Matt McClain/ The Washington Post

This activist was also a journalist. She reported the horrors of laws against Black people (Jim Crow laws) in the South and campaigned to pass anti-lynching legislation.

Katherine Frey/ The Washington Post

This formerly enslaved woman went on to become an abolitionist and a women’s rights activist. She is perhaps most famous for the “Ain’t I a Woman” speech she gave at a women’s rights conference, challenging White female activists who did not welcome Black women in the movement.

Charles Del Vecchio/ The Washington Post

She wrote "The Feminine Mystic" in 1963, which is credited for sparking a second wave of feminism that began in the 1960s.

Douglas Chevalier/ The Washington Post

This woman is the co-founder of the feminist periodical Ms. magazine.

Dudley M. Brooks/ The Washington Post

Though this woman was married to one of the most influential activists in American history, she was activist in her own right. She marched in a labor strike in Memphis, Tennessee, just four days after her husband was murdered.

Pat Carter/ Associated Press

This women was the first principal chief of the Cherokee Nation. She worked most of her life fighting for the rights of Native Americans.

Andrew Harnik/ Associated Press

She is a survivor of the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, who went on to advocate for tougher gun-control laws in the United States. 

Amanda Voisard/ for The Washington Post

This advocate for the working poor co-founded the National Farmworkers Association with fellow activist Cesar Chavez.

J. Scott Applewhite/ Associated Press

She was the first woman of color to serve in Congress and was one of two principal authors of the Title IX bill, which is still useful in the fight against discrimination and harassment in classrooms and in school sports.