As an individualist who was disengaged from any official artistic movement, Kahlo’s artwork has been associated with Primitivism, Indigenism, Magic Realism, and Surrealism. Posthumously, Kahlo’s artwork has grown profoundly influential for feminist studies and postcolonial debates, while Kahlo has become an international cultural icon.
Fannie Lou Townsend Hamer rose from humble beginnings in the Mississippi Delta to become one of the most important, passionate, and powerful voices of the civil and voting rights movements and a leader in the efforts for greater economic opportunities for African Americans.
Poet, dancer, singer, activist, and scholar, Maya Angelou is a world-famous author. She is best known for her unique and pioneering autobiographical writing style.
Although it was very dangerous for African Americans to speak out against white people during the Jim Crow era, Recy Taylor refused to remain silent about sexual violence. She bravely testified against the group of white men that kidnapped and raped her.
Model, author, actor and activist Waris Dirie worked for the United Nations from 1997 to 2003 as a Special Ambassador for the Elimination of Female Genital Mutilation. She had written several books on the subject, and in 2002 launched her own non-profit, the Desert Flower Foundation, which raises money to increase awareness about FGM and to help those affected.
Anna Maria Schwegelin was born into poverty near Kempten im Allgäu and served as a maid. In 1751, a Protestant was employed in the house as a coachman, and converted to Catholicism. Schwegelin tried to prevent his conversion; it is also said that she abandoned her Catholic faith to marry a Protestant, but that the marriage plans were broken off. In 1769, she injured her leg, and the following year, she was sent to the poor house. Suspicions of her (and the coachman’s) involvement in Satanism led to an arrest; she reportedly freely confessed having made a pact with the Devil. She was judged guilty and sentenced to be executed on 11 April 1775, but by July 1775, the case seems to have been forgotten, and Schwegelin remained in jail, where she died of natural causes in 1781.
It was long believed that her sentence was carried out, which would have made her the last person executed for sorcery in Germany. She was the last person to be sentenced to death for sorcery in Germany. She has also been described as the last person to be executed for witchcraft in Europe, but that was a Polish woman, Barbara Zdunk.
During World War II, approximately 200,000 Chinese, Korean, Singaporean, Malaysian, Taiwanese and Filipino women and girls were forced into sexual slavery by the Japanese army.