Mary McLeod Bethune

July 10, 1875 - May 18, 1955
Educator

Mary McLeod Bethune was an educator, civil rights leader, and government official who founded the National Council of Negro Women and Bethune-Cookman College. Bethune was a political activist and the first African-American woman to be involved in the White House, where she assisted four different presidents. One particularly important role saw her as the informal “race leader at large” for Franklin Delano Roosevelt from 1936 to 1945. In addition to serving as Director of Negro Affairs for the National Youth Administration to help young people find jobs and to secure funds for the youth, she was the first Black leader and woman to have a monument, Bethune Memorial Statue, erected on public park land in the District of Columbia. She was honored with a memorial site in the nation’s capital in 1994, when the National Parks Service acquired the Council House that today bears her name and offers educational programs and exhibits.

Bethune

Jane Addams

September 6, 1860 - May 21, 1935
Social Advocate

Jane Addams was a pioneering social worker, human rights advocate, and feminist. She established Hull House in 1889 to serve the underprivileged of Chicago, served as a civic leader on Chicago’s Board of Education, participated in the founding of the Chicago School of Civics and Philanthropy, and was the first woman president of the National Conference of Charities and Corrections. She was also the first woman awarded an honorary degree from Yale University in 1910. As a pacifist, she opposed World War I, and her commitment as a pacifist is evidenced by her Carnegie Foundation lectures, her election as chairman of the Women’s Peace Party, and her presidency of the International Congress of Women. Her involvement in the cause of pacifism during the onset of World War I, however, led to her expulsion from the Daughters of the American Revolution. Addams is also known for founding and serving as president of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom. She was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1931.

Addams

Eunice Kennedy Shriver

July 10, 1921 - August 11, 2009
Human Rights and Disability Acitivist, Founder of the Special Olympics

Eunice Kennedy Shriver received an honorary degree from Georgetown in 2003.

There is a portrait of Eunice Kennedy Shriver in the National Portrait Gallery's "The Struggle for Justice" collection.

Click here to view the National Portrait Gallery's "The Struggle for Justice" collection.

Shriver