News — Heroes
Josefa Llanes Escoda
Josefa Madamba Llanes-Escoda (September 20, 1898 – January 6, 1945) was a prominent civic leader and a social worker. She is well known as a Filipino advocate of women's suffrage and was founder of the Girl Scouts of the Philippines.Together with José Abad Santos and Vicente Lim, she is memorialized on the Philippines' 1,000-Peso banknote depicting Filipinos who fought and died resisting the Japanese occupation of the Philippines during the Second World War at the Far Eastern University in Manila. Learn More
Jane Bolin - The First Black Woman in the US to Become a Judge
Daughter of the Empire State by Jacqueline McLeod Jane Bolin's appointment as a family court judge by Mayor Fiorello H. La Guardia in 1939 made her the first black woman in the United States to become a judge. Judge Bolin was the first black woman to graduate from Yale Law School, the first to join the New York City Bar Association, and the first to work in the office of the New York City corporation counsel, the city’s legal department. In January 1979, when Judge Bolin had reluctantly retired after 40 years as a judge, Constance Baker Motley, a black...
Eleanor Joyce Toliver-Williams - the first African-American woman to certify as an air traffic controller
The next time you are flying in a jet, take a moment to think about the Air Traffic Controllers on the ground who guide aircraft safely to their destinations. Eleanor Joyce Toliver-Williams was one such unsung hero.
Althea Gibson - The first Black woman to compete at Wimbledon
Althea Gibson was the first Black woman to compete at Wimbledon in 1951. Her love of the sport opened doors for Black athletes everywhere.
Miss Julia Emory - Suffragette
Miss Julia Emory points to her “Jailed for Freedom” pin, given to Suffragettes who were arrested for protesting & endured horrible conditions in jail, 1917.