Eliza Lee Cabot Follen
Best known for her anti-slavery writings including Anti-Slavery Hymns and Songs and A Letter to Mothers in Free States.
Category Archives: Activism
Continue reading
Elma Lewis
Founded the National Center for Afro-American Artists (NCAAA) in 1968 eighteen years after opening the Elma Lewis School of Fine Arts (ELSFA) in Boston
Emily Greene Balch
Balch won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1946 for her indefatigable work for peace, in particular with the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF).
Frances Stern
One of the first nutritionists in the United States.
Théroigne de Méricourt
A prosperous peasant who was inspired by the ideals of the Revolution, she found herself in Paris right before the fall of the Bastille. Having had numerous lovers and suffered the death of a child, she felt compelled to fight for the downtrodden.
Lilli Vincenz
German-American LGBTQIA+ rights activist
Sophie de Condorcet
French intellectual and advocate for the downtrodden
Annie Adams Fields
Annie Adams Fields hosted an influential literary salon in Boston and supported many women writers and engaged in significant charitable work.
Although the home of Annie Adams Fields (1834-1915) and her husband, publisher James T. Fields, at the end of Charles Street, does not survive, it was the site of their important literary salon. After his death in 1881, Annie Fields continued to support the work of many women writers, including Sarah Orne Jewett (1849-1909) who spent winters with her, poet Louise Imogen Guiney (1861-1920) and Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811-96). Fields was also active in charitable works. She spent many hours at the Charity House on Chardon Street and co-founded the Cooperative Society of Visitors, a case review agency that made recommendations to the central administration of Boston’s relief organizations for aid disbursement. The Society was absorbed into the Associated Charities of Boston. Fields’ book How to Help the Poor (1884) served as an unofficial guide to the programs and policies of Associated Charities.
Ella Little-Collins
She joined the Nation of Islam in the mid-1950s where she helped to establish a mosque with a daycare center attached to it. In the early 1940s, she became the guardian of her half-brother Malcolm Little, who later changed his name to Malcolm X
Anna Clapp Harris Smith
Established the Animal Rescue League in 1899, which led to the installation of water basins around the city where dogs and cats could drink and the founding of the Horses Aid Association, which provided health care for the city’s horses free of charge