Category: Historical / page 12

Lucy Stone
Lucy Stone


Lucy Stone, abolitionist and women's rights activist, was born in West Brookfield, Massachusetts, on August 13, 1818. At the age of 16, after completing local schools, she taught and saved money for advanced study. She attended nearby Mount Holyoke Seminary for one term in 1839, but returned home to attend to the illness of a sister. Stone waited until 1843 to enroll at the Oberlin Collegiate Institute (later Oberlin College); upon her graduation in 1847, she became the first Massachusetts woman to earn a bachelor's degree. Stone gave her first […]
Bertha von Suttner
Bertha von Suttner


Bertha von Suttner, writer and peace activist, was the sixth person and the first woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize, in 1905. Suttner was born June 9, 1843, in Prague, Austria, to a noble family. Her father died before her birth, and she was raised by her mother, whose financial mismanagement necessitated that Suttner, at age 30, take a position as teacher-companion to the Suttner daughters. There, she fell in love with her charges' brother, Arthur, who was seven years her junior. She left employment with the family and […]
Mary Burnett Talbert
Mary Burnett Talbert


Mary Burnett Talbert was an African American civil rights and anti-lynching activist and suffragist. Talbert was born on September 17, 1866, in Oberlin, Ohio. She received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Oberlin College in 1886, the only African American woman in her graduating class. After college, she was a teacher at Bethel University in Little Rock, Arkansas, then became assistant principal of Union High School in Little Rock, the highest position held by an African American woman in the state. In 1891 she moved to Buffalo, New York, after […]
Emma Tenayuca
Emma Tenayuca


Emma Tenayuca was a labor activist in Texas during the 1930’s, best known for her passionate speeches. Born on December 21, 1916, in San Antonio, Texas, Tenayuca started her activism early. She was arrested during a protest in 1933, at just 16 years old. She graduated from Brackenridge High School in 1934. After high school, Tenayuca founded two international ladies' garment workers unions and was involved in the Worker's Alliance of America and Woman's League for Peace and Freedom. She organized a protest over the beating of Mexican migrants by […]
Mother Teresa
Mother Teresa


Mother Teresa was one of the great servants of humanity. She was an Albanian Catholic nun who came to India, founded the Missionaries of Charity in Kolkata, and attained Indian citizenship. Her selfless work among the poverty-stricken people of Kolkata (Calcutta) is an inspiration for people all over the world and she was honored with Nobel Prize for her work. Mother Teresa's original name was Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu. She was born on August 27, 1910, in Skopje, Macedonia. Her father was a successful merchant and she was youngest of the […]
Mary Church Terrell
Mary Church Terrell


Mary Church Terrell was a writer, educator and activist for civil rights and women's suffrage. Terrell was born on September 23, 1863, in Memphis, Tennessee. Her parents, both former slaves, were small business owners, and her father was the South's first African American millionaire. She graduated from Oberlin College in 1884 with a Bachelor of Arts in classical languages and earned a master's degree in education from Oberlin in 1888. After earning her bachelor's degree, Terrell taught at Wilberforce College (Ohio) and then at the M Street Colored High School […]
Grace Trout
Grace Wilbur Trout


A Maquoketa-born woman led the way to women’s suffrage in the state of Illinois and later across the United States. Her name is Grace Wilbur Trout and she was born in 1864 in Maquoketa. She became known as “The Woman Who Never Fails.” That may be because Grace Trout never gave up on her fight to gain the vote for women. On June 11, 1913, after going so far as to block the way of any legislators who might be tempted to leave the capitol before a vote was taken, […]
Sojourner Truth
Sojourner Truth


Sojourner Truth was an African American evangelist and reformer who applied her religious fervor to the abolitionist and women's rights movements. Named Isabella by her parents, Truth was born circa 1797, in Ulster County, New York. The daughter of slaves, she spent her childhood as an abused chattel of several masters. Between 1810 and 1827, she bore at least five children to a fellow slave named Thomas. Just before New York state abolished slavery in 1827, she found refuge with Isaac Van Wagener, who set her free. With the help […]
Harriet Tubman
Harriet Tubman


Harriet Tubman was an abolitionist, social activist, and leader for the Underground Railroad. She lead many enslaved people through networks of antislavery activists and safe houses on the Underground Railroad. Tubman was born into slavery in the state of Maryland. Her date of birth is debated, but it is thought to be 1822, according to historic records. She documented her date of birth as 1825. During the American Civil War, Tubman served as a scout and spy for the Union Army. Following the abolition of slavery, she became involved with […]
Mabel Vernon
Mabel Vernon


Mabel Vernon was a national leader in the United States suffrage movement and a key organizer of the Silent Sentinels campaign that picketed the White House six days a week from January 10, 1917, to June 4, 1919. Vernon was born on September 19, 1883, in Wilmington, Delaware, to a Quaker family. She graduated from Swarthmore College in 1906, a year behind fellow suffragist Alice Paul. After graduating, she taught Latin and German at Radnor High School in Wayne, Pennsylvania. She later earned a master's degree in political science from […]