Harriet Tubman 1820-1913 Abolitionist Birthplace: Dorchester County, MD
Harriet Tubman's family worked as slaves on the Brodas plantation. In 1844, Harriet married a free black man, John Tubman. Harriet remained a slave, but she was able to stay in Tubman's cabin at night. In 1849, her worst fears came true when she and her fellow slaves were slated to be sold. Harriet escaped through swamps and woods along the Underground Railroad, settling in Philadelphia. In total, Harriet made 19 trips and freed more than 300 slaves. Harriet was a master of disguise. During the Civil War, Harriet became a spy for the Union army. At the end of the war, Harriet returned to her parents in Auburn where she had helped them to freedom years earlier. During her lifetime Harriet was honored by many people. In 1897, her bravery won her the silver medal bestowed by Queen Victoria.
Mary McLeod Bethune
The 17th child of former slaves, Mary McLeod Bethune taught in a series of southern mission schools (1895–1903) before settling in Florida to found the Daytona Normal and Industrial Institute for Negro Girls (1904). From 1904 to 1942, and again from 1946 to 1947, she served as president of the institute, which, after merging with Cookman Institute (1923), became Bethune-Cookman College. A leader in the American black community, she founded the National Council of Negro Women (1935) and was director of Negro Affairs of the National Youth Administration from 1936 to 1944. In addition, she served as special adviser on minority affairs to President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. At the 1945 conference that organized the United Nations, she was a consultant on interracial understanding.
Sacajawea
One day in about 1800 (in present-day Idaho) the Minnetarees attacked a Lemhi-Shoshoni village in the Rocky Mountains. During the raid the Shoshoni chief was killed and his daughter, Sacajawea (sac-uh'juh-WE-uh), was kidnapped. The raiding party took the girl back to their camp in upper Missouri. Sacajawea missed her family, but she always hoped she'd eventually return to them. After some time the Minatarees traded or sold her to the Mandan tribe of North Dakota. Sacajawea spent the next three years working in their fields. Then one day a French trader named Charboneau (SHAR-bon-no) bought her and made her his wife. She was then about 17 years old. In the fall of 1804, there were 16 U.S. states, all of them east of the Mississippi River. That year the Great White Chief, Thomas Jefferson – the third United States president – wanted to have the rest of this continent explored and maps made. He wanted to know all about the plants and animals and people who lived throughout this land. He was hoping a waterway would be found from the Missouri River to the Colorado River. Jefferson chose two men to lead the exploring party in the West: William Clark and Meriwether Lewis. They, in turn, hired Charboneau to be their guide on the journey. Sacajawea, who had a one-and-a-half-month-old baby, went on the trip, too. They headed up the river to try and find the Shining Mountains (the Rockies), cross those mountains, and reach the Pacific Ocean. It was a long hard trip. They saw wolves, buffalo, wildcats, eagles, wild geese, and bear. The men brought game back to camp and Sacajawea got wild berries and roots – only she knew the ones that were good! There were many dangers: poisonous snakes, unfriendly people, floods, and roaring winds. At night Sacajawea mended the men's clothing and moccasins by the light of the fire. Sacajawea taught Lewis some sign language and some Shoshoni to help him "speak" with the Indians. One day they saw the white peaks of the mountains shining across the distance. Sacajawea thought, "Soon I will see my people again!" But then the river got wild. There were huge waterfalls; at one point the canoes overturned and all the notebooks and journals floated away down the river! Sacajawea swam out into the icy waters and saved the records from being lost. Once they had reached the Shining Mountains they needed horses to continue the trip. Lewis and his men went ahead and asked the Shoshoni to sell them some horses, but the Indians refused. Then Captain Clark and Sacajawea came into the camp, and the Lemhi-Shoshoni at once recognized her. In fact, her brother Cameahwait was now their chief! Sacajawea was so happy to see her people again. She convinced her brother to sell the exploring party the needed horses. Eventually the party hid their boats and rode their horses over the mountains. Sacajawea rode also, with her little son, Pompe, on her back. They faced snow, hunger and cold, but finally they crossed the mountains! They left their horses with friendly Indians, made boats, and took off down the river. Whenever they met Indians, who were not always friendly, Sacajawea would speak with them and reassure them that the explorers were not dangerous. Twice on the trip Sacajawea pointed the way through difficult passes. Finally the group entered the Columbia River, which took them to the sea. In November of 1805, Lewis and Clark raised the U.S. flag claiming the Northwest for the United States. Because it was now winter, they could not make their return trip at once, so Sacajawea spent a pleasant three months on the coast. She even got to see a beached whale! After many months the group did return safely to the Mandan village in North Dakota; Charboneau, Sacajawea, and Pompe stayed there while Lewis and Clark went on to Washington to report to President Jefferson.We are not sure what became of Sacajawea. Some say she died on December 20, 1812, but other accounts tell that she returned to the Shoshoni to live for many years – maybe to the age of 100! The real story of her death will probably always be one of history's secrets.
Excerpted from Ready-to-Use Activities and Materials on Coastal Indians.
Ella Fitzgerald 1917-1996 Jazz Singer Birthplace: Newport News, VA
Ella Fitzgerald is considered one of the greatest singers in jazz history. She was born in Newport News, VA, and after her father died, she moved to Yonkers, NY, with her mother. Tragically, her mother died and she was sent to an orphanage until she moved to New York City to live with her aunt. She wanted to become a dancer and loved singing. When she was 16, she won talent contests in Harlem and began singing with Chick Webb and his band at the Savoy Ballroom. The band's music director recalled, "In those days, the recording company didn't want Negroes to sing ballads...this lady opened the door for everybody else."
In 1938, she co-wrote and recorded "A-Tisket, A-Tasket," which hit the top of the charts. Her specialty, scat (singing nonsense syllables instead of words), inspired many singers. "I try to do what I think a horn would play," Fitzgerald explained. In the 1940s, Ella made the transition from swing to bebop. She began a series of songbook recordings based on classic songs by Irving Berlin, George and Ira Gershwin, Jerome Kern, and Cole Porter. She also made movies including Pete Kelly's Blues (1955) and St. Louis Blues (1958). By the 1950s, she had become an international star and collaborated with bandleaders Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, and Count Basie.
Ella was forced to retire because of diabetes. She earned 14 Grammy Awards (including a Lifetime Achievement Award in 1967), the Kennedy Center Honor (1979), the National Medal of Arts (1987), and France's Commander of Arts and Letters (1990). She received many other prizes including honorary doctorates from Yale and Dartmouth. She also contributed to many charities and humanitarian causes.
Ella Fitzgerald died at the age of 78 at her home in Beverly Hills, CA, on June 15, 1996.
Mary Eliza Church Terrell 1863-1954
Civil rights and women's rights activist
Born in Memphis, TN
Terrell's parents were ex-slaves who later became wealthy
Attended Oberlin College in Ohio, earning a bachelor's degree in 1884 and a master's degree in 1888
Became active in the suffragist movement, founding the Colored Women's League in 1892
In 1896 the Colored Women's League merged with the National Federation of Afro-American Women to become the National Federation of Colored Women
Church Terrell was the first president of the National Federation of Colored Women
In 1895 she became the first African-American woman appointed to the District of Columbia Board of Education
A charter member of the NAACP, she was a popular lecturer on equal rights for women and blacks
She served as a delegate at various international women's rights congresses and a prolific writer on social issues
Elizabeth Blackwell and her family emigrated to America from England in 1832. Blackwell worked as a teacher, then decided to be a doctor. After being turned down by several schools, she was finally admitted to Geneva Medical College (now Hobart and William Smith Colleges) in New York. Blackwell graduated in 1849, becoming the first woman to earn a medical degree. She worked in hospitals in Europe, then returned to New York in 1851. In 1857 she opened the New York Infirmary for Women and Children, a clinic with an all-female staff. In 1869 she returned to England. Extra credit: Blackwell's sister-in-law was Antoinette Brown, the first woman in America to become an ordained Christian minister.
Helen Keller
When Helen Keller was 19 months old, she became very ill. Doctors expected her to die, but she survived. Helen’s mother soon noticed that Helen was not responding when the dinner bell rang or when she waved her hand in front of Helen’s face. It then became apparent that Helen’s illness had left her blind and deaf. She was born on June 27, 1880 in Alabama, where she lived with her family. She was frustrated and confused. She didn’t know what was going on in her world. Her parents knew that they needed help. They hired a tutor for Helen. Her name was Anne Sullivan. Success didn’t happen right away. But one day at the water pump, a breakthrough happened. Anne spelled the word water in Helen’s hand. Helen began to catch on. Suddenly, her brain was on fire. She reached down to touch the ground, and Anne spelled the word earth in her hand. She continued pointing and learning. She learned to spell 30 words on that day. By the age of 10, Helen had learned to speak by feeling her teacher’s mouth when she talked. Some people couldn’t understand Helen, but she kept trying. She learned to read French, German, Greek, and Latin in Braille. Braille is a way for people who can’t see to read. Raised dots are used to represent letters and words. Soon Helen could read, write, and speak. Helen Keller went on to give speeches all over the world. Most of the money she earned was given to the American Foundation for the Blind. She met 12 U.S. presidents, wrote a dozen books, and went to college. Helen Keller lived to be 87. She continues to inspire many people worldwide.
Elizabeth Cady Stanton seated, with Susan B. Anthony 1815-1902
American reformer and leader of the woman suffrage movement
Born in Johnstown, NY
Educated at the Troy Female Seminary (now Emma Willard School) in Troy, NY
In 1840 she married Henry Brewster Stanton, a journalist and abolitionist
Attended the international slavery convention in London where the woman delegates were excluded from the floor of the convention
The exclusion of women candidates led Elizabeth Stanton and Lucretia Mott to organize women to win greater equality
The first women's rights convention in the U.S. was held in 1848 at Seneca Falls, NY (Stanton was instrumental in organizing this event)
Stanton pushed for a suffrage clause to be included in the bill of rights for women
She was president of the National Woman Suffrage Association from 1869 to 1890, and of the National American Woman Suffrage Association from 1890 to 1892
Elizabeth Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, and Parker Pillsbury edited the Revolution, a militant feminist magazine from 1868 to 1870
Stanton was a brilliant orator and an able journalist
Amelia Earhart
Amelia Earhart is the most celebrated aviatrix in history and was one of the most famous women of her time. As America's charismatic “Lady of the Air,” she set many aviation records, including becoming the first woman to fly across the Atlantic in 1928 as a passenger, the first woman (and second person after Lindbergh) to fly solo across the Atlantic in 1932, and the first person to fly alone across the Pacific, from Honolulu, Hawaii, to Oakland, California, in 1935. In an era when men dominated aviation, she was truly a pioneer.
Amelia Mary Earhart was born on July 24, 1897 in Atchison, Kansas. During her early years, she was constantly hampered by lack of funds and worked at a variety of jobs to fulfill her desire to fly. She held positions as a teacher, nursing assistant, photographer, secretary, and social worker. Earhart even bought a truck and hauled gravel to earn money to buy a plane.
AE, as she was called by her friends, was a modern woman. She was courageous, independent, and had a strong social conscience. She fought for international peace, equality for women, the advancement of women in aviation, and the viability of commercial aviation. During her lifetime, she was a role model to millions of people whom she motivated and encouraged through her actions.
In 1937, Earhart attempted to become the first person ever to fly around the world at its longest point—the equator—a challenging trip of 29,000 mi.. She intended this feat to be the last record-setting flight of her legendary career. It was to be her swan song. Amelia was accompanied on the trip by a highly experienced navigator, Frederick J. Noonan.
On July 2, 1937, after successfully completing 22,000 mi. of the journey in her silver twin-engine Electra, she took off from Lae, New Guinea, on the longest and most dangerous leg of her flight, some 18 hours and 2,556 mi. across the vast ocean to Howland Island where the U.S. government had constructed an airfield and stored fuel supplies for her use.
Howland Island is uninhabited, a tiny island in the North Pacific about one and a half mi.s long and a half mile wide. The United States Coast Guard had stationed the cutter, Itasca, off Howland to maintain radio communications with the Electra and assist Earhart in locating the minuscule atoll.
When the plane was due to reach its destination, Earhart reported to the Itasca that she thought that she was flying over Howland, but couldn't see it below. Evidently lost and confused, with her plane running low on fuel, she asked for help in “homing in” by radio to the tiny island. Her last words were, “We are running north and south,” presumably flying in a search pattern in hope of seeing the island. She lost critical radio communications with the Itasca and the cutter's radio operators could not get a bearing on her position. Repeated efforts by the Itasca to contact the fliers were unsuccessful and they were presumed out of fuel and lost at sea. An extensive land, air, and sea search lasting over two weeks failed to find them and no trace of the world's most famous female pilot, her navigator, or their plane has ever been found.
Sojourner Truth 1797-1883 Preacher, Abolitionist, Suffragette Birthplace: Ulster County, NY
As a free woman at age 43, Sojourner Truth left New York and decided to "sojourn" the land and speak the God's "truth." She traveled extensively, speaking about her life as a slave and eventually arriving in Northampton, MA, where she was introduced to the women’s equality movement. Some suffragettes were not receptive to Truth's support because they feared that their cause would get confused with abolition and that the newspapers would not cover their story. Perhaps her greatest achievement was desegregating the streetcars of Washington, DC. When various conductors refused to let her ride, Truth took legal action by reporting them to the president of the City Rail Way who fired them. She went on to become one of the most distinguished and highly respected African-American women in the 19th century.