Politics & Activism
During the Haitian Revolution in the early 1800s, Sanité Bélair fought against French colonial rule for freedom in this Caribbean country.
What is Haiti?
She is a Mexican painter famous for her bold personal style and her colorful self-portraits exploring pain, identity, and culture.
Who is Frida Kahlo?
Rachel Carson, environmental activist and author of Silent Spring, raised awareness about the dangers of this issue.
What is pollution or pesticides?
This writer of Their Eyes Were Watching God was an important figure of the Harlem Renaissance and wrote about Black life, folklore, and language in the American South.
Who is Zora Neale Hurston?
20-year old Winter Olympic champion Alysa Liu just won two gold medals in which sport that combines jumps, spins, and choreography on ice?
What is figure skating?
Born in New York City in 1934, Audre Lorde became known for poetry and essays about race, gender, sexuality, and this broad political idea of equal rights for women.
What is feminism?
In the 1930s and 1940s, labor organizer Elma Francois fought for workers’ rights and anti-colonial causes in these twin-island Caribbean territories.
What is Trinidad and Tobago?
Black American singer Nina Simone used her music, including songs like “Mississippi Goddam” to support this movement in the United States during the 1960s.
What is the Civil Rights movement?
Cells taken from this woman without her consent helped advance medicine and vaccines.
Who is Henrietta Lacks?
As a journalist in the late 1800s and early 1900s, Ida B. Wells exposed this racist form of terror used against Black Americans, especially in the South.
What is lynching?
Jamaican sprinter Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce became an international star in the 21st century competing in this sport, especially in short-distance races like the 100 meters.
What is track and field or sprinting?
Paule Marshall, born in Brooklyn in 1929, often wrote about the connections between New York and families with roots in this Caribbean nation.
What is Barbados?
The Mirabal Sisters became symbols of resistance after opposing Rafael Trujillo’s dictatorship in this Caribbean country during the 1950s.
What is the Dominican Republic?
This actress, known for her roles in The Help, How to Get Away With Murder, and Fences, won awards for her roles in film, television, and theater, and advocates for social issues.
Who is Viola Davis?
Dr. Gladys West worked in the field of mathematics and geodesy, using math to help create this widely-used technology.
What is GPS?
Octavia E. Butler, author of Kindred the Earthseed series, writing in the late 20th century in the United States, became famous for this genre, using imagined futures to explore race, power, and survival.
What is science fiction?
In the 1990s, Sheryl Swoopes became one of the most recognizable stars in women’s professional sports in the United States while playing this game.
What is basketball?
In 1972, Shirley Chisholm of Brooklyn became the first Black woman to run for this elected position in a major U.S. political party.
What is president of the United States?
In 1955, before the more widely known Montgomery Bus Boycott, Claudette Colvin was arrested for refusing to give up her seat on a segregated bus in this Southern state.
What is Alabama?
She became known as the “Queen of Tejano Music” and inspired many Latinx artists, and is widely known by only her first name.
Who is Selena?
(first name only is okay!)
This Swedish teenager became a global symbol of youth climate activism after starting school strikes for climate in 2018.
Who is Greta Thunberg?
Tawakkol Karman, a journalist who was the first Arab woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize, became famous for her reporting during uprisings in this Middle Eastern country.
What is Yemen?
This woman first became nationally famous playing basketball at the college level, helping lead LSU to a national championship in 2023.
Who is Angel Reese?
Marsha P. Johnson was a key figure in LGBTQ+ activism in New York City after this 1969 uprising, which took place in Greenwich Village.
What is the Stonewall uprising?
Beginning in 2012 after surviving an attack by the Taliban in Pakistan, Malala Yousafzai became globally known for defending this right for girls and women.
What is education?
In the mid-20th century, singer Miriam Makeba used music to draw attention to the racist apartheid (segregation) system in this African country.
What is South Africa?
Nawal El Saadawi, a doctor and writer active in the late 20th century, used her medical background to speak out about gender equality or women’s rights, is from this North African country.
What is Egypt?
Marjane Satrapi is a cartoonist and writer of the graphic novel Persepolis, which tells the story of growing up during and after the Islamic Revolution in this country in the late 20th century.
What is Iran?
Imane Khelif gained international attention in the 2020s as an athlete from Algeria competing in this combat sport.
What is boxing?
Susan McKinney Steward made history in New York in 1870 by becoming the first Black woman in the state to earn this professional degree.
What is a medical degree or degree in medicine?