Smithsonian American Women's History Museum

Renowned educator and reformer Mary McLeod Bethune was born on this day in 1875. She dedicated her life to organizing and empowering African American women to work for equality. In 1904, Bethune founded a school for Black girls that gave Florida students the tools they needed to become community leaders. By 1929, that institution had blossomed into Bethune-Cookman College, now a private HBCU. In the 1930s, President Franklin D. Roosevelt appointed her director of the Division of Negro Affairs in the National Youth Administration, making her the first African American woman to head a division of a federal agency. Bethune founded the National Council of Negro Women in 1935 and acted as their first president. The council influenced civil rights, education, U.S. relations with Africa, and other 20th-century movements. 🖼️: Betsy Graves Reyneau, 1943; National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution © Peter Edward Fayard

"She inspired everyone around her," Jean Case, a member of our advisory council, says about her mother, Norma Norton. "She was a single mom, raising four kids alone, yet I never saw her complain." Case is chairman of the National Geographic Society and CEO of Case Impact Network and The Case Foundation. #WomensHistoryIs a movement that claims the value and importance of every woman’s story. See groundbreaking stories submitted by our audience in our interactive Community Story Explorer. https://s.si.edu/4cBHFCv

Tennis player and professional golfer Althea Gibson was the first African American woman to compete at the highest levels of both sports. 🎾 On this day in 1957, she became the first Black player to win Wimbledon. Born into a sharecropping family in South Carolina, Gibson spent most of her formative years in Harlem, New York, where she was first introduced to tennis as a teen. At age 20, Gibson won the first of 10 straight titles at the national tournament of the American Tennis Association, the first African American sports association founded under segregation. Despite success in the early 1950s, Gibson wasn’t selected to represent the United States in the Wightman Cup tournament until 1957, by which time she had already won two of her five grand slam titles: the 1956 French Nationals championship and the 1957 Wimbledon title. In the 1960s, she also became the first Black player to compete on the Women's Professional Golf Tour. She was later named New Jersey’s commissioner of athletics, becoming the first woman to head a state’s athletic commission. Learn more: https://s.si.edu/3W5BhgR She will be honored with her own U.S. quarter next year as part of our American Women Quarters™ Program with United States Mint. 📷: Wallace Seawell, 1959, Collection of Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture

Today marks the 60th anniversary of the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Though Black women played crucial roles organizing and leading efforts in the fight for equal rights, many mainstream histories ignore their contributions. Black women took on important strategic roles at the local level, even as they were denied recognition at the national level. They served as activists, scholars, and organizers who established crucial connections between grassroots and national organizations. Student activist Diane Nash, who later organized three marches from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama; voting rights activist and community organizer Fannie Lou Hamer; and activist and mother of murdered 14-year-old Emmett Till, Mamie Till-Mobley. These three women are only a few of the many women who worked and sacrificed to keep the movement going. Read more: https://s.si.edu/4ckeJie 📷: Collection of Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture, Gift of Lauren and Michael Lee; Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture © The Louis Draper Archive; Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, Gift of Monica Karales and the Estate of James Karales © Estate of James Karales

Dr. Marian Pettibone’s name is forever linked to the worms she studied. A Spokane, Washington native, Pettibone’s success was born of the groundwork laid by her female predecessors, 1960’s government-funded scientific expansion, and her mastery of a unique group of aquatic animals known as polychaetes. While opportunity played a role, Pettibone's success was also rooted in her expertise. By the time she became a curator at the Smithsonian Institution, Museum of Natural History she had already published 15 scientific articles and a book on East Coast polychaetes, establishing herself as an authority on these unique invertebrates. Though Pettibone rarely collaborated on her research, she was known to give generously of her time. She edited manuscripts for students and colleagues, identified species, offered to pay the cost of publication for fellow researchers, and mailed manuscript copies from her extensive personal polychaete library to others. Read more: https://s.si.edu/4cmk9cp Her history is intertwined with the centuries-long fight for the recognition of women in science. 📷: Courtesy of the Smithsonian Department of Invertebrate Zoology

Her hands, Helen Keller once wrote, were the means to “reach through isolation and darkness.” Born on this day in 1880, Keller was deaf and blind from the age of 19 months after an illness. This photograph ran in an article that Keller published in a 1905 issue of the Century magazine entitled “A Chat about the Hand.” Keller wrote, “My world is built of touch sensations, devoid of color and sound, but without color and sound it breathes and throbs with life.” She became an accomplished writer and renowned champion for human rights. She received this watch as a gift when she was a teen. The watch features a case studded with pins that correspond to the hours, one through 12, on the dial. On the case back, a revolving hand stops at a point that corresponds to the hour and minute. With the hand and pins as locators, Keller could feel the time. 📷: Charles Whitman, 1904, National Portrait Gallery ⌚️: Smithsonian National Museum of American History

🛹 Let's go shred with Judi Oyama for Go Skateboarding Day! American pro skateboarder Judi Oyama began skating as a teen and turned pro in the 1970s. In 2003, at the age of 43, she won the Slalom World Championships and in 2013 was ranked second in the U.S. and first in the masters division overall. In 2015, she became the first woman to win the N-Men Icon Award given to Northern California skaters who have made an impact on the sport. In 2018, she was inducted into the Skateboard Hall of Fame. Despite Oyama's overwhelming contributions to skateboarding, she did not have a Wikipedia article until our 2021 edit-a-thon. This photo and others are in the Smithsonian National Museum of American History collection. Oyama is also a graphic designer and the former vice president of Board Rescue, which provides skateboards and safety equipment to organizations that work with underprivileged and/or at-risk kids. 📷: John Krisick, 1977 Smithsonian National Museum of American History

Dr. Sally K. Ride became the first American woman in space on this day in 1983. For the first 20 years of U.S. spaceflight, only military pilots could become astronauts. At the time, U.S. military policy excluded women from combat and from flying. Only male pilots had the qualifications to become astronauts. For its Space Shuttle Program, NASA wanted to recruit a new kind of astronaut: a scientist or researcher. For the first time, NASA was encouraging women to apply. Physicist Sally Ride applied and was selected as one of six women to enter the Astronaut Corps in 1978. In 1983, Ride joined the seventh space shuttle mission as a Mission Specialist who operated the shuttle's robotic arm. The next year, Ride went back to space on the 13th space shuttle mission. In 2022, Ride was honored with her own US quarter as part of the American Women Quarters™ program, our partnership with the United States Mint. Learn more: https://s.si.edu/3VL5IsB #SmithsonianPride 📷: NASA - National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Less than 20% of biographies in English-language Wikipedia are about women. Help change that at our Wikipedia edit-a-thon! At this event, you can help edit and create Wikipedia articles inspired by the life and work of Dr. Mary Edwards Walker. She was the first woman to serve as a U.S. Army surgeon during the Civil War, a women’s rights advocate, and the only woman to receive the Medal of Honor. 🪙 She is featured on a new quarter as part of the American Women Quarters™ Program in partnership with United States Mint. ➡️ RSVP: https://s.si.edu/4c0bzAe New editors are encouraged to attend the introductory session at 11am. This event is presented with support from Wikimedia DC.

The Dr. Mary Edwards Walker quarter is coming to the National Postal Museum! Join us and the United States Mint this Saturday to celebrate the latest coin in the American Women Quarters™ Program. See Walker's 1982 U.S. postal stamp plus enjoy crafts, activities, story time, and more. 🗓️ National Postal Museum, June 15, 10 am – 1 pm EDT Learn more: https://s.si.edu/3x6ekAE