ECOLOGY & CULTURE

Dr. Isabella Abbott was an award-winning, groundbreaking Native Hawaiian Scientist who dedicated her life to the study of marine algae, its ecological significance and cultural importance.

SCIENCE & PALEONTOLOGY

Mary Anning faced prejudice as a woman in the scientific community but did not let these pressures get in between her and her goals as a fossil collector and paleontologist who revolutionized paleontology with her discoveries.

TECHNOLOGY & D-DAY

The outcome of WWII could have been completely different if not for the vision and technological innovations of one man: Andrew Higgins.

WWII ESCAPE ROUTE

Belgian nurse who established and ran the Comet Line, assisting some 800 Allied soldiers in escaping Nazi-occupied Belgium.

FORMERLY ENSLAVED ARCHITECT

Horace King overcame immense prejudice to become one of the most accomplished architects and builders in U.S. history.

JAPANESE INTERNMENT WWII

War, by nature, denotes division: you're with us, or you're against us. Ralph Lazo didn't see it that way. He chose to live in a Japanese internment camp to protest racism.

CIVIL RIGHTS & DESEGREGATION

Civil rights activist who began the sit-in movement in Oklahoma, leading to the desegregation of all public places in the state.

EMPATHY & ALLYSHIP

It’s never easy standing up to your peers, even if it’s the right thing to do. But we all have a choice. Kendall Reinhardt chose to stand up for his beliefs.

UNDERGROUND RAILROAD

A free African American man who challenged racism and helped liberate enslaved people through the Underground Railroad.

CIVIL RIGHTS JOURNALISM

Despite facing extreme violence, journalist L. Alex Wilson kept reporting—and his writing helped change public consciousness at the height of the Civil Rights Movement.

CIVIL RIGHTS MARCH 

You are never too young to make a difference. Named the “smallest freedom fighter” by Dr. Martin Luther King himself, Sheyann Webb was just 8 years old when she joined the Civil Rights Movement and made the historic Selma to Montgomery March that led to the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

EDUCATION ON DISCRIMINATION

For her lesson on prejudice and discrimination, “Brown Eyes, Blue Eyes,” Jane Elliott used collars to separate her third grade students by eye color.

SCHOOL DESEGREGATION

Civil rights activist Sylvia Mendez’s landmark 1946 desegregation case paved the way for Brown vs. Board of Education.

EDUCATIONAL INEQUITY

Civil rights activist Elizabeth Horton Sheff led a landmark lawsuit to rectify educational inequities between urban and suburban schools.

MEDICAL AID FOR RACIAL VIOLENCE

After the Tulsa Race Riots in 1921, Red Cross Director of Relief Maurice Willows brought critical resources and medical aid to the victims of one of the worst incidents of racial violence in American history. In the process, he expanded the mission of the Red Cross.

REPARATIONS FOR JAPANESE INTERNMENT

Aiko Herzig-Yoshinaga’s passion for research and racial justice resulted in $20,000 in reparations for people of Japanese descent, the signing of the Civil Liberties Act of 1988 and a formal apology from the President.

REPARATIONS FOR JAPANESE INTERNMENT

Children’s rights activist and social reformer who helped end child labor and establish regulations to protect workers.

MESSAGE ENCRYPTION 

Known as the most beautiful woman in the world, Hedy Lamarr was also a mathematician and inventor who assisted in the war effort during WWII.

CZECH KINDERTRANSPORT

In the months leading up to World War II, Sir Nicholas George Winton was a British humanitarian who organized the rescue of 669 children from Czechoslovakia in an operation later known as the Czech Kindertransport.

HOLOCAUST SURVIVOR & DIARIST

Even when the world reveals itself as a dark and dangerous place, children find ways to believe in a brighter future. Or at least Pavel Weiner, a young Holocaust survivor, did this through his writing.

ARMENIAN GENOCIDE

An American nurse, Emma Darling Cushman saved the lives of thousands of Armenian children during the Armenian genocide.

SOVIET BLOCKADE AFTER WWII

During the Soviet blockade of West Berlin, U.S. Colonel Halvorsen organized airlifts of candy and other goodies to raise the morale of the German children.

JAPANESE INTERNMENT WII

A Japanese orchardist from Hood River, Oregon, Minoru Yasui started the first Supreme Court case testing the constitutionality of Japanese internment.

VIETNAM WAR

With the South Vietnamese Army, Tran Ngoc Hue aided the U.S. during the Vietnam War and saved countless American lives.

WWI BAND LEADER

James Reese Europe was a champion for fellow Black musicians as a composer, conductor, and organizer who created the Clef Club, the first labor union and contracting agency for black entertainers. He was also the first Black officer to lead troops into battle during World War I and he created a brass band after his enlistment; this band would introduce jazz to Europe.

RWANDAN GENOCIDE

Carl Wilkens was an American missionary who chose to stay during the Rwandan Genocide, saving hundreds of lives.

GENDER EQUALITY AT NASA

A female American astronaut’s advocacy for gender equality during the early 1960s ultimately led NASA to change its policies and include women in the space program.

ASTRONOMY

An astronomer in the early 20th century who discovered a formula that could be used to measure the distance to stars and other galaxies from Earth, Henrietta Swan Leavitt effectively paved the way for modern astronomy and space exploration.

PEDIATRICS

Virginia Apgar developed the A.P.G.A.R. score, which determines a baby’s health one and five minutes after birth and has saved millions of babies lives.

ENDANGERED SPECIES

Jacob Valentine II fought to save the Mississippi Sandhill Crane from extinction and strengthened the 1973 Endangered Species Act as a result.

HUMAN RIGHTS IN THE CONGO

A young missionary, Harris used photography to expose human rights violations by Belgian colonists in the Congo.

AIDS CRISIS

Young photojournalist student Therese Frare took the iconic photo of David Kirby that changed the face of HIV/AIDS in the 1990s and beyond.

NUTRITIONAL DEFICIENCY

In looking for a cure for beriberi, scientist Robert R. Williams discovered thiamine, which has eradicated many nutritional deficiencies around the world.

SPACE EXPLORATION

The founder of astrogeology, Gene Shoemaker, discovered the Shoemaker-Levy comet and—for his contributions to space exploration—Shoemaker remains the only person whose ashes have been buried on the moon.

MATHEMATICS

In the 9th century, a Persian mathematician named Muhammad ibn Musa Al-Khwarizmi discovered a simpler way to dissect math problems. His contributions to the field of mathematics are now taught in classrooms every day.

RADIOLOGY

The early pioneer of radiology Eugene Wilson Caldwell ultimately sacrificed his life to the development of x-rays.