Powerful Women You Probably Didn’t Learn About In School

Dolores Huerta

Dolores Huerta (1930) is a social and political activist and one of the most influential labor movement leaders in U.S. history. Huerta co-founded the United Farm Workers Association with Cesar Chavez, her longtime collaborator and fellow labor organizer. Huerta was a key organizer of the 1965 Delano strike of 5,000 grape workers and was the lead negotiator in the first farmworker union contracts that followed. According to NPR, at the height of the strike, an estimated 17M people stopped buying grapes. "Throughout the 1970s and '80s, Huerta worked as a lobbyist to improve workers' legislative representation, During the 1990s and 2000s, she worked to elect more Latinos and women to political office and has championed women's issues."

Barbara Smith

Barbara Smith (1946) is an activist, educator, scholar, and author who co-founded the Combahee River Collective and publishing house Kitchen Table: Women of Color Press-which was run by and for women of color. Smith's activism has been approached through an intersectional lens-as a Black lesbian socialist, she has fought for a slew of causes, including racial justice, death penalty abolition, LGBTQIA+ rights, worker's rights, anti-imperialism, and feminism.

Jane Bolin

Jane Bolin (1908-2007) was the first Black woman to graduate from Yale Law School, the first to join the New York City Bar Association, and the first Black female judge in the United States. Bolin served on the Family Court bench for four decades, advocating for children and families, and also served on the boards of the NAACPand the New York Urban League. worked to end segregation in child placement facilities, helped to create a racially integrated treatment center for delinquent boys, and ended assignments of probation officers based on race." Wellesley When she retired at age 70, Bolin volunteered as a tutor in New York City public schools and served on the New York State Board of Regents.

Helen Thomas

Helen Thomas (1920-2013) was a reporter and author who covered the White House as a member of the press corps. for fifty years, covering ten presidencies-from Kennedy to Obama. Thomas was the first woman accepted into the White House press corps. and also the first woman to be admitted to Washington's elite Gridiron Club. Thomas was known for her tough questions and forthrightness and was the only member of the WH press corps. with her own assigned seat in the Briefing Room (all other seats are assigned to media outlets).