Harriet Tubman
c. 1822 – 1913
Born into slavery, she escaped to freedom and then went back — again and again — to bring others out with her.
PAVED THE WAY
The women who paved the way.
We did not begin this work from nothing. We began it behind a long line of women who were told to wait their turn and did not. These painted panels hang in our home as a reminder of who carried the torch first — and what we intend to do with it.
Madam C.J. Walker
1867 – 1919
The daughter of formerly enslaved parents, she built a business so that thousands of other women could earn their own living.
“I am a self-made woman.”
Fannie Lou Hamer
1917 – 1977
A sharecropper who refused to be turned away from the ballot box, and made an entire country listen.
“I’m sick and tired of being sick and tired.”
Maya Angelou
1928 – 2014
She wrote about a childhood silence that no one else would name, and handed a generation its voice back.
“Still I rise.”
Shirley Chisholm
1924 – 2005
The first Black woman elected to Congress, and the first to tell the country she intended to lead it.
“Unbought and unbossed.”
Katherine Johnson
1918 – 2020
Her hand-checked numbers carried astronauts into orbit and brought them home again.
“I counted everything.”
Ruby Bridges
b. 1963
At six years old, she walked into a school alone, so that other children would never have to.
THERE’S A PLACE FOR YOU HERE
You belong. Just as you are.
Your first step doesn’t have to be a big one. Let’s take it together.
