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Rosa Parks
- Rosa was called “the first lady of civil rights” and “the mother of the freedom movement” by US Congress
- She was repeatedly bullied by white children in her neighborhood, often having to fight back physically
- She was an activist in the Civil Rights Movement
- Rosa was once a domestic worker and hospital aide
- At her husband's urging, she finished her high school studies in 1933, at a time when less than 7% of African Americans had a high school diploma
- In the 1940s, she and her husband were members of the Voters' League
- In 1944, in her capacity as secretary for the Montgomery chapter of the NAACP, she investigated the gang-rape of Recy Taylor, a black woman from Abbeville, Alabama; she and other civil rights activists organized the "Committee for Equal Justice for Mrs. Recy Taylor", launching what the Chicago Defender called "the strongest campaign for equal justice to be seen in a decade”
- On December 1, 1955, in Montgomery, Alabama, Parks refused to obey bus driver James F. Blake's order to give up her seat in the "colored section" to a white passenger, after the whites-only section was filled
- She was arrested and tried on charges of disorderly conduct and violating a local ordinance, the trial lasted 30 minutes; after she was found guilty and fined $10, plus $4 in court costs, Rosa appealed her conviction and formally challenged the legality of racial segregation
- Rosa’s act of defiance and the Montgomery Bus Boycott became important symbols of the modern Civil Rights Movement; she became an international icon of resistance to racial segregation
- She organized and collaborated with civil rights leaders, including Edgar Nixon, president of the local chapter of the NAACP, and Martin Luther King, Jr.
- She had attended the Highlander Folk School, a Tennessee center for training activists for workers' rights and racial equality; she acted as a private citizen "tired of giving in" through her bus action
- Although widely honored in later years, she also suffered for her act in certain respects; she was fired from her job as a seamstress in a local department store, and received death threats for years afterwards
- From 1965 to 1988 she served as secretary and receptionist to John Conyers, an African-American US Representative
- Rosa participated in activism nationally during the mid-1960s, traveling to support the Selma-to-Montgomery Marches, the Freedom Now Party, and the Lowndes County Freedom Organization
- She befriended Malcolm X, who she regarded as a personal hero
- She was also active in the Black Power movement and the support of political prisoners in the US
- After retirement, Rosa wrote her autobiography and continued to insist that the struggle for justice was not over and there was more work to be done
- In her final years, she suffered from dementia
- She received national recognition, including the NAACP's 1979 Spingarn Medal, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the Congressional Gold Medal, and a posthumous statue in the United States Capitol's National Statuary Hall
- She co-founded the Rosa L. Parks Scholarship Foundation for college-bound high school seniors, to which she donated most of her speaker fees
- In February 1987 she co-founded, with Elaine Eason Steele, the Rosa and Raymond Parks Institute for Self Development, an institute that runs the "Pathways to Freedom" bus tours which introduce young people to important civil rights and Underground Railroad sites throughout the country
- Rosa also served on the Board of Advocates of Planned Parenthood
- Though her health declined as she entered her seventies, she continued to make many appearances and devoted considerable energy to the aforementioned causes
- At age 81 she was robbed and assaulted in her home in central Detroit on August 30, 1994; she survived, though she suffered anxiety following the incident
- Upon her death in 2005, she was the first woman and third non-US government official to lie in honor in the Capitol Rotunda
- California and Missouri commemorate Rosa Parks Day on her birthday February 4; Ohio and Oregon commemorate the occasion on the anniversary of the day she was arrested, December 1
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LaDonna Harris
- LaDonna is a Comanche Native American, adamant social activist, and politician from Oklahoma
- She vocalizes her support for civil rights, environmental protection, the women’s movement, and world peace
- She began her public service as the wife of US Senator Fred Harris
- From the 1970s to the present, she helped found some of today’s leading national Indian organizations including the National Indian Housing Council, Council of Energy Resource Tribes, National Tribal Environmental Council, and National Indian Business Association
- She is the founder and president of Americans for Indian Opportunity (AIO), which advances, from an Indigenous worldview, the cultural, political and economic rights of Indigenous peoples in the US and around the world
- She was a vice presidential candidate for the Citizens Party in the 1980 US presidential election alongside Barry Commoner; in this role, she added environmental issues to national debate and future presidential campaigns
- She has been appointed to many Presidential Commissions, including being recognized by Vice President Al Gore in 1994 as a leader in the area of telecommunications in his remarks at the White House Tribal Summit
- In 2000, she published her autobiography, LaDonna Harris : A Comanche Life
- LaDonna Harris: Indian 101 is documentary about her life, released in 2014 and directed and produced by Julianna Brannum
- LaDonna was a founding member of Common Cause and the National Urban Coalition, and is a spokesperson against poverty and social injustice
- As an advocate for women’s rights, she was a founder of the National Women's Political Caucus
- She has raised three children
- She has served on the boards of the Girl Scouts of the USA, Independent Sector, Council on Foundations, National Organization for Women, National Urban League, Save the Children, National Committee Against Discrimination in Housing, Overseas Development Corporation, Advancement of Maori Opportunity, Institute for 21st Century Agoras, National Senior Citizens Law Center, and Think New Mexico
- She currently serves on the advisory boards of the National Museum of the American Indian, American Civil Liberties Union, Delphi International Group, and National Institute for Women of Color
- She was an honorary co-chair of the Women's March on Washington on January 21, 2017, the day after the inauguration of Donald Trump as President
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Hailee Steinfeld
- Hailee, an American actress and singer, made her breakthrough in 2010 starring as Mattie Ross in True Grit, for which she was nominated for Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, among other things
- In 2011, she was chosen to be the new face of Italian designer brand Miu Miu
- She received a Golden Globe Award nomination for Best Actress in a Motion Picture Comedy or Musical for her portrayal of Nadine Franklin in the 2016 film The Edge of Seventeen
- Her debut single “Love Myself” has been certified platinum in several countries, and promoted self-love and arguably helped in diminishing stigma that surrounds masturbation, particularly when it’s done by women
- Hailee is openly a feminist, having spoken out on the importance of women banding together, and showing her support for woman unity with her song and accompanying video “Most Girls”
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Uzo Aduba
- Uzo is an American actress, well-known for her role as Suzanne "Crazy Eyes" Warren on the Netflix series Orange Is the New Black, for which she won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series in 2014, an Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series in 2015, and two Screen Actors Guild Awards for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Comedy Series in 2014 and 2015
- She is one of only two actors to win an Emmy Award recognition in both the comedy and drama categories for the same role, and the first actress to do so
- She first garnered recognition for her acting in 2003, when her performance in Translations of Xhosa at the Olney Theatre Center for the Arts earned her a Helen Hayes Award nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Play
- She played the character Amphiarus in 2006 at New York Theatre Workshop and again in 2008 at La Jolla Playhouse
- In 2007, she made her Broadway debut, portraying Toby in Helen Edmundson's adaptation of Coram Boy at the Imperial Theatre
- From 2011 through 2012, she sang "By My Side" as part of the original revival cast of Godspell at the Circle in the Square Theatre
- Her first television appearance was as a nurse on Blue Bloods in 2012; she also played the mother of the title character of Venice at The Public Theater in New York
- In joining OITNB in 2013, Uzo obtained her Screen Actors Guild card
- Uzo performed at Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS benefit concert Broadway Backwards in 2014
- She is an outspoken advocate for human rights, creative arts, and LGBT rights
- In April 2017, shereceived the Point Courage Award from the Point Foundation for her support of the LGBT community
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Tyra Banks
- Tyra is an American television personality, producer, businesswoman, actress, author, former model and occasional singer
- She began her career as a model at age 15, and was the first African-American woman to be featured on the covers of GQ and the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue, on which she appeared twice
- In her first runway season, she booked 25 shows in the 1991 Paris Fashion Week
- She began acting on television in 1993 on The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, and made her film debut in 1995 in Higher Learning
- Also in 1993, Tyra signed a contract with CoverGirl cosmetics, launching advertising campaigns for the cosmetics company; in the mid-1990s, she returned to America to do more commercial modeling
- She was a Victoria's Secret Angel from 1997 to 2005; by the early 2000s, Tyra was one of the world's top-earning models
- In 1997, she received the VH1 award for “Supermodel of the Year"; that year, she was the first African-American chosen for the cover of the Victoria's Secret catalog
- She has appeared in editorials for American, Italian, French, and Spanish Vogue; American, French, German, and Spanish Elle; American, German, and Malaysian Harper's Bazaar; V; W, and Vanity Fair
- Tyra has also been featured on the covers of magazines such as Elle; Harper's Bazaar; Spanish Vogue; Cosmopolitan; Seventeen, and Teen Vogue
- She has walked in fashion shows for Chanel, Oscar de la Renta, Yves Saint Laurent, Anna Sui, Christian Dior, Donna Karan, Calvin Klein, Perry Ellis, Marc Jacobs, Givenchy, Herve Leger, Valentino, Fendi, Isaac Mizrahi, Giorgio Armani, Sonia Rykiel, Michael Kors, and others
- She has appeared in advertising campaigns for Yves Saint Laurent, Dolce & Gabbana, Escada, Tommy Hilfiger, Ralph Lauren, Halston, H&M, XOXO, Swatch, Victoria's Secret, Got Milk?, Pepsi, and Nike
- She has appeared in several music videos, including Michael Jackson's "Black or White", Mobb Deep's "Trife Life", Tina Turner's "Love Thing", George Michael's "Too Funky" (with models Linda Evangelista, Estelle Lefébure, Emma Sjoberg and Nadja Auermann) and Lionel Richie's "Don't Wanna Lose You"
- In 2003, Tyra created and began presenting the long-running reality television series America's Next Top Model, which she executive produced and presented for the first 22 seasons until the series' cancellation in October 2015; she remained executive producer for the revival of the series, and enlisted Rita Ora as host for the twenty-third cycle before again taking on the duties herself for the upcoming twenty-fourth cycle
- In 2004, she recorded her first single, "Shake Ya Body", which had a music video featuring contestants from cycle 2 of America's Next Top Model
- She established and acts as the patron for the TZONE program, which is geared towards leadership and life skills development; in 2005, TZONE transformed from a camp into a public charity, the Tyra Banks TZONE
- She was the co-creator of True Beauty, and had her own talk show, The Tyra Banks Show, which aired on The CW for five seasons and won two Daytime Emmy awards for Outstanding Talk Show Informative
- She co-hosted the talk show FABLife for two months
- Tyra started the production company "Ty Ty Baby Productions" — soon afterward changed to Bankable Productions — which produced The Tyra Banks Show, America's Next Top Model, and the movie The Clique
- In 2008, she won the Daytime Emmy Award for her work and production on The Tyra Banks Show and won for the second time in a row for outstanding, informative talkshow in 2009
- In 2010, she published a young adult novel titled Modelland, based on her life as a model which topped The New York Times Best Seller list in 2011
- She founded the cosmetics brand Tyra Beauty in 2004, which she completed a non-degree certificate program at Harvard Business School specifically for; Tyra Beauty uses a multi-level marketing system to recruit sales distributors, who are called "beautytainers" by the company
- In 2016, Tyra accepted a position as a personal branding guest lecturer at Stanford University
- She also established the Tyra Banks Scholarship, a fund aimed at providing African-American girls the opportunity to attend her alma mater, Immaculate Heart High School
- She has been outspoken on abusive relationships, having been a victim herself; she has opened up about her past relationship struggles on more than one occasion
- In 2017, Tyra replaced Nick Cannon as the host of America's Got Talent for its 12th season
- She is one of four African-Americans and seven women to have repeatedly ranked among the world's most influential people by Time Magazine
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Viola Davis
- Viola is an American actress and producer
- She is a Julliard School graduate
- In 1999, she won an Obie Award for her performance as Ruby McCollum in Everybody's Ruby
- She played supporting and minor roles in several films and television series in the late 1990s and early 2000s
- She won the Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play for her role as Tonya in the original production of August Wilson's King Hedley II
- Viola’s film breakthrough came in 2008 when her supporting role in the drama Doubt earned her several nominations, including the Golden Globe, SAG, and the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress
- She won the 2010 Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play for her role as Rose Maxson in the revival of August Wilson's play Fences
- For her lead role as 1960s housemaid Aibileen Clark in the comedy-drama film The Help (2011), she received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress among other nominations, and won a SAG Award
- She is the only black woman to be nominated for three Academy Awards, winning one, and is the only black actor to win the Triple Crown of Acting
- In 2015 she became the first black woman to win the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series for her role on How to Get Away with Murder; the same role won her two SAG Awards in 2015 and 2016
- In 2016, Viola played Amanda Waller in the superhero action film Suicide Squad and reprised the role of Rose Maxson in the film adaptation of Fences, for which she won the Academy Award, BAFTA Award, Critics' Choice Award, SAG Award and Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress
- She has remained a booster of her hometown of Central Falls, Rhode Island; she attended the groundbreaking of a community health center there in 2016; she has also raised and donated money for the city's library and the Central Falls High School
- She and her husband, Julius Tennon, are the founders of the production company JuVee Productions
- She was honored with the Just Like My Child Foundation‘s 2017 Global Humanitarian Award in November 2017; she was recognized for her dedication to the education and empowerment of vulnerable youth, and praised for her willingness to share her journey overcoming poverty
- In both 2012 and 2017, she was listed by Time Magazine as one of the “100 Most Influential People in the World”
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Sally Ride
- Sally was an American physicist and astronaut
- She attended Stanford University, earning a master's degree in 1975 and a PhD in physics in 1978 while doing research on the interaction of X-rays with the interstellar medium; astrophysics and free electron lasers were her specific areas of study
- She was one of 8,000 people who answered an advertisement in the Stanford student newspaper seeking applicants for the space program
- She joined NASA in 1978 and became the first American woman in space in 1983; she was the third woman in space overall
- She remains the youngest American astronaut to have traveled to space, having done so at the age of 32
- Prior to her first space flight, she was subject to media attention due to her gender; despite gendered questions, such as those regarding her reproductive organs, Sally insisted that she saw herself only as an astronaut
- Her second space flight was in 1984, also on board the Challenger; she spent a total of more than 343 hours in space
- Sally was named to the Rogers Commission (the presidential commission investigating the Challenger disaster accident) and headed its subcommittee on operations. Following the investigation; she was assigned to NASA headquarters in Washington, D.C., where she led NASA's first strategic planning effort, authored a report titled "NASA Leadership and America's Future in Space" and founded NASA's Office of Exploration
- Following her job at NASA, she worked for two years at Stanford University's Center for International Security and Arms Control, then at the University of California, San Diego as a professor of physics, primarily researching nonlinear optics and Thomson scattering
- She served on the committees that investigated the Challenger and Columbia space shuttle disasters, the only person to participate in both
- From the mid-1990s until her death, Sally led two public-outreach programs for NASA—the ISS EarthKAM and GRAIL MoonKAM projects, in cooperation with NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and UCSD; the programs allowed middle school students to request images of the Earth and moon
- In 1994, Sally received the Samuel S. Beard Award for Greatest Public Service by an Individual 35 Years or Under, an award given out annually by Jefferson Awards
- In 2003, she was asked to serve on the Columbia Accident Investigation Board
- She was the president and CEO of Sally Ride Science, a company she co-founded in 2001 that creates entertaining science programs and publications for upper elementary and middle school students, with a particular focus on girls
- She wrote or co-wrote seven books on space aimed at children, with the goal of encouraging children to study science
- On December 6, 2006, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and First Lady Maria Shriver inducted Ride into the California Hall of Fame at the California Museum for History, Women, and the Arts; the following year, she was inducted into the National Aviation Hall of Fame in Dayton, Ohio
- Sally endorsed Barack Obama for US President in 2008
- She was a member of the Review of United States Human Space Flight Plans Committee, an independent review requested by the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) on May 7, 2009
- She received numerous awards, including the National Space Society's von Braun Award, the Lindbergh Eagle, and the NCAA's Theodore Roosevelt Award
- She was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame and the Astronaut Hall of Fame and was awarded the NASA Space Flight Medal twice
- Two elementary schools in the US are named after her: Sally Ride Elementary School in The Woodlands, Texas, and Sally Ride Elementary School in Germantown, Maryland
- She directed public outreach and educational programs for NASA's GRAIL mission, which sent twin satellites to map the moon’s gravity; on December 17, 2012, the two GRAIL probes, Ebb and Flow, were directed to complete their mission by crashing on an unnamed lunar mountain near the crater Goldschmidt; NASA announced that it was naming the landing site in honor of Sally Ride
- Sally died of pancreatic cancer on July 23, 2012
- Flying magazine ranked her at number 50 on their list of the "51 Heroes of Aviation" in 2013; also that year, the Navy announced that a research ship would be named in honor of her; the Space Foundation bestowed upon Sally its highest honor, the General James E. Hill Lifetime Space Achievement Award
- On May 20, 2013, a "National Tribute to Sally Ride" was held at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C.; on the same day, President Barack Obama announced that she would receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian award in America
- In 2014, she was inducted into the Legacy Walk, an outdoor public display that celebrates LGBT history and people
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Danielle Brooks
- Danielle is an American actress best known for her role as Tasha "Taystee" Jefferson on the Netflix series Orange Is the New Black, and for portrayal of Sofia in the 2015 Broadway production of The Color Purple
- She is a Julliard graduate, winning roles in two theater productions after her time there: the Shakespeare Theatre Company's Servant of Two Masters, and Blacken the Bubble
- Her performance in OITNB has been critically-acclaimed
- In 2013, Danielle was cast in a Season 3 episode of the HBO series Girls, where she played the first black woman on the show
- Her Broadway debut in The Color Purple received widespread praise, and she was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Musical
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Simone Biles
- Simone is an American artistic gymnast who is the 2016 Olympic individual all-around, vault, and floor gold medalist
- She holds Belizean citizenship through her mother, and refers to Belize as her second home
- She was part of the gold medal-winning team dubbed the "Final Five" at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro
- She is a three-time world all-around champion (2013–15), three-time world floor champion (2013–15), two-time world balance beam champion (2014, 2015), four-time United States national all-around champion (2013–16), and a member of the gold medal-winning American teams at the 2014 and 2015 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships
- She also won the bronze medal for the balance beam at the Olympics and the vault at the 2015 World Championships
- Having won a combined total of nineteen Olympic and World Championship medals, Simone is the most decorated American gymnast
- With her win in Rio, she became the sixth woman to have won an individual all-around title at both the World Championships and the Olympic Games
- She set an American record for most gold medals in women’s gymnastics at a single Games with four Olympic gold medals
- Simone’s accomplishments have led many of her peers as well as the media to refer to her as the greatest gymnast ever (at only 20 years old)
- She spoke out against Gabby Douglas’s remarks about women dressing modestly in defense of Aly Raisman, who was among gymnasts who came forward about being sexually abused by their team doctor
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Kesha Sebert
- Kesha is an American singer, songwriter, actress, and rapper
- She was signed at age 18 in 2005, and her career began to take flight in 2009 with her feature on Flo Rida’s single “Right Round”
- Her debut album Animal reached the top of the charts in several countries
- Kesha’s single "Tik Tok" was the best-selling digital single in history at one point, selling over 16.5 million units internationally
- Kesha has received several awards and nominations, including her win for MTV Europe Music Award for Best New Act in 2010
- Kesha held a benefit concert on June 16, 2010, where all proceeds went to aid victims of the May 2010 Tennessee floods from her hometown Nashville; she raised close to $70,000 from the event
- She was a supporting act on the summer North American leg of Rihanna's Last Girl on Earth Tour and was awarded Best New Act at the 2010 MTV Europe Music Awards
- It was reported that she had sold over 59 million records in the United States and 76 million records worldwide in 2013
- Kesha was named rights group Humane Society of the United States's first global ambassador for animal rights, for which she is expected to bring attention to such practices as cosmetics testing on animals and shark finning
- She received the Wyler Award presented by The Humane Society in 2013 as a celebrity or public figure who increases awareness of animal issues via the media
- Kesha is a vegetarian and an “ordained minister” who has performed legal commitment ceremonies for both same-sex and heterosexual couples; she is an LGBT advocate
- In January 2014, she checked into rehab for bulimia nervosa and began to work on her third studio album, recording 14 songs while she was there
- In October 2014, she sued former producer Dr. Luke for sexual assault and battery, sexual harassment, gender violence, emotional abuse, and violation of California business practices which had occurred over 10 years working together
- The lawsuit went on for about a year before Kesha sought a preliminary injunction to release her from Kemosabe Records; in 2016, New York Supreme Court Justice Shirley Kornreich ruled against this request; in April 2016, Kornreich dismissed the case, saying that even if the allegations of sexual assault are accepted as true, the five-year statute of limitations had run out on the two most specific rape allegations, one occurring in 2005 and the other in 2008
- Despite her monumental legal loss, Kesha returned strongly to music in 2017 with the release of her third studio album, Rainbow, and its lead single “Praying,” both of which were nominated for Grammy Awards
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Chrissy Teigen
- Chrissy is an American model who made her debut in the annual Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue in 2010 (in which she was named “Rookie of the Year”) and, alongside Nina Agdal and Lily Aldridge, appeared on the cover in 2014
- Chrissy is of Norwegian and Thai descent
- She part of the 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2014 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit issues; she appeared on the 50th anniversary cover of the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue in 2014 with Nina Agdal and Lily Aldridge
- In addition to Sports Illustrated, Chrissy has appeared on the cover of Ocean Drive magazine, Cosmopolitan, and in editorials for Italian Vogue, Esquire, Glamour, Galore and Cosmopolitan
- She co-hosts Lip Sync Battle with LL Cool J on Spike TV and joined the lifestyle panel talk show FABLife
- The campaigns she models for include Gillette Venus, Olay, Nike, Skullcandy headphones, Gap Factory, XOXO, UGG Australia, Rock and Republic, Billabong, Beach Bunny Swimwear (for whom she was also a fashion week correspondent), and Nine West Fashion Targets Breast Cancer
- She has served as a recurring guest host and contributor on E!, TMZ, MTV, FUSE/MSG, and Extra with Mario Lopez, and has appeared on America's Next Top Model and Watch What Happens Live
- In 2013, she was host of the reality competition show Model Employee on VH1
- Chrissy is also a cook and writer; she is the author of the blog sodelushious.com and enjoys expanding her knowledge of food while traveling the world
- She was featured on an additional Cooking Channel special in 2013, titled Chrissy Teigen's Hungry, detailing her wedding menu tasting with then-fiancé John Legend
- She recently filmed a Cooking Channel special titled Cookies and Cocktails
- In 2016, Chrissy’s cookbook Cravings was released and became a New York Times bestseller
- She addresses personal issues with honesty, opening up about her struggles with alcohol and her experience with postpartum depression
- She is outspoken about human rights and political issues alongside her husband, having voted for Hillary Clinton during the most recent presidential election; she is vocally anti-Trump, and is actually blocked by him on Twitter
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Ana Navarro
- Ana is a Nicaraguan-American Republican strategist and political commentator for various news outlets, including CNN, CNN en Español, ABC News, Telemundo, and The View
- She obtained a Bachelor of Arts in Latin American Studies and Political Science in 1993, and obtained a Juris Doctor from St. Thomas University Law School in 1997
- Ana has served in a number of Republican administrations, including the transition team for Florida governor Jeb Bush in 1998
- She also served as the national co-chair of the Hispanic Advisory Council for John McCain in 2008, and Jon Huntsman, Jr. in 2012
- In October 2016, she made headlines when she strongly criticized Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump on CNN after the Donald Trump and Billy Bush recording surfaced, and called for party leaders to disown Trump
- She has harshly criticized Trump's beliefs and comments about immigrants, outspokenly calling him a racist
- Though she is a lifelong Republican, Ana revealed that she voted for Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton after seeing how close the race in Florida had become; she is vehemently anti-Trump
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Laverne Cox
- Laverne is a transgender actress and adamant LGBT rights activist
- She rose to prominence with her role as Sophia Burset on the Netflix series Orange Is the New Black, becoming the first openly transgender person to be nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award in the acting category, and the first to be nominated for an Emmy Award since composer/musician Angela Morley in 1990
- She is a graduate of the Alabama School of Fine Arts in Birmingham, Alabama, where she studied creative writing before switching to dance; she then studied for two years at Indiana University Bloomington, before transferring to Marymount Manhattan College in New York City, where she switched from dancing (specifically classical ballet) to acting
- Laverne became the first African-American transgender person to produce and star in her own TV, with the VH1 makeover television series TRANSform Me
- In 2014, she was honored by GLAAD with its Stephen F. Kolzak Award for her work as an advocate for the transgender community; also that year, she became the first openly transgender person to appear on the cover of Time magazine
- She also joined a campaign that year against a Phoenix, Arizona law which allows police to arrest anyone suspected of "manifesting prostitution", and which she feels targets transgender women of color, following the conviction of activist (and transgender woman of color) Monica Jones
- In 2015, she won a Daytime Emmy Award in Outstanding Special Class Special as executive producer for Laverne Cox Presents: The T Word, making her the first openly transgender woman to win a Daytime Emmy as an executive producer
- Also in 2015, she became the first openly transgender person to have a wax figure of herself at Madame Tussauds; she also posed nude for the Allure annual "Nudes" issue, becoming the first openly transgender actress to do that
- She is cover subject for the June 11, 2015 "totally not-straight issue" of Entertainment Weekly, the first issue of the magazine in 15 years to focus exclusively on gay, lesbian, and transgender entertainment
- Laverne was featured in a 2016 Human Rights Campaign video paying tribute to the victims of the Orlando nightclub shooting
- She became the first transgender person to play a transgender series regular on broadcast TV as Cameron Wirth on CBS's Doubt in 2017
- Additionally in 2017, she collaborated with the ACLU, Zackary Drucker, Molly Crabapple, and Kim Boekbinder to create a video about transgender history and resistance, called "Time Marches Forward & So Do We" that she also narrated
- Her OITNB character Sophia is a strong point of representation for the LGBT, specifically the trans, community, written as a multi-dimensional character who the audience can easily empathize with; Sophia works as a platform
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Jodie Whittaker
- Jodie is an actress, having worked in film, television, radio, and theater
- She made her professional debut in The Storm at Shakespeare's Globe in 2005
- She identifies as a feminist
- In 2017, Jodie was announced as the thirteenth Doctor in the Doctor Who television series, making her the first female Doctor in the long-running show’s history (it dates back 54 years)
- She has urged fans not to be afraid of her gender in regards to the show, promoting that this is an exciting change
- She was the first choice for the part according to Chris Chibnall, a writer behind Doctor Who
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Michelle Obama
- Michelle is a lawyer and writer who was previously First Lady of the United States, married to Barack Obama
- She was the first African-American First Lady in US history
- She was raised on the South Side of Chicago, Illinois
- Her father suffered from multiple sclerosis
- Michelle joined a gifted class at Bryn Mawr Elementary School by the sixth grade
- She attended Whitney Young High School, Chicago's first magnet high school, established as a selective enrollment school, where she used her fear of how others would perceive her as motivation to succeed
- She experienced gender discrimination growing up despite her achievements
- Michelle was on the honor roll for four years, took advanced placement classes, was a member of the National Honor Society, and served as student council treasurer; she graduated in 1981 as the salutatorian of her class
- She is a graduate of both Princeton University and Harvard Law School
- At Princeton, her white roommate’s mother (unsuccessfully) tried to have her daughter moved because of Michelle’s race; she said that it was during this time that she became more aware of ethnicity, class, and racial divisions
- She also got involved with Princeton’s Third World Center, an academic and cultural group that supported minority students, running their day care center, which included after school tutoring as well; she challenged the teaching methodology for French because she felt that it should be more conversational; she wrote a thesis titled Princeton-Educated Blacks and the Black Community as part of her graduation requirements
- In July 2008, she accepted the invitation to become an honorary member of the 100-year-old black sorority Alpha Kappa Alpha, which had no active undergraduate chapter at Princeton when she attended
- At Harvard, Michelle participated in demonstrations advocating the hiring of professors who were minorities, and worked for the Harvard Legal Aid Bureau, assisting low-income tenants with housing cases
- She is the third First Lady with a postgraduate degree
- Following law school, she was an associate at the Chicago office of the law firm Sidley & Austin, working on marketing and intellectual property; she continues to hold her law license, but as she no longer needs it for her work, it has been on a voluntary inactive status since 1993
- In 1991, she held public sector positions in the Chicago city government as an Assistant to the Mayor, and as Assistant Commissioner of Planning and Development
- She became Executive Director for the Chicago office of Public Allies, a non-profit organization encouraging young people to work on social issues in nonprofit groups and government agencies, in 1993; she worked there nearly four years and set fundraising records for the organization that still stood 12 years after she left
- Michelle also worked as the Associate Dean of Student Services at the University of Chicago, where she developed its Community Service Center, and as the Vice President for Community and External Affairs at the University of Chicago Medical Center
- She campaigned actively during her husband’s presidential runs, delivering speeches at the 2008 and 2012 Democratic National Conventions; she returned again to the DNC in 2016 to speak on behalf of presidential candidate and fellow First Lady Hillary Clinton
- During his campaigns, she also spoke openly about race, education, and motherhood
- As First Lady, Michelle became a role model for women, in addition to an advocate for poverty awareness and nutrition
- She also became a fashion icon
- During her early months as First Lady, she visited homeless shelters and soup kitchens, in addition to sending representatives to schools and advocating public service
- She hosted a White House reception for women's rights advocates in celebration of the enactment of the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009 Pay equity law
- In 2006, Essence listed her among "25 of the World's Most Inspiring Women”
- Vanity Fair listed her among "10 of the World's Best Dressed People” in 2007
- In 2009, Michelle was named Barbara Walters's Most Fascinating Person of the year
- She advocated on behalf of military families, helped working women balance career and family, encouraged national service, and promoted the arts and arts education
- She was an honorary guest at Oprah Winfrey's Legends Ball as a "young'un" paying tribute to the “Legends” who helped pave the way for African-American women
- In 2010, she took her first solo visit to a nation and traveled to Mexico to speak to young students, encouraging them to take responsibility for their futures; she is a believer in success coming from unlikely places, and not discrediting underprivileged people
- She was actively involved in community events in foreign countries, and it was said that she advanced her husband’s foreign policy and relations
- Among many things, she has been known for wearing clothes by African designers such as Mimi Plange, Duro Olowu, Maki Oh, and Osei Duro, and styles such as the Adire fabric
- In 2012, Michelle and her husband were awarded the Jerald Washington Memorial Founders' Award by the National Coalition for Homeless Veterans (NCHV), which is the highest honor given to homeless veteran advocates; she was awarded it again alongside Jill Biden in 2015
- She joined the campaign to bring back school girls who had been kidnapped in Nigeria in 2014, utilizing the campaign hashtag #bringbackourgirls
- She extended organic efforts in the White House by planting the White House Kitchen Garden, the first White House vegetable garden since Eleanor Roosevelt served as First Lady; she also installed bee hives on the South Lawn of the White House; the garden supplied organic produce and honey to the First Family and for state dinners and other official gatherings
- She created and took charge of the administration-wide initiative Let’s Move! to reverse progress in the child obesity trend
- Michelle has consistently been an open advocate for LGBT rights, opposing constitutional amendments banning same-sex marriage and promoting equality for everyone
- In 2017, during an appearance at the Partnership for a Healthier America conference, she rebuked the Trump administration for its delay of a federal requirement designed to increase the nutritional standards for school lunches
- Also this year, she called for tech companies to add women for the diversifying of their ranks while attending the WWDC in Silicon Valley, California; she honored Eunice Shriver at the 2017 ESPY Awards; she delivered an address at the tech conference in Utah charging the Trump administration with having a fearful White House; she appeared in a video for the Global Citizens Festival advocating more attention to giving young girls an education; she attended the Inbound 2017 conference in Boston; she cited a lack of diversity in politics with contributing to lawmakers being distrusted by other groups at the Philadelphia Conference for Women; she discussed gender disparity in attitudes with Elizabeth Alexander while at the Obama Foundation Summit in Chicago; and she spoke at the Bushnell Center for the Performing Arts in Hartford, Connecticut
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Matika Wilbur
- Matika is a member of the Swinomish and Tulalip tribes of the State of Washington
- She graduated from the Brooks Institute of Photography in 2006
- Before using photography as a means of social activism, she received her teaching certification and worked in the Tulalip Heritage High School, where she gained insight on the lack of resources available to Native Americans and the impact of their problematic misrepresentation in America
- She works diligently to produce accurate and empowering representations of American Indians through her photography projects, including We Are One People, a photograph collection of Coast Salish elders; We Emerge, a photograph collection of Native people in contemporary settings, and Save the Indian and Kill the Man, a collection of Native youth expressing their identities
- She specializes in hand-tinted, black-and-white silver gelatin prints, and plans on publishing a book about her photography
- Matika’s largest project, Project 562, aims to document all 562 federally recognized tribes, bands, nations, pueblos, rancherias, communities, and Native villages in a way that is reflective of culture, strength, and community; she wants to give them a voice that does them justice
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Sara Ramirez
- Sara is a Mexican-American actress, singer, and songwriter with a fine arts degree from the Julliard School
- She is bilingual, speaking both Spanish and English fluently
- Sara had an impressive Broadway stint, with her breakout role as the Lady of the Lake in the 2005 musical Spamalot
- She won a Tony Award for Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Musical and the Outstanding Featured Actress in a Musical for her role in Spamalot
- Her Spamalot performance caught the attention of top executives from ABC, who offered her a role in any ABC show she wanted; she picked Grey's Anatomy, a show she was already a fan of
- Sara’s Grey’s character Dr. Callie Torres, who is openly bisexual like the actress herself, has received widespread praise for her strength, voice for members of the LGBT community, and overall diversity
- She garnered nominations for the Best Actress at the NAACP Image Award, the ALMA Award, and won the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series
- Sara extensively campaigns for LGBT rights
- She is a member of the True Colors Fund’s Board of Directors and The Task Force, and The San Diego, New York, and San Francisco LGBT Centers
- She spoke in support of the homeless LGBTQ youth at a True Colors Fund's conference, and continues to support other groups including Bisexual Organizing Project, NDLON, and Mujerez De Maiz
- In 2015, she was awarded the Ally for Equality Award by the Human Rights Campaign Foundation
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