administration, and public opinion – criticizing her as “upper-class black princess” and scandalous spending of public money on makeup. After coming third in the following elections, she went back to the private sector and in 2002 opened her own consulting company. Read more...

Fannie Perkins was born in Boston, Massachusetts, and grew up in Worcester. After high school, she attended Mount Holyoke College, where she discovered progressive politics and became active in the suffrage movement. At age 22, after receiving her Bachelor’s degree in physics and chemistry, she moved to Chicago and taught chemistry in various schools. During vacation and in her free time, she volunteered at the Hull House settlement house, where she worked with Jane Addams. At 25, she joined the Episcopal church and changed her name to Frances. In 1907, she moved to Philadelphia to study economics at the University of Pennsylvania while working as general secretary of the Philadelphia Research and Protective Association. Two years later, she moved to NYC, where she worked at the New York School of Philanthropy investigating childhood malnutrition as well as studying political science at Columbia University. At the age of 30, Perkins was appointed the head of the National Consumers League in New York. In this position, she lobbied to improve working conditions and to set working hours limitations for factory workers, especially for women and children. In 1911, she witnessed the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, where 146 workers, mostly women, were trapped in the building and died. Following this event, she was chosen by the new mayor of NYC, Theodore Roosevelt, as the executive secretary for the Committee on Safety of the city. As secretary, Perkins served as an expert witness and led legislators on inspections of factories and worksites. The Commission formulated a set of laws for workplace health and safety, which became a federal government model. In 1913, she married Paul Caldwell Wilson, and three years later, she gave birth and left the office. Not long after, her husband was hospitalized for mental illness, and she returned to work in the New York State government. On February 18th, 1919, Perkins was appointed to head of the New York’s State Industrial Commission, becoming the first woman to serve at an administrative position in the state government, and the highest-paid woman in public office in the US. As a commissioner, she oversaw the industrial code and supervised the bureau of mediation and arbitration and the bureau of information and statistics. In 1929, at the age of 49, Perkins was appointed by the new governor Franklin Roosevelt as the inaugural New York State industrial commissioner. Supervising 1,800 employees, she reduced the workweek for women to 48 hours, expanded factory investigations, and pushed for ending child labor as well as unemployment insurance laws and minimum wage. Four years later, when Roosevelt was elected as the president, he asked Perkins to serve in his cabinet as Secretary of Labor, becoming the first woman in the US to hold a cabinet position and enter the presidential line of succession. She presented a list of labor programs, known as the “New Deal,” and in the 12 years she held the position, she had accomplished all the items on the list, but one – universal access to health care. Perkins also served as a member of the Special Board for Public Works, ensuring funds for social projects such as schools, housing, and roads. She chaired the President’s Committee on Economic Security, in which she established the She-She-She Camps for unemployed women and the Civilian Conservation Corps and drafted the Social Security Act. In 1945, when Truman was elected president, she was replaced in the cabinet but was asked to serve on the US Civil Service Commission. As a commissioner, she spoke against the requirement of secretaries and stenographers to be hired for their looks. She held this position for seven years, retiring in 1952 after her husband had died. She remained active as a lecturer and teacher in several academic institutes until she passed away at the age of 85. Read more...

Born Artis Shreve in North Buxton, Canada, and grew up in Ann Arbor, Michigan. From an early age, she showed interest in art, and during high school, she painted her classmates’ portraits. After graduation, she got a scholarship to the Ontario College of Art in Toronto, Ontario. After receiving her degree, she married Bill Lane, and the couple moved to Detroit, Michigan. She continued her education at Cranbrook Academy of Art, the first woman to be admitted to the institute, and supported her family by painting portraits. Soon, her reputation as a portrait artist grew, receiving commissions from prominent figures, such as Michigan Governor George Romney, Detroit’s mayor Coleman Young, and members of the Ford family. Upon her divorce, she moved to NYC, NY, and met her second husband, Vince Cannon. After spending some time in Texas and New Mexico, she settled in Los Angeles, CA, working with Universal Studios and becoming the portrait painter of celebrities, including Frank Sinatra, Nancy Kissinger, and President John F. Kennedy. During the 1970s, the civil rights movement influenced Lane’s work, and she began to depict social issues in her art, as can be seen in the painting Tear on the Face of America. With time, Lane’s art expanded to various mediums, such as oil painting, sketching, and collage. It became more figurative and universal, reflecting her vision of metaphysical truth rather than the specific feature of the persons she depicts. Among the portraits and sculptures of notable people she created are Dorothy Height, Mary McLeod Bethune, Aretha Franklin, Oprah Winfrey, and former President Barack Obama. Two of her most known works are a bronze bust of Sojourner Truth in the US Capitol, which upon its unveiling in 2009 by First Lady Michelle Obama, it became the first statue in the Capitol honoring a Black woman. The second is the bust she created of her great, great aunt, Mary Ann Shadd Cary, which stands in Canada since 2009. Read more...