Powerful Women You Probably Didn’t Learn About In School
Queen Lili'uokalani
Queen Lili'uokalani (1838-1917) was the first sovereign queen, and the last monarch of Hawaii before a group of American plantation and business owners, backed by the U.S. military, staged a coup to overthrow her in 1893. After Hawaii was annexed by the U.S. in 1898, Lili'uokalani dedicated her life to preserving native Hawaiian rights and traditions. She also helped raise funds for the Queen's Hospital, established a bank for women, a fund for education of native Hawaiian girls, and created The Queen Lili'uokalani Trust to support Hawaiian orphans, which is still thriving today.
Yuri Kochiyama
Yuri Kochiyama (1921-2014) was a political activist who dedicated her life to social justice and advancing human rights. In 1943, Kochiyama and her family were sent to the Japanese concentration camps in Arkansas for two years; she cited this as "the beginning of her political awakening." In the early 1960s Kochiyama and her husband and children moved to Harlem. She became involved in various movements for civil and human rights, and was a founder of Asian Americans for Action. She became friends with Malcolm X in 1963, "He certainly changed my life. I was heading in one direction, integration, and he was going in another, total liberation, and he opened my eyes." When asked the legacy she hoped leave behind, Kochiyama said, "Build bridges, not walls."
Lorena Borjas
Lorena Borjas (1960-2020) was a transgender activist and community organizer who worked to help transgender women and immigrants survive trafficking and abusive situations. Borjas-who was known as “the mother of the trans Latino community in Queens-provided support to trans women in need. She fought for the rights of sex workers, trans people, and the Latino community. “Borjas advocated for her sisters through organizing HIV testing opportunities for trans sex workers, establishing a fund that would bail out folks who were arrested on prostitution charges, and through running syringe-exchange programs for trans women taking hormone injections. She was a leader in her community, a voice of wisdom, and a guide for activists in generations to come." Wren Sanders for Them
Madonna Thunder Hawk
Madonna Thunder Hawk (1940) is a Native American civil rights activist, speaker, and community organizer. Thunder Hawk's activism began in the 1960s when she joined and became a leader in the American Indian Movement (AIM). She has participated in many key occupations, including Alcatraz (1969), Mt. Rushmore (1970), Wounded Knee (1973) and, more recently, Standing Rock. Thunder Hawk is co-founder of Women of All Red Nations and the Black Hills Alliance. In 1974, she established the We Will Remember Survival School. The 2018 documentary "Warrior Women highlights Thunder Hawk's dedication to Native resistance.
Emma Goldman
Emma Goldman (1869-1940) was an anarchist, writer, lecturer, and radical feminist who advocated for free speech, birth control, women's equality and independence, union organization, and atheism. Goldman was arrested and detained several times for heractivism. FBI director J. Edgar Hoover once referred to Goldman as "the most dangerous woman in America," and eventually had her deported "for advocating anarchism." Goldman continued to speak out against capitalism, militarism, and the prison system until her death in 1940.