Make Friends With an Amazing Woman from History

March is Women’s Histoire Month, and an excellent time to discover some new role models from history! There are lots of women that history has been generous with – Eleanor Roosevelt, Harriet Tubman, and Queen Elizabeth to name a few. But we only know about them because people told their stories, and there are so many other women who have done incredible things. I’ve listed a few women you may not have heard of below with a short bio – why not take some time to deep dive into one of these cool ladies and learn more about her this month?

Ida B Wells: A prominent journalist, activist, and researcher, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. In her lifetime, she battled sexism, racism, and violence. As a skilled writer, Wells-Barnett also used her skills as a journalist to shed light on the conditions of African Americans throughout the South.

Joan Trumpaur Mulholland: An American civil rights activist who was one of the Freedom Riders who was arrested in Jackson, Mississippi in 1961, and was confined for two month in the Maximum Security Unit of the Mississippi State Penitentiary. The following year she was the first white student to enroll at Tougaloo College in Mississippi. You can find her on TikTok with her son, encouraging the younger generation to activism.

Bessie Coleman: Soared across the sky as the first African American, and the first Native American, woman pilot. Known for performing flying tricks, Coleman’s nicknames were; “Brave Bessie,” “Queen Bess,” and “The Only Race Aviatrix in the World.” Her goal was to encourage women and African Americans to reach their dreams.

Johnnie Lacy: A Black disability rights activist integral to the independent living movement. Through her activism, she brought to light the intersectionality of race and disability and worked to tackle ableism in the Black community and racism in the largely white-dominated disability community.           

Hedy Lamarr: A famous film actress and brilliant self-taught inventor, she is responsible for such things as the streamlined look of modern airplanes, traffic signal improvements, and the technology that would eventually enable Wi-Fi. Considered one of the most beautiful women of her time, her many patents and inventions were ignored by men of the era.

Alice Dunnigan: An African-American journalist, civil rights activist and author. Dunnigan was the first African-American female correspondent to receive White House credentials, and the first black female member of the Senate and House of Representatives press galleries

Is there a woman from history you’d like to learn more about? Who inspires you, and how can you share her story? Tell us in the comments!

Originally featured on Kivity.com 3/8/2022