Stacey Abrams was born in Madison, Wisconsin, and grew up in Gulfport, Mississippi, and then Atlanta, Georgia. Growing up, her parents had struggled to stay above the poverty line, and more than once there could not pay the water and electricity bills. After graduating high school valedictorian, she studied interdisciplinary studies at Spelman College, earning her Bachelor of Arts with magna cum laude. During that time, she worked in the youth services department in Atlanta’s mayor’s office and later interned at the US Environmental Protection Agency. She continued her education at the University of Texas at Austin’s LBJ School of Public Affairs, earning a Master of Public Affairs degree, followed by a Juris Doctor degree from Yale Law School. At the age of 26, Abrams worked as a tax attorney at a law firm in Atlanta, and at 29, she was appointed a deputy city attorney for the City of Atlanta. In 2006, the 33 years old Abrams won the election as the 89th district representative at the Georgia House of Representatives. In her 11 years in office, she served on various committees, including Ethics, Appropriations, Ways & Means, and Judiciary Non-Civil. She promoted pro-choice and gun control policies and opposed strict voter ID laws. In 2010, she was elected as the House minority leader, becoming the first woman to lead a major party in the Georgia General Assembly and the first African-American to lead the Georgia House of Representatives. In this role, Abrams co-administrated the bipartisan transportation bill to save the HOPE scholarship program, stopping the largest tax increase in the state’s history. She also co-wrote a criminal-justice reform to reduce prison costs without increasing crime. During that time, she co-founded the financial services firm NOW Corp and Nourish, Inc – a beverage company. In 2017, Abrams resigned office to focus on her 2018 gubernatorial campaign. When she won the Democratic nomination, Abrams became the first African-American woman to be elected as a major party’s nominee for governor. She lost the general elections by only 55,000 votes. During her career, Abrams founded several organizations advocating for voting rights. In 2014 she established the New Georgia Project, in which she worked for registering voters who are unlikely to vote, especially people of color. In 2020, she founded Fair Fight to promote fair elections, ensuring that every citizen has a voice in the election system and encouraging voter participation by educating about voting rights. Abrams has been nominated for the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize for leading the nonviolent campaign for exercising voting rights. Abrams is serving on many boards and committees, including the Center for American Progress, the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee, the Gateway Center for the Homeless, the Georgia Partnership for Excellence in Education, and Let America Vote. She is also a lifetime member of the Council on Foreign Relations. Read more...

Born in Marion, Alabama. From an early age, she developed musical skills, singing in the church and school’s chorus as well as playing the violin, trumpet, and piano. She attended Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio, where she studied music and education. In college, she became active in the Civil Rights Movement, joining several political groups. After earning her bachelor’s degree, she was awarded a fellowship at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston. In Boston, she met her future husband, Martin Luther King Jr, who studied for Ph.D. at Boston University. She decided to continue her life with him, over her music career, and they got married in a ceremony led by his father in her family house. The following year, they moved to Montgomery, Alabama, where he served as pastor. Although she focused on raising their four children and taking the tasks of the pastor’s wife, she remained politically active and played a critical role in the civil rights movement on her own. She organized and performed in freedom concerts, participated in the Montgomery Bus Boycott of 1955, accompanied her husband in his journeys around the world, including Ghana and India, and worked tirelessly for the passing of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. She criticized the movement’s exclusion of women and spoke out on all matters regarding civil rights, including religious freedom, health care, racial and economic justice, the needs of the poor and homeless, and same-sex marriage. She served as a delegate in the Women’s Strike for Peace Conference in Geneva, Switzerland, and worked as the mediator for various international peace and justice organizations. After her husband’s assassination on April 4th, 1968, she channeled her efforts spreading his ideology of nonviolence and equal rights to all. She founded and served as the first president of the Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change, demonstrated against apartheid in South Africa and expressed her views by speaking publicly and publishing in nationally syndicated columns. She led the campaign to establish a US national holiday on January 15th, Dr. King’s birthday. Throughout the years, she served as head of many US delegations, such as the Coalition of Conscience, the delegation of Women for a Meaningful Summit, and the Soviet-American Women’s Summit. She founded dozens of civil rights organizations, including the Black Leadership Roundtable, the National Black Coalition for Voter Participation, and the Black Leadership Forum. King died at age 78 due to ovarian cancer complications. More than 14,000 people attended her service; among them were four out of five living US Presidents.   Dive deeper into the inspiring story of Coretta Scott King with our fun and engaging printable worksheet! Available now on Etsy and Teachers Pay Teachers. Read more...