List 43 women that I admire

Mary McLeod Bethune (1875-1955), an African American teacher, was one of the great educators of the United States. She was a leader of women, a distinguished adviser to several American presidents, and a powerful champion of racial equality.

Mary McLeod was born in Mayesville, S.C. Her parents, Samuel and Patsy McLeod, were former slaves; Mary was the fifteenth of 17 children. She helped her parents on the family farm and first entered a Presbyterian mission school when she was 11 years old. Later she attended Scotia Seminary, a school for African American girls in Concord, N.C., on a scholarship. She graduated in 1893; there she had met some of the people with whom she would work closely.

Though she had a serious turn of mind, it did not prevent her from being a lively dancer and developing a lasting fondness for music. Dynamic and alert, she was very popular and the acknowledged leader of her classmates. After graduating from Scotia Seminary, she attended the Moody Bible Institute.

Career as an Educator
After graduation from Moody Institute, she wished to become a missionary in Africa; however, she was unable to pursue this end. She was an instructor at the Presbyterian Mission School in Mayesville in 1896 and later an instructor at Haines Institute in Augusta, Ga., in 1896-1897. While she was an instructor at Kindell Institute in Sumpter, S.C., in 1897-1898, she met Albertus Bethune, whom she later married.

Bethune began her career as an educator in earnest when she rented a two-story frame building in Daytona Beach, Fla., and began the difficult task of establishing a school for African American girls. Her school opened in October 1904, with six pupils, five girls and her own son; there was no equipment; crates were used for desks and charcoal took the place of pencils; and ink came from crushed elderberries. Thus began the Daytona Literary and Industrial School for Training Negro Girls, in an era when most African American children received little or no education.

At first Bethune was teacher, administrator, comptroller, and custodian. Later she was able to secure a staff, many of whom worked loyally for many years. To finance and expand the school, Bethune and her pupils baked pies and made ice cream to sell to nearby construction gangs. In addition to her regular classes, Bethune organized classes for the children of turpentine workers. In these ways she satisfied her desire to serve as a missionary.

As the school at Daytona progressed, it became necessary to secure an adequate financial base. Bethune began to seek financial aid in earnest. In 1912 she interested James M. Gamble of the Proctor and Gamble Company of Cincinnati, Ohio, who contributed financially to the school and served as chairman of its board of trustees until his death.

In 1923 Bethune’s school for girls merged with Cookman Institute of Jacksonville, Fla., a school for boys, and the new coeducational school became known as Bethune-Cookman Collegiate Institute, soon renamed Bethune-Cookman College. Bethune served as president of the college until her retirement as president emeritus in 1942. She remained a trustee of the college to the end of her life. By 1955 the college had a faculty of 100 and a student enrollment of over 1,000.

Other Activities
Bethune’s business activities were confined to the Central Life Insurance Company of Tampa, Fla., of which she was president for several years; the Afro-American Life Insurance Company of Jacksonville, which she served as director; and the Bethune-Volusia Beach Corporation, a recreation area and housing development she founded in 1940. In addition, she wrote numerous magazine and newspaper articles and contributed chapters to several books. In 1932 she founded and organized the National Council of Negro Women and became its president; by 1955 this organization had a membership of 800,000.

Bethune gained national recognition in 1936, when President Franklin D. Roosevelt appointed her director of African American affairs in the National Youth Administration and a special adviser on minority affairs. She served for 8 years and supervised the expansion of employment opportunities and recreational facilities for African American youth throughout the United States. She also served as special assistant to the secretary of war during World War II. In the course of her government assignments she became a close friend of Eleanor Roosevelt. During her long career Bethune received many honorary degrees and awards, including the Haitian Medal of Honor and Merit (1949), the highest award of the Haitian government.

Bethune died in Daytona Beach on May 18, 1955, of a heart attack. She was buried on the campus of Bethune-Cookman College.

Shirley St. Hill Chisholm was born on November 30, 1924 in Brooklyn, New York to Charles and Ruby St. Hill. Her father was from British Guiana and her mother was from Barbados. In 1927, Shirley was sent to Barbados to live with her maternal grandmother. She received a good education from the British school system, which she later credited with providing her with a strong academic background.

In 1934, she rejoined her parents in New York. Shirley excelled in academics at Girls High School in Brooklyn from which she graduated in 1942. After graduation she enrolled in Brooklyn College where she majored in sociology. Shirley encountered racism at Brooklyn College and fought against it. When the black students at Brooklyn College were denied admittance to a social club, Shirley formed an alternative one. She graduated in 1946 with honors. During this time, it was difficult for black college graduates to obtain employment commensurate to their education. After being rejected by many companies, she obtained a job at the Mt. Calvary Childcare Center in Harlem.

In 1949, she married Conrad Chisholm, a Jamaican who worked as a private investigator. Shirley and her husband participated in local politics, helping form the Bedford-Stuyvesant political League. In addition to participating in politics, Chisholm worked in the field of day care until 1959. In 1960, she started the Unity Democratic Club. The Unity Club was instrumental in mobilizing black and Hispanic voters.

In 1964 Chisholm ran for a state assembly seat. She won and served in the New York General Assembly from 1964 to 1968. During her tenure in the legislature, she proposed a bill to provide state aid to day-care centers and voted to increase funding for schools on a per-pupil basis. In 1968, After finishing her term in the legislature, Chisholm campaigned to represent New York’s Twelfth Congressional District. Her campaign slogan was “Fighting Shirley Chisholm—Unbought and Unbossed.” She won the election and became the first African American woman elected to Congress.

During her first term in Congress, Chisholm hired an all-female staff and spoke out for civil rights, women’s rights, the poor and against the Vietnam War. In 1970, she was elected to a second term. She was a sought-after public speaker and cofounder of the National Organization for Women (NOW). She remarked that, “Women in this country must become revolutionaries. We must refuse to accept the old, the traditional roles and stereotypes.”

On January 25, 1972, Chisholm announced her candidacy for president. She stood before the cameras and in the beginning of her speech she said,

“I stand before you today as a candidate for the Democratic nomination for the Presidency of the United States. I am not the candidate of black America, although I am black and proud. I am not the candidate of the women’s movement of this country, although I am a woman, and I am equally proud of that. I am not the candidate of any political bosses or special interests. I am the candidate of the people.”

The 1972 Democratic National Convention in Miami was the first major convention in which any woman was considered for the presidential nomination. Although she did not win the nomination, she received 151 of the delegates’ votes. She continued to serve in the House of Representatives until 1982. She retired from politics after her last term in office. She has received many honorary degrees, and her awards include Alumna of the Year, Brooklyn College; Key Woman of the Year; Outstanding Work in the Field of Child Welfare; and Woman of Achievement. Shirley Chisholm passed away on January 1, 2005.

preacher; writer

Personal Information

Born Juanita Bynum on January 16, 1959; divorced, 1985.
Education: Saints Academy of the Church of God in Christ (COGIC) high school in Lexington, Mississippi.
Religion: raised COGIC.

Career

Author. Recorded videos include: No More Sheets; Are You Planted for the Kingdom (also available on CD); I’m Too Fat For the Yoke (also available on CD); Limp of the Lord; Now That’s Dominion; The Refiner’s Fire; My Delivery; The Spirit of Isaac; The Umpire of my Soul; Tied to the Altar. Wrote: No More Sheets; Don’t Get off the Train. Speaker. Engagements include T.D. Jakes’ Singles Conference (“No More Sheets” message), 1997; T.D. Jakes’ “Woman, Thou Art Loosed!” conference, 1998; Women’s Weapons of Power Conference, 2001.

Life’s Work

In a time when sexuality permeates the culture, there is a woman who encourages women to find closure for previous relationships, live chaste, and be the kind of people they hope to attract. Using her own mistakes as a basis for her sermons, prophetess Juanita Bynum has dedicated herself to reaching others with a message from God, a message that offers healing and encouragement through suggesting celibacy for singles. Treading on territory where few women have ventured, Bynum has allowed herself to be God’s vessel, telling her colorful story to the masses, in hopes of saving souls from following the same dark paths she once walked.

As a child in Chicago with her parents, Katherine and Thomas, and siblings Janice, Kathy, Regina, and Thomas, Bynum embraced the church as a distinct part of her life. The family were members of St. Luke Church of God in Christ, where the father was an elder.

According to Ministries Today, Bynum was an outgoing child. Her charisma became apparent to those outside her immediate realm, when she landed a starring role in her middle school’s production of My Fair Lady. Her performance grabbed the attention of television show agents who wanted to cast her in programs similar to Julia, starring Diahann Carroll. Bynum’s mother, however, declined the offers. “I used to make her stop playing outside and come in the house and just sit still,” she told Ministries Today. “I wanted my daughter to listen to the voice of God,” she added.

Though she later admitted in Ministries Today, “Every time I got on my knees I kept hearing [God] say, ‘Before I knew you, I formed you in your mother’s womb to be a prophet to the nations,’” she struggled in her youth to obey instructions from God. Still, Bynum had hopes of being a servant. She attended Saints Academy of the Church of God in Christ (COGIC) high school in Lexington, Mississippi and graduated second in her class. Soon after her graduation, Bynum, still a teenager, began preaching at churches and revivals. Eventually, she traveled to Port Huron, Michigan, to minister for pastor William T. Nichols and his wife, and ended up on an unanticipated journey that changed the course of her life.

Choices Led to Hardship

At the age of 21 Bynum married, despite the warnings of her loved ones. “Everybody told me he wasn’t right, but I was screamin’, I’m in love. I can change him,” she told Essence. As Bynum later found out, she could not change her husband, and she had married him for all the wrong reasons.

A virgin until her marriage, Bynum admitted in Essence, “I married for sex—and what the man looked like.” Her husband left her in 1983 and divorced her in 1985. The pain of the failed relationship landed her in an institution, battling anorexia nervosa, and questioning her life’s turn of events. She lost sight of God’s path, and eventually sought refuge and healing in empty sexual affairs. In addition to her emotional state, her financial state crumbled. She was forced to go on welfare to survive.

Struggled to Rebuild her Life

In 1990 Bynum returned to Chicago, became a hairdresser, and managed to leave government aid behind. Her next steps led her to New York as a flight attendant for Pan American Airways, a job she held until the company went out of business in 1991. Bynum told Essence that friends believed the fate of Pan Am was God’s way of telling her that she was supposed to be a preacher. “I knew God was saying that this was my destiny, but I didn’t want to hear it.”

In New York, Bynum joined a new church and began ministering again. In 1996 she met a man who would prove to be a key figure in her transformation into a renowned prophetess. Though he knew nothing of her story, Pentecostal evangelist Bishop T.D. Jakes invited her to the singles’ conference in Dallas—a step that, according to Essence, was the result of his obedience to God’s instruction.

Life Story Became Testimony to Singles

Jakes’ obedience turned out to be the stepping stone for Bynum’s explosive break into national popularity, when two years after attending the singles’ conference, Bynum’s role changed from attendee to keynote speaker. In 1998 she delivered a message titled “No More Sheets” to 17,000 people, the majority women, and brought the crowd to their feet with praise and deliverance.

“No More Sheets” proved to be a testimony of Bynum’s sexual deviation and her process of purification. She reached out to the crowd with brutal honesty, honing in on the concept that “single” is not synonymous with unmarried; instead “single” refers to those who are free from the remnants of past relationships. “In order for God to bring somebody else in your life, there’s got to be room for that person in your life. You’re not single yet,” she told the crowd. “You’re still attached.”

Wrapped in sheets, Bynum explained that each sheet represented a past relationship and only God could peel those layers away in order to make people truly single—ready to receive their ordained mates. She shared a story of poverty that placed her in roach-infested projects, using McDonald’s napkins as toilet paper. Bynum told the crowd that by allowing her to struggle, God was reconditioning her to release her dependence on men and embrace her dependence on Him. It was a sacrifice that she made in order to be blessed.

Bynum told Essence that when she was on stage, her message had a life of its own. “It wasn’t me—it was God.” By end of the video, the camera captured thousands in a moment of spiritual awakening, chanting, “No More Sheets! No More Sheets!”

Bynum’s endeavors have taken her across the country to deliver her untraditional message to the masses at numerous venues including Jakes’ 1998 “Woman, Thou Art Loosed!” conference. With her popularity came the conception of Morning Glory Ministries, a venue that allows people to find out exactly where Bynum will be delivering messages and to obtain information about the prophetess. Videotapes like the now famous, “No More Sheets,” and other tapings like “I’m Too Fat for the Yoke” and “The Limp of the Lord,” as well as books including Don’t Get Off The Train, which was written about her experiences in Port Huron, are available for purchase through the ministry. Her lessons are also available through her ministry’s television program, Morning Glory, which according to Ministries Today, was airing on 15 television stations throughout the country in 1999.

Despite the great success Bynum has found in ministry, her fulfillment comes from one-on-one contact with people. “I really love people,” she was quoted as saying in Ministries Today. “My biggest joy is the individual contact I have with them.” In fact, when she isn’t traveling, she runs a bible institution training ministry at her church, New Greater Bethel Ministries in Hempstead, New York.

Bynum is constantly reminded of the rough days from which strength arose, and told Essence that the memories are still a great part of her existence. “If I close my eyes right now, I can see myself in the snow, wearing a black $2 coat and tennis shoes with no socks, waiting to get my $76 in food stamps. I can see myself in the hospital after my nervous breakdown, crying and throwing myself against the walls of the padded cell they put me in. When I remember the process it took to get myself from there to where I am today—and then I see a sister with no hope, I’m driven to get to that sister. I believe that the pain in each of our pasts gives us an opportunity to help others. If I honestly tell somebody what has happened to me, then maybe that person will be transformed.”

From the pages of her electronic guestbook on www.nosheets.com, it appears that her mission to help others make a transformation is working. One message was just one of many that speaks to miraculous change. It read, “Sister Bynum, I want to thank God for you. I just read No More Sheets and I can’t begin to tell you it has changed my life. I thought I knew, but am now aware that I knew nothing. Everything is so clear to me now. I can’t explain how your book has changed me… If it weren’t for you and your message, I would still be lost… .I can proudly say no more sheets for me and I love you so much for what you have given me.”

While Bynum has touched the hearts and souls of many, she is still cognizant of life’s little lessons. In fact she found one in her dog, Corky. According to her website, www.nosheets.com, Bynum purchased the red-pepper poodle at a time when her heart was heavy. “The Lord explained to me that the dog was feeling what I was feeling, which was rejection. He said the poodle is thinking: What’s the use in going to the window and barking? She’s not going to choose me anyway,” she was quoted as saying.

Bynum did choose Corky. Something as small as reaching out to this dog quite possibly brought healing to both Bynum and Corky. Those who truly believe in God’s wonders have testified that He works in mysterious ways. An example of his mystery, Bynum is on fire for the Lord, and she intends to do His work until the flame is extinguished.

Good Morning America co-host Robin Roberts is bald, thanks to breast cancer and chemotherapy. She’s done a bang-up job of covering up since she shaved her head in preparation of the big fallout, her wig is a perfect match for the hair that once sprouted from her scalp. But she recently decided to bare her shiny scalp. She did it to challenge her comfort zone, she says.

What started as a dare had Roberts braving the catwalk the other day as part of Isaac Mizrahi’s runway show, live from New York Fashion Week. All of her friends and fans knew she was doing the show—they just didn’t know she’d do it bald.

“This is who I am,” Roberts said about her decision to ditch the wig.

When Roberts was diagnosed with breast cancer last July, the last thing she felt was beautiful. When the folks at Good Morning America dared her to be model, she seized the opportunity. It was a perfect way to push herself outside a certain comfort zone.

To transform herself into a supermodel, Roberts worked with Tyra Banks on walking the runway, Mizrahi on finding the perfect gown, and model Nikki Taylor on photo shoots—a special layout will appear in an upcoming Redbook magazine.

Check out Roberts here in this video where you’ll see a courageous woman make a bold statement as she fights to regain her health. Now that’s what I call a model—a role model.

Personal Data
Full Name: Sandra Kay Yow
Hometown: Gibsonville, N.C.

Education
HS: Gibsonville HS
College: East Carolina, 1964
Major: English

Coaching Experience
NC State: Begins 33rd season in 2007-08
Others: Elon College (four years); Allen Jay (four years) and Gibsonville (one year) High Schools
Career Record: 708-324 (.686) (36 years)
Record at NC State: 651-304 (.682) (32 years)

Kay Yow, North Carolina State University head women’s basketball coach, is a past president and founding member
of the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA), and a galvanizing voice for the Association. Yow was first
diagnosed with breast cancer in 1987, and is currently battling the disease for the third time.
The 2006-07 season, her 32nd with the Pack, may have been the most tumultuous to date, but also maybe the
most rewarding. Four games into the season, Yow was forced to take a leave of absence because of progression in
her breast cancer. In all, Yow missed 16 games before making a triumphant return to the bench in a Wolfpack win
over long-time rival Virginia on January 26.
The club began to feed off the emotion that Yow returned with and led her troops to 10 wins in their next 11
games, which included her 700th career victory and a win over No. 2 North Carolina. That evening on Senior
Night, the Reynolds Coliseum court was christened “Kay Yow Court”. Not to be out done, two weeks later the Pack
downed the then unbeaten and top-ranked Duke Blue Devils in the ACC Tournament. From that point on, the Wolfpack
were the darlings of the women’s basketball world. With fans rooting for NC State from across the country, the
club earned its 11th trip to the “Sweet 16”.
In her 37 years as a head coach at the college-level, Coach Yow is one of only six Division I head women’s basketball
mentors to achieve 700 career victories. Yow has guided her squads to 20 of the 26 NCAA Tournaments, 11 trips
to the Sweet 16, and a trip to the Elite Eight and Final Four in 1998. She has also collected
five ACC Regular Season Championships, four ACC Tournament titles, amassed 20, 20-
win seasons and a staggering 28 winning seasons. Her career record is fourth among
active coaches in the NCAA and in 2003-04, won her 650th game to become the
first ACC women’s basketball coach to eclipse that special milestone. In the 2005-
06 season at the helm of the Wolfpack, Yow became the first women’s basketball
coach in ACC history and fifth in NCAA history to coach 900 games at the same
school. Also that year, Yow became the fourth Division I head women’s coach to
surpass 1,000 career games on the sideline.
Yow is part of an elite group of eight Olympic coaches chosen to lead USA Basketball
in the pursuit of an Olympic gold medal in women’s basketball.
She has the distinction of being the first coach to win a gold medal
twice in Olympic competition. Her medal tally has resulted in three
gold and one silver as a head coach and four gold medals and one
silver as an assistant coach.
Yow won the inaugural Jimmy V ESPY for Perseverance at the
2007 ESPY Awards. This was especially meaningful to Yow as
she worked closely for many years with Jim Valvano, North
Carolina State University’s head men’s basketball coach
from 1980-1989, who died of metastatic cancer in 1993.
Yow has been named national Coach of the Year eight times
by various organizations. She is a member of numerous
halls of fame, including the Guilford County Sports Hall of
Fame, the Elon University Hall of Fame, the North Carolina
Softball Hall of Fame, the Women’s Sports Hall of Fame,
the North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame, the Fellowship of
Christian Athletes Hall of Fame, the AIA Hall of Faith, the
Raleigh Sports Hall of Fame, the Women’s Basketball Hall of
Fame and the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame.

Name: Condoleezza Rice
Position: 66th U.S. Secretary of State under President George W. Bush
Born: November 14, 1954 in Birmingham, Alabama
Education: High School: St. Mary’s Academy (single-sex Catholic school), Cherry Hills Village, CO. Graduated 1970.
Undergraduate: University of Denver, B.A. in political science, cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa. Graduated 1974.
Graduate: University of Notre Dame, M.A. in political science. Graduated 1975.
Graduate School of International Studies, University of Denver, Ph.D. in political science. Graduated 1981.
Notable Achievement: Rice is the first African American woman to hold the position of U. S. Secretary of State. She is the second woman to do so (Madeleine Albright was the first) and the second African American (behind her predecessor Colin Powell.)
Childhood: Despite growing up in Birmingham, AL, the South’s most segregated city, Condoleezza was enriched by a family of three generations of college-educated members. The only child of John Rice, a Presbyterian minister and educator, and Angelena, a teacher, she was named after “con dolcezza,” the Italian musical notation meaning “with sweetness”. She lived in Titusville, a black middle-class neighborhood, where her cultured parents sheltered her from Jim Crow laws and helped her understand the larger world beyond Birmingham. Offered a job at the University of Denver in 1969, her father moved the family to Colorado.
Influences: Homeschooled until age 6, Condi was gifted musically and gave her first piano recital at 4. Living in a hotbed of unrest, Condi lost a young friend in the bombing of Birmingham’s 16th Street Baptist Church.
The move to Denver brought the benefits of integrated education. At 15, she entered college where her life changed in a class taught by Josef Korbel. A former Czech diplomat whose daughter Madeleine Albright would become the first female Secretary of State, he became Condi’s mentor and taught her to explain complex policies with clarity – an essential skill in the Bush Administration.

Previous positions:
Stanford University
Assistant Professor in Political Science 1981-1987.
Associate Professor 1987-1993
Provost 1993-1999
Professor 1993-present.

International Affairs Fellow of the Council on Foreign Relations
Special Assistant to the Director of the Joint Chiefs of Staff 1986

George H.W. Bush Administration
Senior Director of Soviet and East European Affairs in the National Security Council
Special Assistant to the President for National Security 1989-1991

George W. Bush Administration
National Security Advisor 2001-2005
Secretary of State 2005-present

Bush Administration role: A trusted Bush family friend and the most academic of Bush’s advisors, Condi’s influence has been significant.
She is a skilled negotiator, leading the Russian negotiations over missile defense; convincing European diplomats not to lift an arms embargo over China; and working with Latin American countries to determine who would lead the Organization of American States. She provided steady support to Bush as he moved troops into Afghanistan and Iraq. Her discretion and success as National Security Advisor led to her appointment as Secretary of State.

Many see her as the most powerful Secretary of State in decades

With the University of Tennessee Lady Vols basketball coach, it’s all about the numbers: 947 wins over a span of 33 years. A combined 26 Southeastern Conference (SEC) tournament and SEC regular season championships. Seven NCAA championship titles. Author of two books. First female college coach to earn more than $1 million a year. Coach of the No. 1 college women’s basketball team in America in 2007. What do all those numbers add up to? An incredible, inspiring role model for women everywhere. In August, Summitt filed for divorce from her husband of 27 years, marking a new direction in life for one of America’s true trail blazers.

Coach Vivian Stringer doesn’t give up easily; for her adversity is simply an opponent to defeat. Just a quick glance through Stringer’s list of awards and achievements reveals a pattern of wins and much improved teams; and speaks volumes about Stringer’s place in women’s history, sports history, and Black history. Sports Illustrated named her one of the “101 Most Influential Minorities in Sports,” and she has been named National Coach of the Year three times. Whatever her title, her skills and passion for the game radiate from her place on the court sidelines. She has turned her love of the sport into a career and an opportunity to help underdogs come out on top, which she has done consistently with every team she has coached. Stringer was the first coach to bring three teams to the NCAA Final Four, and is only the third women’s basketball coach to push past the 700 wins marker.

Since 1995, Vivian Stringer has been the head coach for the Rutgers’ Women’s basketball team. When she arrived in New Jersey, her three children in tow, and the loss of her husband heavy in her heart, she had to contend with picking up a lackluster team and rebuilding a life for her family. Her reputation and ability to take a struggling team and turn it into a champion was already widespread at the time. With a combination of caring, community involvement, and an unwillingness to have her players achieve anything less than the best, Stringer gave the Scarlet Knights an edge that eventually took them to winning the Final Four. Now a perennial national contender for any of the big NCAA tournaments, Rutgers attracts the best female basketball players in the country.

Even putting aside game statistics, Vivian Stringer is a competitor and winner in many arenas. Stringer is the leader, an inspiration, and a role model for her players, just as she is for her own children. Her teams are filled with much more than competitive spirit; each group of women becomes a family, playing alongside each other, working in the community, and sharing their skills with younger, aspiring basketball players. These women not only learn how to play great basketball, but they also learn how to tackle their own personal challenges with spirit and assist others facing challenges as well.
Perhaps Stringer’s family strategy started during her first years at Cheyney State University, where she served as coach, mother figure, cook, and fundraiser for a team that received very little funding from the university. The 11 seasons she spent at Cheyney created an extended family for coach and players alike, and launched Stringer into national recognition, as this little-known, sparsely funded, small team went on to defeat bigger, well-known teams, eventually arriving at the Final Four.

Close family ties and a cooperative, enduring spirit had roots much earlier than Stringer’s first appearance on the college basketball court. Stringer (whose maiden name is Stoner) came from a family who has always stuck together and persevered through tough times. In her hometown of Edenborn, Pennsylvania, she shared chores and responsibilities with her five brothers and sisters. They also came together to play music with her father, who although passionate about his music, had to support his family with a job working in the coal mines of Pennsylvania. Everyday, Vivian would watch her father come home and carefully clean out the soot and grit from his fingernails, never complaining, but believing that his kids would have a better future. She saw her father carry on with work and family when both of his legs had been amputated, after an injury caused gangrene to set in. And when her father died, Vivian watched another hero in the family rise to the challenge. Her mother picked up the pieces of her family, got a job, and managed to feed and clothe her family on much less than the had before.

Family strength, resourcefulness, and the ability to overcome any obstacle has helped Stringer’s basketball teams—and also her own family. When childhood meningitis left her middle child, daughter Janine, with special needs, Vivian and her husband Bill took the challenge in stride. Instead of looking at what would not be possible for their daughter, they looked at the possibilities that existed and found ways to bring her a full life. With the help of The University of Iowa, which offered her a position as coach to take another underdog to the top, and also gave her daughter the best medical attention available. During the time that she was coaching the Iowa Hawkeyes and revolutionizing women’s basketball with unprecedented game attendance (including some sold-out venues) and another try in the Final Four, Vivian’s own husband died tragically and unexpectedly from a heart attack. It may have been the most defeating and devastating event in her life; but she picked herself up and held her family together, even without the other half that she was so tied to.

After Bill’s death, Vivian delved even deeper into her passion, and struggled to take care of three young children. Vivian needed to find a way to continue success in both arenas, so she moved from her twelve-year position at Iowa to Rutgers University in New Jersey, where she could return to her roots and be closer to her family. Once again, she found herself charged with turning around a struggling team, and, once again, she turned underdogs into national champions.

She has brought the Scarlet Knights to NCAA tournaments in six of the past seven seasons; overall, her teams have made 17 appearances at these final match ups. As assistant coach for the 2004 U.S. Olympic Team, she saw the women’s basketball team bring home the gold medal from Athens, Greece. Although many of her wins and achievements can be traced to her dynamic plays and innovative strategies, her passion for the game and caring for her players is truly what has transformed her underdogs into solid, winning teams. Even as a young child, when told that girls should not play basketball, Vivian Stringer kept her passion and fought for her time on the court; she is proof that underdogs really can win and childhood dreams really do come true.

DATE OF BIRTH: December 23, 1867

PLACE OF BIRTH: Delta, Louisiana

DATE OF DEATH: May 25, 1919

PLACE OF DEATH: New York, New York

FAMILY BACKGROUND: Sarah Breedlove, who later became known as Madam C. J. Walker, was born into a former-slave family to parents Owen and Minerva Breedlove. She had one older sister, Louvenia and brothers Alexander, James, Solomon and Owen, Jr. Her parents had been slaves on Robert W. Burney’s Madison Parish farm which was a battle-staging area during the Civil War for General Ulysses S. Grant and his Union troops. She became an orphan at age 7 when her parents died during an epidemic of yellow fever. To escape the epidemic and failing cotton crops, the ten year old Sarah and her sister moved across the river to Vicksburg in 1878 and obtained work as maids. At the age of fourteen, Sarah married Moses McWilliams to escape her sister’s abusive husband. They had a daughter, Lelia (later known as A’Lelia Walker, a central figure in the Harlem Renaissance). When Lelia was only two years old, McWilliams died. Sarah’s second marriage to John Davis August 11, 1894 failed and ended sometime in 1903. She married for the third time in January, 1906 to newspaper sales agent, Charles Joseph Walker; they divorced around 1910.

ACCOMPLISHMENTS: Madam Walker was an entrepreneur who built her empire developing hair products for black women. She claims to have built her company on an actual dream where a large black man appeared to her and gave her a formula for curing baldness. When confronted with the idea that she was trying to conform black women’s hair to that of whites, she stressed that her products were simply an attempt to help black women take proper care of their hair and promote its growth.

BIRTH DATE: Oct. 11, 1884.

BIRTHPLACE: New York City.

EDUCATION: Attended Allenswood, a finishing school in London, England, from 1899 to 1902.

FAMILY BACKGROUND: Member of longtime affluent New York family. Was a niece of Theodore Roosevelt, 26th President of the United States and 6th cousin of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 32nd President of United States, who became her husband. Her parents died when she was a child.

DESCRIPTION OF ACCOMPLISHMENTS: Even without her marriage to Franklin D. Roosevelt, through whose presidency she revolutionized the position of first lady, Eleanor Roosevelt very likely would have still become one of the greatest women of the 20th Century. As a humanitarian and civic leader (among other roles), her work for the welfare of youth, black Americans, the poor, and women, at home and abroad (through the United Nations that she helped to develop) has yet to be equaled.

Growing up a lonely and shy girl in wealth and comfort, she returned to New York from Allenswood, at 18 with confidence in herself and a conscience of a social nature. Her marriage to Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882-1945), brought her into the world of politics of which she proved a fast learner. When her husband was Assistant Secretary of the Navy during World War I, she supported the war effort by volunteering for the Red Cross. She was also an active member of the women’s suffrage movement.

In 1921 when a bout with polio left Franklin Roosevelt crippled, her steadfast encouragement enabled him to return to politics and win the governorship of New York (1929-1933). In the process she became his political surrogate, speaking in his behalf to the citizenry, relaying their feedback to him, and giving her input as well. During this period she also opened the Val-Kill furniture factory in New York to provide job relief to the unemployed and became part owner of Todhunter, an all girls private school in New York City.

When FDR was elected to the presidency, Eleanor Roosevelt reluctantly became first lady, yet she proved a great innovator in this capacity. Her tenure (1933-1945) was the longest only because her husband’s tenure as president was the longest, but Eleanor Roosevelt became the first activist first lady. With press conferences and her daily column she kept the public up-to-date on White House policies; in particular the New Deal. She persuaded FDR to create the National Youth Administration (NYA), which provided financial aid to students and job training to young men and women. Her concern for disadvantaged black Americans, prompted her to work closely with organizations such as the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), and in 1939 she resigned from the Daughters of the American Revolution in protest to their preventing black singer Marian Anderson from performing at Constitution Hall.

After the United States entered World War II, Eleanor Roosevelt channeled her energies into the war effort. She did this first by mustering up civilian volunteerism as assistant director of the Office of Civilian Defense (OCD), and by visiting U.S. troops abroad.

When Franklin D. Roosevelt died in office in 1945, Eleanor Roosevelt’s role as first lady was over, but her career was not. She became a delegate to the United Nations General Assembly, specializing in humanitarian, social, and cultural issues. In 1948, she drafted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which affirmed life, liberty, and equality internationally for all people regardless of race, creed or color. Additionally, she helped in the establishment of the state of Israel and attempted negotiations, albeit cautiously, with the Soviet Union (now Russia).