Nellie Wilson spent her life fighting for employment opportunities for women and was the first African American woman to hold a leadership position in her local steelworkers union.

Mabel Raimey was the first African American woman to graduate from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, attend Marquette University Law School, and practice law in Wisconsin.

Vel Phillips achieved many firsts, including first woman and first African American to be elected to the statewide office of secretary of state.

At age 16, Caroline Quarlls was the first known person to escape slavery through Wisconsin’s Underground Railroad network.

Barbara Nichols was the first African American president of the Wisconsin Nurses Association and of the American Nurses Association.

Best known for her work on gender, race, and class, University of Wisconsin graduate bell hooks was a prolific writer, speaker, and scholar.

Lorraine Hansberry's first Broadway play, A Raisin in the Sun, changed how Black people's lives were shown in American theater.

Vernice Gallimore became Milwaukee's first African American policewoman in 1946.

Kimberlé Crenshaw, a leader in critical race theory, introduced the term "intersectionality" to describe the multiple ways people can be oppressed.

Ardie Clark Halyard co-founded the first African American-owned savings and loan association (S&L) and was the first woman president of the Milwaukee NAACP chapter.