According to Antonia Hernández, she “went to law school for one reason: to use the law as a vehicle for social change.” Decades later, she can claim numerous legal victories for the Latinx community in the areas of voting rights, employment, education, and immigration. From legal aid work, to counsel to the Senate Judiciary Committee, to head of a major civil rights organization, Hernández has used the law to realize social change at every turn.
At the tender age of six, Ruby Bridges advanced the cause of civil rights in November 1960 when she became the first African American student to integrate an elementary school in the South.
In 1982 she and and her husband formed the Australian Rainforest Conservation Society, of which she has been President for the past 30 years.
In the first two decades of the twentieth century, Goldstein became the face of Australian feminism.
Joyce Parrish O’Neal participated in many marches supporting African Americans’ right to vote during the Civil Rights Movement.
From her humble Ohio childhood, Gloria Steinem grew up to become an acclaimed journalist, trailblazing feminist, and one of the most visible, passionate leaders and spokeswomen of the women’s rights movement in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.
Known as the mother of the greatest basketball player of all time, Deloris Jordan is more than just Michael Jordan’s mom. Mrs. Jordan has established multiple charities and has served as the President and Founder of the James R. Jordan Foundation for almost two decades. She has also established the Kenya Women and Children’s Wellness Centre in Nairobi, Kenya.
Labor activist Della Elliott was a strong supporter of causes outside the union movement. She was involved in the wartime Sheepskins for Russia campaign during the war, The League for Democracy in Greece and the Union of Australian Women. She helped historians of the union movement in Australia and, with a collective of women that included Quentin Bryce, worked to establish the Jessie Street National Women’s Library in Sydney. Towards the end of her life, she gifted a scholarship to the University of Sydney Women’s College to assist female Indigenous students.
Aboriginal rights activist, Biochemist, Communist, dancer and historian
During the war as the deputy president of the Launceston Women’s Voluntary National Register, McIntyre was responsible for organising training schemes for women who wanted to be involved in the war effort. Her wartime experiences led her to argue for women to have ‘more say in the running of the country’.