Activists

Bree Newsome is an artist and Black activist who entered the national spotlight when she climbed a flagpole at the South Carolina Capitol grounds to remove a Confederate battle flag in 2015.

Fred Hampton was a leader in the Black Panther Party who was harassed and targeted by local law enforcement and the FBI, resulting in his murder during a police raid on his apartment on December 4, 1969.

Carole Baskin is an animal rights activist who runs the Big Cat Rescue animal sanctuary. Her appearance in the docuseries 'Tiger King' brought new attention to her advocacy but also spotlighted her rivalry with Joe Exotic and the disappearance of her second husband.

Dr. Hector Garcia was a physician, military veteran and advocate for the rights of Mexican Americans.

Christine Jorgensen was an American transgender woman who made headlines in the early 1950s for having sex reassignment surgery.

Greta Thunberg is a Swedish climate youth activist who has received worldwide recognition for her efforts to fight climate change.

Sylvia Rivera was a Latina-American drag queen who was a gay and transgender activist in the 1960s and 70s.

Winnie Mandela was the controversial wife of Nelson Mandela who spent her life in varying governmental roles.

As a young girl, Malala Yousafzai defied the Taliban in Pakistan and demanded that girls be allowed to receive an education. She was shot in the head by a Taliban gunman in 2012 but survived. In 2014, she became the youngest person to receive the Nobel Peace Prize.

Julian Assange came to international attention as the founder of the whistle-blowing website WikiLeaks.

Linda Brown was the child associated with the lead name in the landmark case Brown v. Board of Education, which led to the outlawing of U.S. school segregation in 1954.

Marjory Stoneman Douglas was a journalist and environmentalist who helped defend the Florida Everglades.

Dolores Huerta is an activist and labor leader who co-founded what would become the United Farm Workers.

Tarana Burke is a civil rights activist who was the original founder of the "Me Too" movement, which she started in 2006. It later became a global phenomenon that raised awareness about sexual harassment, abuse, and assault in society in 2017.

Abolitionist and women's rights activist Sojourner Truth is best known for her speech on racial inequalities, "Ain't I a Woman?" delivered at the Ohio Women's Rights Convention in 1851.

Writer, feminist and women's rights activist Betty Friedan wrote 'The Feminine Mystique' (1963) and co-founded the National Organization for Women.

Nellie Bly was known for her pioneering journalism, including her 1887 exposé on the conditions of asylum patients at Blackwell's Island in New York City and her report of her 72-day trip around the world.

Civil rights leader Ella Baker helped found the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee.

Harriet Tubman escaped slavery to become a leading abolitionist. She led hundreds of enslaved people to freedom along the route of the Underground Railroad.

Coretta Scott King was an American civil rights activist and the wife of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.

Reverend Bernice A. King is the youngest child of Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King. She is chief executive officer of the Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change in Atlanta, Georgia.

Rosa Parks was a civil rights activist who refused to surrender her seat to a white passenger on a segregated bus in Montgomery, Alabama. Her defiance sparked the Montgomery Bus Boycott.