Category: Women of Color and Accomplishment: Doing the Right Thing

Bobbi Wilson 2013– In February of 2023 the Yale School of Public Health, after learning about 9-year-old Bobbi Wilson’s encounter with the police following her efforts to curb the presence of the invasive spotted lantern fly, honored her with a ceremony at Yale.  State agricultural departments across the country urged Americans to kill the invasive insects,… Continue reading Bobbi Wilson

Maisie Brown 2001– In 2022, Maisie Brown helped with the Jackson, Mississippi water crisis, leading the effort to deliver drinking water to residents unable to access the city’s distribution centers. Clean drinking water had been an issue since 2010 when a winter storm broke mains and caused a widespread water outage. The water failed an… Continue reading Maisie Brown

Dr. Marie Maynard Daly 1921 -2003 Dr. Marie Maynard Daly was raised by a father who instilled a drive for education in his daughter because he was forced to abandon his own educational dreams due to a lack of funds. Although the family was poor, Marie paid her tuition at Queens College by tutoring chemistry… Continue reading Marie Maynard Daly

Memphis Minnie 1897–1973 Memphis Minnie was born Lizzie Douglas in 1897. Her singing, songwriting, and skilled guitar playing made her a popular blues artist in the 1930s and ’40s. Her popularity was an achievement because the field was dominated by male guitarists and pianists.  According to the National Park Service, Memphis Minnie was the greatest female… Continue reading Memphis Minnie

Ruth Batson 1921-2003 Ruth Bateson is best known for her successful fight to help desegregate the Boston School System.   Inspired by her mother’s interest in civil rights, Ruth Bateson became the Chairman of the Public Education Sub-Committee of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1953. In the early 1960s, she… Continue reading Ruth Bateson

Belle da Costa Greene 1879–1950 Belle da Costa Greene was an American librarian who managed and developed the personal library of J. P. Morgan. Her father shared with Greene his passion for medieval books, especially illuminated manuscripts, and it was her knowledge acquired from him of this field that enabled her to secure a position… Continue reading Belle da Costa Greene

Mari Copeny 2007– Amariyanna “Mari” Copeny became known as Little Miss Flint during the 2016 water crisis in Michigan. She wrote a letter to then-President Barack Obama bringing international attention to lead-tainted drinking water in her hometown. She was only eight at the time. Obama wrote back and also went to Michigan to meet Copeny… Continue reading Mari Copeny

Allyson Felix 1985– Allyson Felix is both the most decorated woman in Olympic track and field history and the most decorated American track and field athlete in the World Athletics Championships history, earning 11 total medals from five consecutive Olympic Games between 2008 and 2022.   In 2018, a pregnant Felix developed severe pre-eclampsia, a condition… Continue reading Allyson Felix

Annie Easley 1933 -2011 Two weeks after reading an article on twin sisters working as human computers, Annie Easley began a career in 1955 as a ‘human computer’, doing computations for researchers. This involved analyzing problems and doing calculations by hand. In the face of discrimination, her motto was “[I]f I can’t work with you,… Continue reading Annie Easley

Ellen Jackson 1935–2005 Ellen Swepson Jackson was an American educator and activist best known for founding Operation Exodus in 1965.  Jackson got involved because her five children attended an overcrowded school of predominantly Black students who were not encouraged to prepare for college. Jackson’s experience on how to work the system started as a parent… Continue reading Ellen Jackson