Mary Ann Shadd was born in Wilmington, Delaware, to free African-Americans and abolitionists parents. Her father was a conductor on the Underground Railroad, and their home was a refuge for fugitive slaves. When she was 10 years old, it became illegal for African-Americans to receive education in Delaware, so the family moved to Pennsylvania, where she attended a Quaker Boarding School. At 16, after graduating high school, she established a school for black children in East Chester, and later she taught in several cities, including NYC. At the age of 27, the family moved to Canada, following the passage of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, which allowed everyone to capture free slaves and returning them to their masters. As a natural-born activist, Shadd became an outspoken advocate for full racial integration and encouraged African-Americans to immigrate to Canada. She founded a school for both black and white children, and in 1852, she published a pamphlet titled “Notes on Canada West,” in which she discussed the benefits and the opportunities that wait for African-Americans in Canada. In 1953, she established “The Provincial Freeman” – the first anti-slavery newspaper, which made her the first female journalist in Canada and the first black female editor in North America. In its seven years of publication in Canada and the US, it explored a variety of topics, from immigration to world events and culture. Her unorthodox approach toward immigration made her a controversial figure in her community, and it almost cost her speech at the Philadelphia Colored Convention of 1855. When Shadd was 33, she married Thomas F. Cary, and when he died four years later, while she was pregnant with their second child, she returned to the US. During the Civil War, she served as a recruiting officer, enlisting black volunteers for the Union Army. After the war, she settled in Washington, DC, where she worked as a teacher while attending evening classes at Howard University Law School. In 1883, Shadd graduated at the age of 60 and became the second black woman in the US to earn a law degree. She never stopped writing, publishing articles in numerous newspapers, including The People’s Advocate and the National Era. Shadd was also a women’s rights activist, working alongside Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony at the National Woman Suffrage Association, and in 1880, she established the Colored Women’s Progressive Franchise – an organization promoting equal rights of African-American women. She died at the age of 70 from stomach cancer. Read more...

Born in Nebraska as Catherine Elizabeth Woods in 1947, and nowadays she is one of the most successful women in the US, but it didn’t come easy. As a child, her family lived in a housing project, and at the age of 14, she lied about her age to get a job. At 18 she got married and had a son, which became a turning point in her life. In her words – “It was the reason I took my life seriously for the first time as a teenager and made a promise to myself, my son and God that he would not become a black statistic.” Her journey in the media started in a local newspaper in Omaha (NE). In 1971, She moved to DC to lecture at the School of Communications at Howard University. She became general sales manager of the university’s radio station, WHUR-FM, and led to increasing the station revenue from $250,000 to $3 million in her first year. By 1975, Hughes became the first woman Vice President and General Manager of a station in the nation’s capital. In 1980, Hughes purchased her first radio station, WOL, DC, and founded “Radio One”. At first, she faced severe financial problems, which eventually led her to lose her home and move with her son to live at the radio station. After pioneering an innovative format – “24-Hour Talk from a Black Perspective” with the theme “Information is Power,” the station began to rise and succeed, and she served as the station’s morning show host for 11 years. Radio One became a huge success and went on to own 70 radio stations in nine major markets in the US, which made it the first African-American company in radio history to dominate several major markets and the first woman-owned radio station to rank number one in any major market. In 1999, Cathy Hughes became the first African-American woman to chair a publicly held corporation, when Radio One went public under the NASDAQ. Today Radio One, renamed to Urban One, includes a cable TV network, radio stations, and digital media platforms. Her son, Alfred Liggins III, is the CEO and president of Radio One, while Hughes serves as a Chairperson. Read more...

Born as Julia Carolyn McWilliams in Pasadena, California. At age 29, at the onset of World War II, Child wanted to enlist to the Women’s Army Corps, but she got rejected because of her height – six feet, two inches (1.88 m), so she joined the Office of Strategic Services as a research assistant. During her service and due to her position, she was sent to different places around the world, such as Sri Lanka and China, where she met her future husband, Paul. Only after getting married, at the age of 32, Child started cooking.   Four years later, the couple moved to Paris, where Paul worked at the US embassy, and there Julia discovered her passion for cooking, especially for the French cuisine. She attended the prestigious cooking school ‘Le Cordon Bleu’ and continued her studies with various master chefs.   With two other women she met at a cooking club, Child formed a cooking school in her kitchen – L’école des trois gourmandes (The School of the Three Food Lovers). After returning to the US, the three wrote together a French cookbook for Americans – ‘Mastering the Art of French Cooking’, aiming to make fine cuisine accessible. The book became a best-seller, and it is still in print to this day.   Child published more than 15 cooking books, starred in numerous television programs and established The Julia Child Foundation for Gastronomy and Culinary Arts. She had a significant impact on the perception of fine cooking, made it fun and applicable to the American housewife. Read more...

Born as Elinor Josephine Patterson, she later changed her name several times with the nickname Cissy becoming most associated with her. She was born in Chicago and grew up in a 90-room mansion of her wealthy and influential family, which had strong ties to the US newspapers industry. Her grandfather was one of the founders of the Republican Party, editor, and owner of the Chicago Tribune. Prior to joining the publishing business, she lived the life of a “socialite” – traveling with her diplomat uncle to Eastern Europe, having a short and infamous marriage to a Polish count, saving their daughter after he kidnapped her, and starring in gossip columns. She entered journalism when she was 49 years old and studied the profession “on the job”. Thanks to her family ties, her first post was as the editor of the Washington Herald. She later bought the newspaper and merged it with the Washington Times. Shortly after her takeover, Washington Times-Herald was the most popular newspaper in the capital city. She had a highly personal style of editing, expressing her political views unapologetically. In addition to her scandalous personality, she was an innovative publisher who promoted female writers and advocated for social issues, such as hot lunch for schoolchildren. In a famous incident, she dressed up as a street beggar for a story on inequality. She was called “the most powerful woman in America.” Read more...

Born in New York City to an affluent and politically dominant family, she became an orphan at the age of 8 and was raised by her grandmother. At 15 she was sent to London to study languages and arts in a private school, where her headmistress Marie Souvestre inspired her political and social awareness. After returning to New York, she married her distant cousin, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who later became the 32nd president of The United States. By his side, she was a politically active First Lady for no less than 12 years. The couple had six children. In addition to advising her husband in his political career, she was an active member of various organizations promoting equal rights for women, racial and social justice. Her vast activity is said to have been boosted after finding out about her husband’s affair: she decided to stay by his side but availed herself to independent activism, and her own affairs with both women and men. She was the author of several books, contributed content to many publications and radio shows, including the popular newspaper column “My Day,” which was published six days a week for 26 years, and delivered many speeches during her nationwide travels. At 62 she was appointed to the first US delegation to the United Nations, where she was central in creating the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Until her death, she was involved in policy making, notably chairing the President’s Commission on the Status of Women.   Dive deeper into the inspiring story of Eleanor Roosevelt with our fun and engaging printable worksheet! Available now on Etsy and Teachers Pay Teachers. Read more...