Margaret Sanger, United States Activist,1879-1966

In 1916 Margaret Sanger opened the first birth control clinic. Motivated by the deaths of young mothers from self-induced abortions and pregnancy complications, Sanger pioneered birth control for women. She faced fierce opposition and even personal harm, yet she stood her ground. Sanger also started the organization that became the future Planned Parenthood Federation of America. �The movement she started will grow to be, a hundred years from now, the most influential of all time," predicted futurist and historian H.G. Wells in 1931. "When the history of our civilization is written, it will be a biological history, and Margaret Sanger will be its heroine."

Article By Alexander S

Sammuramat, Assyrian Queen, 9th Century B.C.

Sammuramat has been the subject of many myths about her reign as both the wife of and mother of kings. Legend has it that she accompanied her husband into battle. She is historically credited with re-building Babylon and with the conquest of neighboring states; including the defeat of the Indian army at the Indus River. It has been written that when she returned from that battle, she turned over her power to her son, Ninyas; who then had her killed. (How's that for gratitude?) She was 62 years old and had ruled her kingdom alone successfully for decades.

Aticle By Alexander S

Eleanor Roosevelt, United States First Lady, 1884-1962

One of the most controversial first ladies of our time, Eleanor Roosevelt was a driven, independent thinker. Through her position and helped by her powerful husband, Franklin Roosevelt, she worked to make the New Deal. Eleanor's discovery of Franklin's affair with her social secretary, Lucy Page Mercer, in 1918 was a turning point in their marriage. Although the affair ended and the Roosevelts reconciled, Eleanor resolved to have a career of her own. She became involved in the League of Women Voters and the Women's Trade Union League. In 1921 Eleanor began to work politically on behalf of Franklin, who had been stricken with poliomyelitis after his unsuccessful bid for the vice presidency in 1920. She became active in Democratic party politics as a means of keeping her handicapped husband's political career alive. When he was elected to the presidency in 1932, Eleanor continued to assist him, and although she held no office, she soon became an influential figure in his administration. Eleanor, who was known to be more liberal than the president, worked to promote racial equality, and in a famous incident, resigned from the Daughters of the American Revolution when the black singer Marian Anderson was denied the use of their facilities. Eleanor was a U.S. delegate to the United Nations from 1945 to 1953 and she chaired the commission that drafted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. As a leader of human rights, she strove to further women�s causes, as well as the causes of black, poor and unemployed people. �Do what you feel in your heart to be right- for you'll be criticized anyway. You'll be damned if you do, and damned if you don't.� - Eleanor Roosevelt

Article By Alexander S

Condoleezza Rice, United States National Security Advisor, 1954

Condoleezza was born in 1954 in Birmingham, Alabama. She earned her bachelor's degree in political science, cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa, from the University of Denver in 1974; her master's from the University of Notre Dame in 1975; and her Ph.D. from the Graduate School of International Studies at the University of Denver in 1981. She is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and has been awarded honorary doctorates from Morehouse College in 1991, the University of Alabama in 1994, the University of Notre Dame in 1995, Mississippi College School of Law in 2003, and the University of Louisville and Michigan State University in 2004. In 1999 she completed a six year tenure as Stanford University 's Provost, during which she was the institution's chief budget and academic officer. Condoleezzaa was responsible for a $1.5 billion annual budget and the academic program involving 1,400 faculty members. At Stanford, she has been a member of the Center for International Security and Arms Control, a Senior Fellow of the Institute for International Studies, and a Fellow (by courtesy) of the Hoover Institution. Her books include The Gorbachev Era (1986) with Alexander Dallin, Germany Unified and Europe Transformed (1995) with Philip Zelikow, and Uncertain Allegiance: The Soviet Union and the Czechoslovak Army (1984). From 1989 through March 1991, Condoleeza served in the Bush Administration as Director, and then Senior Director, of Soviet and East European Affairs in the National Security Council, and a Special Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs. In 1986, while an international affairs fellow of the Council on Foreign Relations, she served as Special Assistant to the Director of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. In 1997, she served on the Federal Advisory Committee on Gender -- Integrated Training in the Military. Dr. Condoleezza Rice became the Assistant to President Bush for National Security Affairs, commonly referred to as the National Security Advisor in 2001.

Article by Alexander S

Janet Reno, United States Attorney General, 1938 -

Janet was born in Miami, Florida, and educated at Cornell University and Harvard Law School. After graduating from Harvard in 1963 she practiced law in Miami with several firms. In 1978, Reno was appointed Miami's state attorney, a post to which she was reelected five times. She developed a reputation as a staunch protector of defendant's rights and a tough enforcer of child-support laws. In 1993, when President Bill Clinton appointed Reno U.S. attorney general, she vowed to use her new position to defend abortion rights. Her early days in office were occupied with the infamous standoff near Waco, Texas, between Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents and members of the Branch Davidian religious cult.


Article by Alexander S

Rosa Parks, United States Civil Rights Activist, 1913 - 2005

In 1955 Rosa Parks made history by refusing to give up her seat to a white person on a Montgomery, Alabama bus. The bus incident led to the formation of the Montgomery Improvement Association, led by the young pastor, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The association called for a boycott of the Montgomery city-owned bus company which lasted 382 days and brought Mrs. Parks and Dr. King, and their cause, to the attention of the world. A Supreme Court Decision struck down the Montgomery ordinance under which Mrs. Parks had been fined, and outlawed racial segregation on public transportation. Rosa�s refusal to move further back on the bus in order to accommodate white riders helped start not only the Montgomery bus boycott, but the 1960s Civil Rights Movement. She has since been a strong advocate for human rights issues. Upon her death in 2005, she was the first civilian to lie in state in the Rotunda of the Capital Building in Washington, D.C. �My only concern was to get home after a hard day's work.� (Comment upon being asked why she refused to give up her seat) "I do the very best I can to look upon life with optimism and hope and looking forward to a better day, but I don't think there is anything such as complete happiness. It pains me that there is still a lot of Klan activity and racism.� - Rosa Parks.

Atrticle by Alexander S

Eva Peron, Argentinas First Lady and Crusader for the Poor, 1919-1952

Evita grew up poor and got the urge to be an actress and ran away to Buenos Aires at the age of 15. To survive in Buenos Aires, Evita (as she is now known) worked doing small acting and radio parts, among other jobs. In 1944 at a fund-raiser for the victims of an earthquake, Evita met Colonel Juan Domingo Peron, a strong man in the military government, and became his mistress. Peron and Evita eventually married. In June 1946, after a turbulent campaign, Juan Peron was declared president of Argentina and Evita became first lady. Eva worked sixteen hour days running a society to right the wrongs of what she saw as Argentina's unequal society. She oversaw 12 hospital openings, a thousand new schools, medical centers, clinics, homes for the aged and more. Evita's passion to help the poor and working class made her a saint to these classes and an enemy to the wealthy. Evita died in 1952 at the age of 33 from uterine cancer. She had managed to become the most powerful woman in Argentina, despite being the illegitimate daughter of a poor servant and moderately wealthy land owner. She was adored by millions for her important role in Argentina's healing and personally saw and spoke with (as well as answered) 10,000 letters a day. �I demanded more rights for women because I know what women had to put up with.�
�I have one thing that counts, and that is my heart; it burns in my soul, it aches in my flesh, and it ignites my nerves: that is my love for the people and Peron.� - Evita Peron