Activist

Huggins (1948) is an educator, writer, human rights and community activist, and former Black Panther Party leader who helped establish innovative community education models in Oakland, California. While attending Lincoln University she met John Huggins. It was there that they were both deeply moved by a Ramparts magazine photo of a wounded Huey Newton shackled to his hospital bed and they decided to drive from the East Coast to Los Angeles to attend a Free Huey rally. A month later, in November 1967, they joined the Los Angeles chapter of the Black Panther Party.

Shakur (1947-2016) was an activist and community organizer who held several high-ranking roles within the Black Panther Party including Section Leader of the Harlem Branch, Communications Secretary, and Press representative. She was also the mother of rapper and actor Tupac Amaru Shakur. She is most notably remembered for representing herself while pregnant in The Panther 21 Case, where she and twenty other Panthers faced charges of conspiracy to bomb New York City police stations, department stores and railroad tracks.

Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Incorporated, founded on January 13, 1913, at Howard University by 22 collegiate women, is one of the largest African American women's organizations with over 350,000 initiated members. The organization's first public act was participating in the Women's Suffrage March of 1913, setting the foundation for its ongoing commitment to social action.

Kitt (1927-2008) rose from poverty in South Carolina, where she lived with relatives, to attend the High School of Performing Arts in New York before launching her career with Katherine Dunham's dance company. She became an international star renowned for her distinctive purring voice, feline grace, and multilingual performances, establishing herself as a symbol of seduction and sophistication with hits like "Santa Baby" (1953) and "C'est Si Bon." Her diverse career spanned Broadway, film, and television, including her memorable role as Catwoman in the 1960s Batman series. Kitt's career faced a significant setback in 1968 when her anti-Vietnam War statements at a White House luncheon led to CIA surveillance and an effective blacklisting in the U.S., though she later triumphantly returned to Broadway and television.

Community Service program run by the black panther party.

Brown was the first black woman to hold both a private (1937) and commercial (1939) pilot’s license in the United States and one of the first woman to hold a commercial pilot's license and a master aviation mechanic's certificate (1935). She co-founded the Coffey School of Aeronautics where she trained thousands of pilots, nearly 200 of which became Tuskegee airmen. She was also the first black woman to run for Congress.

Hope (1871-1947) was a "race woman", life-long activist, community organizer, and lecturer who established programs and worked with institutions that advanced racial and social justice in the Black community. She worked tirelessly to improve the lives of Black families, women, and children in Atlanta through the Neighborhood Union, an organization she founded with either other women in 1908. During World War I, as Chair of the Women's Committee of the YWCA war work council (1917-1919), she worked with Black soldiers and their families at Camp Gordon, providing support and recreational services that they were denied by the United Services Organization (USO).

Brown (1943) is a prison and civil rights activist and was the first woman to lead the Black Panther Party as chairwoman (1974-1977).

Wyatt (1924-2012) was the first Black woman to hold an executive position in a labor union.

Franklin (1942-2018) was a singer, songwriter, and pianist whose distinctive vocals and fusion of gospel, soul, and R&B earned her recognition as the "Queen of Soul." She amassed extraordinary commercial and critical successes, selling more than 85 million records worldwide and earning 18 Grammy Awards and 44 nominations. Her achievements continued throughout her career, and in 1987, she made history as the first woman performer inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Rolling Stone magazine twice named her the greatest singer of all time.

Burroughs (1879-1961) was one of the most influential women of the early 20th century. She was a businesswoman, unbowed social and political activist, and a key figure in the women’s suffrage movement.

“There is no one so black that is not akin to me”. Matthews declared during her 1897 speech “The Awakening of the Afro-American Woman”.

Spelman College and Yale Law School graduate, the first black woman admitted to the Mississippi Bar (1964), founder of the Children's Defense Fund, and the first woman alum elected to the Yale University Corporation, Marian Wright Edelman has dedicated her life to advocating for children's rights and serving her community.

Hedgeman (1899-1990) was a civil rights activist, educator, politician, author, founding member of the National Organization for Women, and was the first woman member on the administrative planning committee for the 1963 March on Washington. She reportedly recruiter over 40,000 marchers from the National Council of Churches.

Referred to as the First Lady of Negro America, Bethune (1875-1955) was an impassioned Educator and founder of Bethune-Cookman College and the The National Council of Negro Women, Inc.

In 1991, Harlins was murdered, shot in the back of the head from a distance of three feet by a Korean grocery store owner in Los Angeles, California.