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Have you ever had an X-ray or CT (Computed Tomography) scan?

These commonly used examinations in medicine would not have been possible if not for the revolutionary work of a woman scientist named Marie Curie. Marie Curie had many achievements and is truly a woman of science.

What was the childhood of Marie Curie like?

Marie Curie was born Marie Sklodowska on November 7, 1867 in Warsaw, Poland. To her parents and siblings, she was more affectionately known as Manya. Her father's name was Vladislav while her mother's name was Bronislawa. Her parents were teachers and most of her early learning came from them. Marie was the fifth child and her older brothers and sisters were named Jozef, Bronya, Hela and Zosia, respectively.

Early on, Marie's parents earned good salaries as schoolteachers. However, during that time, her country Poland was divided among other powerful countries namely Austria, Prussia and Russia. Because Marie's family was Polish and her father's school supervisor was Russian, her father eventually lost his job. Eventually, the family became very poor that they had to rent out their house to student boarders. Several years later, Marie's sister Zosia died from typhus. This was followed three years later by the death of Marie's mother from tuberculosis. These sad events made Maria closer to her father and her remaining siblings. Marie's father taught them literature and physics.

How was Marie as a student?

Marie was a very good student and was considered her class' star pupil. She received a gold medal during her high school graduation. She wanted to get a degree like her brothers but because she was a girl, she was not allowed to do so. Therefore, she attended an illegal school named "the Floating University." This school was called such because it changed location each time, in order to avoid Russian officials. Marie then became involved in a revolutionary student organization.

In order to avoid being caught and put to prison, she left Warsaw and traveled to Krakow, Poland. From there, she went to Paris. She continued studying at the Sorbonne, where she was awarded degrees in both Physics and Mathematical Sciences. There, she met her husband, Pierre Curie, who was a Professor of Physics. When they married, Marie became better known as Marie Curie rather than as Marie Sklodowska and she assumed a French nationality.

What were the elements discovered by Marie Curie?

Together with her husband Pierre, Marie explored uranium rays and radiation. They discovered that radiation is not due to reactions between molecules but independently due to what is happening to the uranium atoms. Based on a previous work by the scientist Henri Becquerel and Pierre's invention called the electrometer, Marie was able to analyze different elements. Her husband then became very interested in her work and helped her.

On July 1898, Marie and Pierre published a scientific paper announcing their discovery of the element called "polonium". This element was named after Poland, Marie's native country. On the 26 th of December the same year, they published another paper announcing their discovery of another element. They called this element "radium" because of its high radioactivity. The term "radioactivity" was actually a word Marie and Pierre came up with. In 1903, together with Henri Becquerel, Marie and her husband Pierre received the Nobel Prize in Physics for their contributions in researching radiation. Marie Curie was the first woman in history to be awarded the prestigious Nobel Prize.

Why was Marie Curie awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry?

Marie's husband died in 1906 in an accident. Pierre was the head of the Sorbonne physics department and Marie took on this position upon his death. She then became the first woman professor of the Sorbonne. In 1911, she received her second Nobel Prize, this time around, in Chemistry, in recognition of her important work in radioactivity.

How did Marie Curie contribute to medicine?

As you might know by now, radioactivity is an important concept in using X-radiation (composed of X-rays, a form of electromagnetic radiation), to see the bones and tissues of the body. Marie Curie also recognized this fact. She was a pioneer in using mobile radiography units in order to help doctors treat the wounds of soldiers during World War I. The units were called "petite Curies" in recognition of Marie's contribution. The radium used in the petite Curies was purified from her own laboratory.

How did Marie Curie die?

This great scientist died from a disease resulting from her excessive exposure to radiation. Marie suffered from a disease was called aplastic anemia, wherein her white blood cells were malformed and did not function normally. When she was working on radiation, she did not yet know the negative effects of too much radiation. Nowadays, her work and her life have guided many new technologies. In order to protect people from excessive X-rays, they are now made to wear special clothing or to avoid prolonged exposure.

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Have you ever had an X-ray or CT (Computed Tomography) scan? These commonly used examinations in medicine would not have been possible if not for the revolutionary work of a woman scientist named Marie Curie. Marie Curie had many achievements and is truly a woman of science.

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Go here to watch avideo about Harriet Tubman.

Biography

Occupation: Nurse, Civil Rights Activist

Born: 1820 in Dorchester County, Maryland

Died: March 10, 1913 in Auburn, New York

Best known as: A leader in the Underground Railroad

Biography:

Where did Harriet Tubman grow up?

Harriet Tubman was born intoslavery on a plantation in Maryland. Historians think she was born in 1820, or possibly 1821, but birth records weren't kept by most enslavers. Her birth name was Araminta Ross, but she took the name of her mother, Harriet, when she was thirteen.

Life as a Slave

Life as an enslaved person was difficult. Harriet first lived in a one-room cabin with her family that included eleven children. When she was only six years old, she was loaned out to another family where she helped take care of a baby. She was sometimes beaten and all she got to eat was table scraps.

Harriet Tubman
by H. Seymour Squyer

Later Harriet worked a number of jobs on the plantation such as plowing fields and loading produce into wagons. She became strong doing manual labor that included hauling logs and driving oxen.

At the age of thirteen Harriet received a horrible head injury. It happened when she was visiting the town. An enslaver tried to throw an iron weight at one of his enslaved, but hit Harriet instead. The injury nearly killed her and caused her to have dizzy spells and blackouts for the rest of her life.

The Underground Railroad

During this time there were states in the northern United States where slavery was outlawed. The enslaved in the South would try to escape to the North using theUnderground Railroad. This wasn't a real railroad. It was a number of safe homes (called stations) that hid the enslaved as they traveled north. The people that helped enslaved people along the way were called conductors. The enslaved would move from station to station at night, hiding in the woods or sneaking onto trains until they finally reached the north and freedom.

Harriet Escapes

In 1849 Harriet decided to escape. She would use the Underground Railroad. After a long and scary trip she made it to Pennsylvania and was finally free.

Leading Others to Freedom

In 1850 the Fugitive Slave Act was passed. This meant that the formerly enslaved could be taken from free states and returned to their owners. In order to be free, formerly enslaved people now had to escape to Canada. Harriet wanted to help others, including her family, to safety in Canada. She joined the Underground Railroad as a conductor.

Harriet became famous as an Underground Railroad conductor. She led nineteen different escapes from the south and helped around 300 of the enslaved to escape. She became known as "Moses" because, like the Moses in the Bible, she led her people to freedom.

Harriet was truly brave. She risked her life and freedom to help others. She also helped her family, including her mother and father, to escape. She was never caught and never lost one of the enslaved.

The Civil War

Harriet's bravery and service did not end with the Underground Railroad, she also helped during theCivil War. She helped to nurse injured soldiers, served as a spy for the north, and even helped on a military campaign that led to the rescue of over 750 enslaved people.

Later in Life

After the Civil War, Harriet lived in New York with her family. She helped poor and sick people. She also spoke out on equal rights for blacks and women.

Interesting Facts about Harriet Tubman

Her nickname as a child was "Minty".

She was a very religious woman having learned about the Bible from her mother.

Harriet bought a house in Auburn, New York for her parents after helping them to escape from the south.

Harriet married John Tubman in 1844. He was a free black man. She married again in 1869 to Nelson Davis.

She usually worked the Underground Railroad in the winter months when the nights were longer and people spent more time indoors.

There is a story that slaveholders offered a reward of $40,000 for the capture of Harriet Tubman. This is likely just a legend and not true.

Harriet was very religious. When she led fugitives across the border she would exclaim "Glory to God and Jesus, too. One more soul is safe!"

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More Civil Rights Heroes:

Susan B. Anthony
Cesar Chavez
Frederick Douglass
Mohandas Gandhi
Helen Keller
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Nelson Mandela
Thurgood Marshall
Rosa Parks
Jackie Robinson
Elizabeth Cady Stanton
Mother Teresa
Sojourner Truth
Harriet Tubman
Booker T. Washington
Ida B. Wells

More women leaders:

Works Cited

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Go here to watch avideo about Harriet Tubman. Biography Occupation: Nurse, Civil Rights Activist Born: 1820 in Dorchester County, Maryland Died: March 10, 1913 in Auburn, New York Best known as: A leader in the Underground Railroad Biography: Where did Harriet Tubman grow up? Harriet Tubman was born intoslavery on a plantation in Maryland.

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Harriet Ross Tubman, born Araminta "Minty" Ross, C 1820 - was born a slave in the plantation of Edward Brodess in Dorchester County, Maryland. Her mother was Harriet "Rit" Green owned by Mary Pattison Brodess; and her father was Ben Ross owned by Anthony Thomson.

1825 - Young Araminta was hired out to other households. Her first outside job was as a nursemaid where she was violently and frequently beaten when she let the baby cry. She was then hired to set muskrat traps. Because of the nature of the job she fell ill and was sent back to Brodess.

1833 - Araminta was severely injured in the head with a heavy metal weight aimed at a runaway slave. After the injury she started having seizures which affected her for the rest of her life. She started having premonitions and vivid dreams, she said that God communicated with her.

1840 - Her father, Ben Ross, was manumitted when he turned 45 years old. She found out that her mother's owner's will stipulated that she and her children be manumitted when they reached 45 years old. Brodess refused to honor his mother's will.

1844 - Araminta married a free black man, John Tubman.

1849 - Harriet fell ill. Her owner, Brodess, died leaving the plantation in a dire financial situation. Three of her sisters, Linah, Soph and Mariah Ritty, were sold.

September 17 - Harriet and her brothers, Ben and Henry, escaped from the Poplar Neck Plantation. Ben and Henry had second thoughts and returned to the plantation. The newspaper The Cambridge Democrat published a $300 reward for the return of Harriet and her two brothers. Harriet travelled 90 miles to Pennsylvania, a free state, using the Underground Railroad.

She changed her name to Harriet in honor of her mother and took her husband's last name, Tubman.

1850 - Passage of the Fugitive Slave Law as part of the Compromise of 1850. Started working with Quaker abolitionist Thomas Garrett and Frederick Douglass.

December 1850 - Using her connections in the Underground Railroad, Harriet took her first trip to guide a family in their journey to freedom. Her niece, Kessiah, her husband, John Bowley, and their two children were freed from the bondage of slavery.

1851 - Returned for her husband but he refused to leave. He stayed in Dorchester County with his new wife Caroline.

The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 made Tubman re route the Underground Railroad to Canada. For the next six years her base of operation was in North Street, St. Catherines, Ontario.

1858 - Tubman met John Brown. She helped recruit supporters for the Harper's Ferry attack. Brown called her "General Tubman".

1859 - Harper's Ferry Raid. John Brown was executed in December.

Abolitionist and US Senator, William H Seward, sold Tubman a piece of land on the outskirts of Auburn, New York for $1,200. It became her home for the rest of her life.

1860 - She took her last mission to rescue her sister. When she arrived she found out that she had died. Instead she took the Ennals family.

Abraham Lincoln was elected President of the United States.

1861 - Beginning of the American Civil War. Tubman worked as a cook and nurse in South Carolina and Florida.

Tubman helped General David Hunter recruit former slaves for a regiment of African American soldiers. She served as a spy and scout under the command of Col. James Montgomery.

1863 - Tubman became the first woman to lead an assault during the Civil War in the Combahee River Raid where 700 slaves where set free.

President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation setting slaves in the Confederacy free.

1865 - End of the Civil War. Tubman returned home to Auburn, New York.

1869 - Harriet Tubman married Nelson Davis, 22 years younger than her. They were married in the Presbyterian Church.

Sarah Hopkins Bradford published a biography of Tubman, Scenes in the Life of Harriet Tubman. She got $1,200 from its publication.

1873 - Tubman borrowed money from a friend to buy gold. Before the exchange Tubman was attacked and her money stolen.

1874 - The couple adopted a baby girl named Gertie.

1880 - Tubman's house in Auburn was destroyed by fire.

1886 - Bradford published a second biography, Harriet, the Moses of her People.

October 18, 1888 - Husband Nelson Davis died.

1898 - Tubman became involved in women's suffrage giving speeches in Boston, New York and Washington.

Unable to sleep, Tubman underwent brain surgery at Boston's Massachusetts General Hospital. She refused anesthesia and instead chewed on a bullet just like she had seen soldiers do when they had a leg amputated.

1903 - Tubman donated her property to the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church in Auburn to be converted into a home for the "aged and indigent colored people".

1908 - Harriet Tubman Home for the aged celebrated its opening.

1913 - Harriet Tubman died of pneumonia, she was 93. She was buried with military honors at Fort Hill Cemetery in Auburn, New York.

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Harriet Ross Tubman, born Araminta "Minty" Ross, C 1820 - was born a slave in the plantation of Edward Brodess in Dorchester County, Maryland. Her mother was Harriet "Rit" Green owned by Mary Pattison Brodess; and her father was Ben Ross owned by Anthony Thomson. 1825 - Young Araminta was hired out to other households.

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Nazaria L. Lagos: A great woman of history*
(Descendant of Heroine Nazaria Lagos)
During the World War many Filipinos fought against the Spaniards, Americans and the Japanese. Under these three governments, our heroes never stop fighting not until the Philippines has its democracy and independence. Nazaria L. Lagos was one of the Filipinos who risk her life for the freedom of our country.

Nazaria L. Lagos has the heart of a mother that is fount of deep, strong and deathless love. She is next to God in the love and care of a child. The life of Nazaria L. Lagos is a story of love, courage and patriotism not only for her family but for her fellow Filipinos and for her country the Philippines. She was born not only to become a mother of her own children but of the many wounded Filipino soldiers, sick civilians and of the sick children during the war.

Nazaria L. Lagos was born on August 28, 1851 in Barrio Burongan (now Jaguimit), Laglag (now the town of Dueñas), Iloilo. Her parents were Don Juan de la Cruz Lagos and Doña Saturnina Labrillaso. Being an only child she was well-cared and brought up in comfort since her parents belonged to a very rich family. They owned a wide hacienda. At her young age, she saw in her parents the wise way of living - work and save. Although she has the privilege of having everything, she was not a spoiled girl. When she was six years old, her mother hired Maestro Gregorio "Oyong" Tingzon as her teacher. She was founded by Maestro "Oyong" to be brilliant. At a very young age, she was a girl of good standing in the community. Among the elite girls of the town, aside from having good looks and strong personality she could speak well in Spanish. She was a surprise to them for she was associating with the Spanish Officials. When she stood she was a commanding figure and when she looked, she was a winning personality. All these, plus her talent made her one of the Greatest Figures during the 1898 Revolution of the Visayas and Mindanao.

When she was 12 years old, she was married to her second cousin Segundo Lagos, a son of a wealthy land owner, Don Bartolome Lagos whose ancestors were the founders of Dueñas and Roman Catholicism in Dueñas. Segundo was the Roman Catholic Chief Sacristan, Adviser of the Priest and later appointed as Municipal President (Mayor) of the town. Nazaria and Segundo Lagos descendants were a true Spanish Blood (Captain Lagos first ancestor of the Lagos who arrived in the Philippines and married a Mestiza Filipina) but deep in their hearts they were true Filipinos.

During the many years of her marriage life, Nazaria tried to meet the intricacies of her home life with patience. Even at a very early age she has good qualities of a wife and a mother. She was equipped with proper knowledge on nursing care and medical care by Dr. Cuadra, a family friend and doctor, who often visited the family and stayed for days in the wide family Hacienda. The Lagos Family is considered as one of the "Familia Illustrada" of the town. This placed Nazaria and Segundo in the good graces of both the Spanish Government and the Church Priests.

Nazaria was appointed President of the first local unit of Red Cross organization in the province of Iloilo by the order of the Military Governor, Don Ricardo Nonet, and strengthened by the recommendation of the parish priest, Padre Lorenzo Suarez.

During the revolution under the general supervision of Gen. Martin Delgado, Nazaria Lagos was chosen as secretary and Segundo (her husband) as the adviser of the Revolutionary Volunteers to go against the Spanish Government. Her house in Barrio Burongan (now Jaguimit) was made as a secret meeting place of the high-ranking officers of the revolution in the whole province of Iloilo. Nazaria and Segundo built a secret Army Hospital in their Hacienda in Jaguimit and which Nazaria was appointed as Chief of the Army Hospital and Manager of the Army Food Supply Depot for the Filipino soldiers. This is for the preparation of the revolutionist for the war against the Spaniards. The building of the hospital came from Nazaria and Segundo's own money. The supplies of the food came from the production of their farm. She gave an all out support for the welfare of the Filipinos. Nazaria Lagos and her family together with their "obreros" began to work secretly in Hacienda Jaguimit. She personally supervised the construction of the hospital made from local materials. They made bamboos as beds, chairs and tables and cabinets for the wounded Filipino soldiers.

The war started. Many Filipino soldiers were sick and wounded, and they were brought to the hospital in Jaguimit. The hospital was not only for the Filipino soldiers but as well as the sick and wounded civilians. Since the hospital is certainly located between the North and South revolutionary groups, supply almost ran out. For such a gigantic tack for a woman to bear, the Red Cross helped her in asking donations like food, clothing and medicine. Her tenants had contributed their time and efforts to help in caring for the wounded soldiers. Her knowledge in herbal medicine played an important role in this extraordinary task during the Revolution. Spending almost all her time, effort and fortune for the brother Filipinos, she even was able to bear the death of her two children when the smallpox epidemic struck the country during the years of the turmoil.

Nazaria Lagos and her two daughters together with the Red Cross members, sew the Philippine flag. In spite of the scarcity of the clothes, sewing needles and threads, they made improvised needles out of umbrella wire and abaca fibers as the threads. The flag was hoisted at 9 o' clock in the morning of June 12, 1899 in the Dueñas town plaza. Nazaria and the people of Dueñas knelled down with tears rolling down their cheeks and prayed for their safety and independence while the National Hymn was played.

Nazaria Lagos reserved a legacy not in wealth but as a model mother, leader and a great woman in history. Unfortunately, she became blind and on January 27, 1947, at the age of 96, silently passed away at Sitio Amuyao, Jaguimit, Dueñas, Iloilo. She had served her country and family with love and devotion. She had all her children educated. Doña Caridad was a business woman and donor of the Jaguimit Barrio School site; Felicita became a nurse and first Pastor of the First Assemblies of God in the whole Philippines in which the church and site was donated by Nazaria Lagos. She also donated a lot in Jaguimit for the Health Center. Pomposa and Filomena were teachers. Pomposa together with Caridad were former students of Colegio de San Jose, Jaro, Iloilo City; Dioscoro became the first elementary school supervisor for the five towns of Iloilo.

Nazaria and Segundo Lagos will long be remembered from generation to generation. The service to their fellowmen is worth dying. And their names will be written in Bold Letters to all Filipinos, patriots, nationalist and lover of democracy.

The legacy of Nazaria L. Lagos still lives. Last September 1998, Ramon P. Lagos Jr. (son of Ramon L Lagos Sr.) and his wife Ruth Joy Suede Lagos together with their children Franklin, Joy, Nazaria (Charie) and Faith were awarded as Model Family or "Huwarang Pamilya" in the whole Philippines at the Malacañang Palace awarded by President Joseph Ejercito Estrada.

Nazaria's love to her children was great but the call of her country was urgent. She said "My country first for the fall of my country means the loss of all including my loved ones and if I and my children should all die, it is our precious gift to our country, for if we fall, our country will rise again - free and happy."
* Based on the book written by Ramon L. Lagos Sr. He is the 6th son of the National Heroine Nazaria L. Lagos, former politician, pharmacist (U.P. Manila - top 9 board passer in the whole Philippines), businessman, philanthropist, former chairman of the Historical Committee in Iloilo and author of almost 20 books.

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Nazaria L. Lagos: A great woman of history*

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(Descendant of Heroine Nazaria Lagos) During the World War many Filipinos fought against the Spaniards, Americans and the Japanese. Under these three governments, our heroes never stop fighting not until the Philippines has its democracy and independence. Nazaria L. Lagos was one of the Filipinos who risk her life for the freedom of our country.

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Despite their good relationship with both the church and government authorities, she and her husband always aspired for the freedom of the Filipino people. They supported the revolutionary movement by freely giving their time and facilities to the Visayan rebels. Their house in barrio Burongan served as venue for the secret meetings of the revolutionary leaders.

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The Feminist Seed Is Planted

Dolores Clara Fernandez was born on April 10, 1930 in Dawson, a small mining town in the mountains of northern New Mexico. Her father Juan Ferånández, a farm worker and miner by trade, was a union activist who ran for political office and won a seat in the New Mexico legislature in 1938. Dolores spent most of her childhood and early adult life in Stockton, California where she and her two brothers moved with their mother, following her parents' divorce.

According to Dolores, her mother's independence and entrepreneurial spirit was one of the primary reasons she became a feminist. Dolores' mother Alicia was known for her kindness and compassion towards others. She offered rooms at affordable rates in her 70 room hotel, which she acquired after years of hard work. Alicia welcomed low-wage workers in the hotel, and often, waived the fee for them altogether. She was an active participant in community affairs, involved in numerous civic organizations and the church. Alicia encouraged the cultural diversity that was a natural part of Dolores' upbringing in Stockton. The agricultural community where they lived was made up of Mexican, Filipino, African-American, Japanese and Chinese working families.

Alicia's community activism was reflected in Dolores' involvement as a student at Stockton High School. She was active in numerous school clubs, was a majorette, and a dedicated member of the Girl Scouts until the age of 18. Upon graduating Dolores continued her education at the University of Pacific's Delta College in Stockton earning a provisional teaching credential. During this time she married Ralph Head and had two daughters, Celeste and Lori. While teaching she could no longer bear to see her students come to school with empty stomachs and bare feet, and thus began her lifelong journey of working to correct economic injustice.
An Organizer is Born

Dolores found her calling as an organizer while serving in the leadership of the Stockton Community Service Organization (CSO). During this time she founded the Agricultural Workers Association, set up voter registration drives and pressed local governments for barrio improvements. It was in 1955 through CSO founder Fred Ross, Sr. that she would meet a likeminded colleague, CSO Executive Director César E. Chávez. The two soon discovered that they shared a common vision of organizing farm workers, an idea that was not in line with the CSO's mission.

As a result, in the spring of 1962 César and Dolores resigned from the CSO, and launched the National Farm Workers Association. Dolores' organizing skills were essential to the growth of this budding organization. The challenges she faced as a woman did not go unnoted and in one of her letters to Cesar she joked..."Being a now (ahem) experienced lobbyist, I am able to speak on a man-to-man basis with other lobbyists."

The first testament to her lobbying and negotiating talents were demonstrated in securing Aid For Dependent Families ("AFDC") and disability insurance for farm workers in the State of California in 1963, an unparalleled feat of the times. She was also instrumental in the enactment of the Agricultural Labor Relations Act of 1975. This was the first law of its kind in the United States, granting farm workers in California the right to collectively organize and bargain for better wages and working conditions

While the farm workers lacked financial capitol they were able to wield significant economic power through hugely successful boycotts at the ballot box with grassroots campaigning. As the principal legislative advocate, Dolores became one of the UFW's most visible spokespersons. Robert F. Kennedy acknowledged her help in winning the 1968 California Democratic Presidential Primary moments before he was shot in Los Angeles. Throughout the years she has worked to elect numerous candidates including President Clinton, Congressman Ron Dellums, Governor Jerry Brown, Congresswoman Hilda Solis and Hillary Clinton.
Women's Liberation

As much as she was Cesar's right hand she could also be the greatest thorn in his side. The two were infamous for their blow out arguments an element that was a natural part of their working relationship. Dolores viewed this as a healthy and necessary part of the growth process of any worthwhile collaboration. While Dolores was busy breaking down one gender barrier after another, she was seemingly unaware of the tremendous impact she was having on, not only farm worker woman but also young women everywhere.

While directing the first National Boycott of California Table Grapes out of New York she came into contact with Gloria Steinem and the burgeoning feminist movement who rallied behind the cause. Quickly she realized they shared much in common. Having found a supportive voice with other feminists, Dolores consciously began to challenge gender discrimination within the farm workers' movement.

Non-Violence Is Our Strength

Early on, Dolores advocated for the entire family's participation in the movement. After all it was men, women and children together out in the fields picking, thinning and hoeing. Thus the practice of non-violence was not only a philosophy but a very necessary approach in providing for the safety of all. Her life and the safety of those around her were in jeopardy on countless occasions. The greatest sacrifice to the movement was made by five martyrs all of whom she knew personally.

At age 58 Dolores suffered a life-threatening assault while protesting against the policies of then presidential candidate George Bush in San Francisco. A baton-wielding officer broke four ribs and shattered her spleen. Public outrage resulted in the San Francisco Police Department changing its policies regarding crowd control and police discipline and Dolores was awarded an out of court settlement.
Following a lengthy recovery she took a leave of absence from the union to focus on women's rights. She traversed the country for two years on behalf of the Feminist Majority's Feminization of Power: 50/50 by the year 2000 Campaign encouraging Latina's to run for office. The campaign resulted in a significant increase in the number of women representatives at the local, state and federal levels. She also served as National Chair of the 21st Century Party founded in 1992 on the principles that women make up 52% of the party's candidates and that officers must reflect the ethnic diversity of the nation.

Her Second Wind

At 83, Dolores Huerta continues to work tirelessly developing leaders and advocating for the working poor, women, and children. As founder and president of the Dolores Huerta Foundation, she travels across the country engaging in campaigns and influencing legislation that supports equality and defends civil rights. She often speaks to students and organizations about issues of social justice and public policy.

There are thousands of working poor immigrants in the agriculture rich San Joaquin Valley of California. They are unfamiliar with laws or agencies that can protect them or benefits that they are entitled to. They are often preyed upon by unscrupulous individuals who take advantage of them. They often feel hopeless and unable to remedy their situations.

Dolores teaches these individuals that they have personal power that needs to be coupled with responsibility and cooperation to create the changes needed to improve their lives.

It is rarely practiced today because it is tedious and time consuming. However, the results are long lasting and while people are in the process of building organization, they are learning lessons they will never forget and the transformative roots are planted. The fruit is the leadership that is developed and the permanent changes in the community. In other words, this is how grass roots democracy works.

Recognitions And Awards

There are four elementary schools in California, one in Fort Worth, Texas, and a high school in Pueblo, Colorado named after Dolores Huerta.
She was inducted into the California Hall of Fame in March of 2013. She has received numerous awards: among them The Eleanor Roosevelt Humans Rights Award from President Clinton in l998, Ms. Magazine's One of the Three Most Important Women of l997, Ladies Home Journal's 100 Most Important Woman of the 20th Century, The Puffin Foundation's Award for Creative Citizenship: Labor Leader Award 1984, The Kern County Woman of The Year Award from the California State Legislature, The Ohtli Award from the Mexican Government, The Smithsonian Institution - James Smithson Award, and Nine Honorary Doctorates from Universities throughout the United States.

In 2012 President Obama bestowed Dolores with her most prestigious award, The Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian award in the United States. Upon receiving this award Dolores said, "The freedom of association means that people can come together in organization to fight for solutions to the problems they confront in their communities. The great social justice changes in our country have happened when people came together, organized, and took direct action. It is this right that sustains and nurtures our democracy today. The civil rights movement, the labor movement, the women's movement, and the equality movement for our LGBT brothers and sisters are all manifestations of these rights. I thank President Obama for raising the importance of organizing to the highest level of merit and honor."

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The Feminist Seed Is Planted Dolores Clara Fernandez was born on April 10, 1930 in Dawson, a small mining town in the mountains of northern New Mexico. Her father Juan Ferånández, a farm worker and miner by trade, was a union activist who ran for political office and won a seat in the New Mexico legislature in 1938.

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Dolores Huerta, along with Cesar Chavez co-founded the United Farm Workers

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Dolores Huerta is an advocate for children and workers and co-founder of the United Farm Workers. Learn more at Biography.com.

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Harriet Tubman is well known for risking her life as a "conductor" in the Underground Railroad, which led escaped slaves to freedom in the North. But did you know that the former slave also served as a spy for the Union during the Civil War and was the first woman in American history to lead a military expedition?

During a time when women were usually restricted to traditional roles like cooking and nursing, she did her share of those jobs. But she also worked side-by-side with men, says writer Tom Allen, who tells her exciting story in the National Geographic book, Harriet Tubman, Secret Agent.

Tubman decided to help the Union Army because she wanted freedom for all of the people who were forced into slavery, not just the few she could help by herself. And she convinced many other brave African Americans to join her as spies, even at the risk of being hanged if they were caught.

In one of her most dramatic and dangerous roles, Tubman helped Colonel James Montgomery plan a raid to free slaves from plantations along the Combahee (pronounced "KUM-bee") River in South Carolina. Early on the morning of June 1, 1863, three gunboats carrying several hundred male soldiers along with Harriet Tubman set out on their mission.

Tubman had gathered key information from her scouts about the Confederate positions. She knew where they were hiding along the shore. She also found out where they had placed torpedoes, or barrels filled with gunpowder, in the water.

As the early morning fog lifted on some of the South's most important rice plantations, the Union expedition hit hard. The raiders set fire to buildings and destroyed bridges, so they couldn't be used by the Confederate Army. They also freed about 750 slaves-men, women, children, and babies-and did not lose one soldier in the attack.

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Harriet Tubman is well known for risking her life as a "conductor" in the Underground Railroad, which led escaped slaves to freedom in the North. But did you know that the former slave also served as a spy for the Union during the Civil War and was the first woman in American history to lead a military expedition?

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Harriet Tubman was an escaped enslaved woman who became a "conductor" on the Underground Railroad, leading enslaved people to freedom before the Civil War, all while carrying a bounty on her head. But she was also a nurse, a Union spy and a women's suffrage supporter. Tubman is one of the most recognized icons in American history and her legacy has inspired countless people from every race and background.

When Was Harriet Tubman Born?

Harriet Tubman was born around 1820 on a plantation in Dorchester County, Maryland. Her parents, Harriet ("Rit") Green and Benjamin Ross, named her Araminta Ross and called her "Minty."

Rit worked as a cook in the plantation's "big house," and Benjamin was a timber worker. Araminta later changed her first name to Harriet in honor of her mother.

Harriet had eight brothers and sisters, but the realities of slavery eventually forced many of them apart, despite Rit's attempts to keep the family together. When Harriet was five years old, she was rented out as a nursemaid where she was whipped when the baby cried, leaving her with permanent emotional and physical scars.

Around age seven Harriet was rented out to a planter to set muskrat traps and was later rented out as a field hand. She later said she preferred physical plantation work to indoor domestic chores.

A Good Deed Gone Bad

Harriet's desire for justice became apparent at age 12 when she spotted an overseer about to throw a heavy weight at a fugitive. Harriet stepped between the enslaved person and the overseer-the weight struck her head.

She later said about the incident, "The weight broke my skull ... They carried me to the house all bleeding and fainting. I had no bed, no place to lie down on at all, and they laid me on the seat of the loom, and I stayed there all day and the next."

Harriet's good deed left her with headaches and narcolepsy the rest of her life, causing her to fall into a deep sleep at random. She also started having vivid dreams and hallucinations which she often claimed were religious visions (she was a staunch Christian). Her infirmity made her unattractive to potential slave buyers and renters.

Escape from Slavery

In 1840, Harriet's father was set free and Harriet learned that Rit's owner's last will had set Rit and her children, including Harriet, free. But Rit's new owner refused to recognize the will and kept Rit, Harriett and the rest of her children in bondage.

Around 1844, Harriet married John Tubman, a free Black man, and changed her last name from Ross to Tubman. The marriage was not good, and the knowledge that two of her brothers-Ben and Henry-were about to be sold provoked Harriet to plan an escape.

Harriet Tubman: Underground Railroad

On September 17, 1849, Harriet, Ben and Henry escaped their Maryland plantation. The brothers, however, changed their minds and went back. With the help of the Underground Railroad, Harriet persevered and traveled 90 miles north to Pennsylvania and freedom.

Tubman found work as a housekeeper in Philadelphia, but she wasn't satisfied living free on her own-she wanted freedom for her loved ones and friends, too.

She soon returned to the south to lead her niece and her niece's children to Philadelphia via the Underground Railroad. At one point, she tried to bring her husband John north, but he'd remarried and chose to stay in Maryland with his new wife.
READ MORE: 6 Strategies Harriet Tubman and Others Used to Escape Along the Underground Railroad
Fugitive Slave Act

The 1850 Fugitive Slave Act allowed fugitive and freed workers in the north to be captured and enslaved. This made Harriet's job as an Underground Railroad conductor much harder and forced her to lead enslaved people further north to Canada, traveling at night, usually in the spring or fall when the days were shorter.

She carried a gun for both her own protection and to "encourage" her charges who might be having second thoughts. She often drugged babies and young children to prevent slave catchers from hearing their cries.

Over the next ten years, Harriet befriended other abolitionists such as Frederick Douglass, Thomas Garrett and Martha Coffin Wright, and established her own Underground Railroad network. It's widely reported she emancipated 300 enslaved people; however, those numbers may have been estimated and exaggerated by her biographer Sarah Bradford, since Harriet herself claimed the numbers were much lower.

Nevertheless, it's believed Harriet personally led at least 70 enslaved people to freedom, including her elderly parents, and instructed dozens of others on how to escape on their own. She claimed, "I never ran my train off the track and I never lost a passenger."
READ MORE: The Little-Known Underground Railroad That Ran South to Mexico
Harriet Tubman's Civil War Service

When the Civil War broke out in 1861, Harriet found new ways to fight slavery. She was recruited to assist fugitive enslave people at Fort Monroe and worked as a nurse, cook and laundress. Harriet used her knowledge of herbal medicines to help treat sick soldiers and fugitive enslaved people.

In 1863, Harriet became head of an espionage and scout network for the Union Army. She provided crucial intelligence to Union commanders about Confederate Army supply routes and troops and helped liberate enslaved people to form Black Union regiments.

Though just over five feet tall, she was a force to be reckoned with, although it took over three decades for the government to recognize her military contributions and award her financially.

Harriet Tubman's Later Years

After the Civil War, Harriet settled with family and friends on land she owned in Auburn, New York. She married former enslaved man and Civil War veteran Nelson Davis in 1869 (her husband John had died 1867) and they adopted a little girl named Gertie a few years later.

Harriet had an open-door policy for anyone in need. She supported her philanthropy efforts by selling her home-grown produce, raising pigs and accepting donations and loans from friends. She remained illiterate yet toured parts of the northeast speaking on behalf of the women's suffrage movement and worked with noted suffrage leader Susan B. Anthony.

In 1896, Harriet purchased land adjacent to her home and opened the Harriet Tubman Home for Aged and Indigent Colored People. The head injury she suffered in her youth continued to plague her and she endured brain surgery to help relieve her symptoms. But her health continued to deteriorate and eventually forced her to move into her namesake rest home in 1911.

Pneumonia took Harriet Tubman's life on March 10, 1913, but her legacy lives on. Schools and museums bear her name and her story has been revisited in books, movies and documentaries.
READ MORE: After the Underground Railroad, Harriet Tubman Led a Brazen Civil War Raid
Harriet Tubman: 20 Dollar Bill

Tubman even had a World War II Liberty ship named after her, the SS Harriet Tubman.

In 2016, the United States Treasury announced that Harriet's image will replace that of former President and slaveowner Andrew Jackson on the twenty-dollar bill. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin (who served under President Trump) later announced the new bill would be delayed until at least 2026. In January 2021, President Biden's administration announced it would speed up the design process.

Sources

Early Life. Harriet Tubman Historical Society.

General Tubman: Female Abolitionist was Also a Secret Military Weapon. Military Times.

Harriet Tubman Biography. Biography.

Harriet Tubman Home for the Aged, Residence, and Thompson AME Zion Church. National Park Service.

Harriet Tubman Myths and Facts. Bound for the Promised Land: Harriet Tubman Portrait of An American Hero by Kate Clifford Larson, Ph.D.

Harriet Tubman. National Park Service.

Harriet Tubman. National Women's History Museum.

Harriet Tubman: The Moses of Her People. Harriet Tubman Historical Society.

Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad. National Park Service.

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Harriet Tubman was an escaped enslaved woman who became a "conductor" on the Underground Railroad, leading enslaved people to freedom before the Civil War, all while carrying a bounty on her head. But she was also a nurse, a Union spy and a women's suffrage supporter.

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Kids learn about the biography of Marie Curie, woman scientist who worked on radioactivity and won two Nobel prizes for science.

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This seventh of November commemorates the birth of legendary scientist Marie Curie (born Maria Salomea Skłodowska) 148 years ago. With her husband, Pierre, the Polish-born Frenchwoman pioneered the study of radioactivity until her death in 1934. Today, she is recognized throughout the world not only for her groundbreaking Nobel Prize-winning discoveries, but also for having boldly broken many gender barriers during her lifetime.

Curie became the first woman to receive a PhD from a French university, as well as the first woman to be employed as a professor at the University of Paris. Not only was she the first woman to win the Nobel Prize, but also the first person (man or woman) ever to win the award twice and for achievements in two distinct scientific fields.

While Marie Curie's major accomplishments may be well known, here are several surprising facts about her personal and professional life that may not be.

1) She Worked Out of a Shack

It may come as a surprise to know that Marie and Pierre conducted the bulk of the research and experimentation which led to the discovery of the elements Radium and Polonium in what was described by the respected German chemist, Wilhelm Ostwald, as "a cross between a stable and a potato shed." In fact, when he was first shown the premises, he assumed that it was "a practical joke." Even after the couple had won the Nobel Prize for their discoveries, Pierre died never having set foot in the new laboratory that the University of Paris had promised to build them.

Nonetheless, Marie would fondly recall their time together in the leaky, drafty shack despite the fact that, in order to extract and isolate the radioactive elements, she often spent entire days stirring boiling cauldrons of uranium-rich pitchblende until "broken with fatigue". By the time she and Pierre eventually submitted their discoveries for professional consideration, Curie had personally gone through multiple tons of uranium-rich slag in this manner.

2) She Was Originally Ignored by the Nobel Prize Nominating Committee

In 1903, members of the French Academy of Sciences wrote a letter to the Swedish Academy in which they nominated the collective discoveries in the field of radioactivity made by Marie and Pierre Curie, as well as their contemporary Henri Becquerel, for the Nobel Prize in Physics. Yet, in a sign of the times and its prevailing sexist attitudes, no recognition of Marie's contributions was offered, nor was there even any mention of her name. Thankfully, a sympathetic member of the nominating committee, a professor of mathematics at Stockholm University College named Gösta Mittage-Leffler, wrote a letter to Pierre warning him of the glaring omission. Pierre, in turn, wrote the committee insisting that he and Marie be "considered together . . . with respect to our research on radioactive bodies."

Eventually, the wording of the official nomination was amended. Later that year, thanks to a combination of her accomplishments and the combined efforts of her husband and Mittage-Leffler, Marie Curie became the first woman in history to receive the Nobel Prize.

3) She Refused to Cash in on Her Discoveries

After discovering Radium in 1898, Marie and Pierre balked at the opportunity to pursue a patent for it and to profit from its production, despite the fact that they had barely enough money to procure the uranium slag they needed in order to extract the element. To the contrary, the Curies generously shared the isolated product of Marie's difficult labors with fellow researchers and openly distributed the secrets of the process needed for its production with interested industrial parties.

During the 'Radium Boom' that followed, factories sprang up in the United States dedicated to supplying the element not only to the scientific community, but also to curious and gullible public. Though not yet fully understood, the glowing green material captivated consumers, and found its way into everything from toothpaste to sexual enhancement products. By the 1920s, the price of a single gram of the element reached $100,000 and Curie could not afford to buy enough of the very thing she, herself, had discovered in order to continue her research.

Nonetheless, she had no regrets. "Radium is an element, it belongs to the people," she told American journalist Missy Maloney during a trip to the United States in 1921. "Radium was not to enrich anyone."

4) Einstein Encouraged Her During One of the Worst Years of Her Life

Albert Einstein and Marie Curie first met in Brussels at the prestigious Solvay Conference in 1911. This invite-only event brought together the world's leading scientists in the field of physics, and Marie was the only woman out of its 24 members. Einstein was so impressed by Curie, that he came to her defense later that year when she became embroiled in controversy and the media frenzy that surrounded it.

By this time, France had reached the peak of its rising sexism, xenophobia, and anti-semitism that defined the years preceding the First World War. Curie's nomination to the French Academy of Sciences was rejected, and many suspected that biases against her gender and immigrant roots were to blame. Furthermore, it came to light that she had been involved in a romantic relationship with her married colleague, Paul Langevin, though he was estranged from his wife at the time.

Curie was labeled a traitor and a homewrecker, and was accused of riding the coattails of her deceased husband (Pierre had died in 1906 from a road accident) rather than having accomplished anything based on her own merits. Though she had just been awarded a second Nobel Prize, the nominating committee now sought to discourage Curie from traveling to Stockholm to accept it so as to avoid a scandal. With her personal and professional life in disarray, she sank into a deep depression and retreated (as best she could) from the public eye.

Around this time, Curie received a letter from Albert Einstein in which he described his admiration for her, as well as offered his heart-felt advice on how to handle the events as they unfolded. "I am impelled to tell you how much I have come to admire your intellect, your drive, and your honesty," he wrote, "and that I consider myself lucky to have made your personal acquaintance . . ." As for the frenzy of newspaper articles attacking her, Einstein encouraged Curie "to simply not read that hogwash, but rather leave it to the reptile for whom it has been fabricated."

There is little doubt that the kindness shown by her respected colleague was encouraging. Soon enough, she recovered, reemerged and, despite the discouragement, courageously went to Stockholm to accept her second Nobel Prize.

5) She Personally Provided Medical Aid to French Soldiers During the First World War

When World War I broke out in 1914, Curie was forced to put her research and the opening of her new Radium institute on hold due to the threat of a possible German occupation of Paris. After personally delivering her stash of the valuable element to the safety of a bank vault in Bordeaux, she set about using her expertise in the field of radioactivity in order to aid the French war effort.

Over the course of the next four years, Curie helped equip and operate more than twenty ambulances (known as "Little Curies") and hundreds of field hospitals with primitive x-ray machines so as to assist surgeons with the location and removal of shrapnel and bullets from the bodies of wounded soldiers. Not only did she personally instruct and supervise young women in the operation of the equipment, but she even drove and operated one such ambulance herself, despite the danger of venturing too close to the fighting on the front lines.

By the end of the war, it was estimated that Curie's x-ray equipment, as well as the Radon gas syringes she designed to sterilize wounds, may have saved the lives of a million soldiers. Yet, when the French government later sought to award her the country's most distinguished honor, la Légion d'honneur, she declined. In another display of selflessness at the outset of the conflict, Curie had even tried to donate her gold Nobel Prize medals to the French National Bank, but they refused.

6) She Had No Idea of the Dangers of Radioactivity

Today, 117 years after the Curies' discovery of Radium, even the public is kept well aware of the potential dangers associated with the exposure of the human body to radioactive elements. Yet, from the very first years during which the scientists and their contemporaries were pioneering the study of radioactivity until the mid 1940s, little was concretely understood about both short and long-term health effects.

Pierre liked to keep a sample in his pocket so he could demonstrate its glowing and heating properties to the curious, and even once strapped a vial of the stuff to his bare arm for ten hours in order to study the curious way it painlessly burned his skin. Marie, in turn, kept a sample at home next to her bed as a nightlight. Diligent researchers, the Curies spent nearly every day in the confines of their improvised laboratory, with various radioactive materials strewn about their workspaces. After regularly handling Radium samples, both were said to have had developed unsteady hands, as well as cracked and scarred fingers.

Though the life of Pierre was tragically cut short in 1906, at the time of his death he was suffering from constant pain and fatigue. Marie, too, complained of similar symptoms until succumbing to advanced leukemia in 1934. At no point did either consider the possibility that their very discovery was the cause of their pain and Marie's eventual death. In fact, all the couple's laboratory notes and many of their personal belongings are still so radioactive today that they cannot safely be viewed or studied.

7) Her Daughter Also Won the Nobel Prize

In the case of Marie and Pierre Curie's eldest daughter, Irène, it can safely be said that the apple did not fall far from the tree. Following in her parents' sizable footsteps, Irène enrolled at the Faculty of Science in Paris. However, the outbreak of the first World War interrupted her studies. She joined her mother and began working as a nurse radiographer, operating x-ray machines to assist with the treatment of soldiers wounded on the battlefield.

By 1925, Irène had received her doctorate, having joined her mother in the field of the study of radioactivity. Ten years later, she and her husband, Frédéric Joliot, were jointly awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for the breakthroughs they had made in the synthesis of new radioactive elements. Though it had been Marie's pleasure to have witnessed her daughter and son-in-law's successful research, she did not live to see them win the award.

The Curie family legacy is both poignant and appropriately accomplished. Irène and Frédéric Joliot had two children of their own, named Helene and Pierre, in honor of their incredible grandparents whose deaths were tragically premature. In turn, Marie's grandchildren would both go on to distinguish themselves in the field of science as well. Helene became a nuclear physicist and, at 88 years old, still maintains a seat on the advisory board to the French government. Pierre would go on to become a preeminent biologist. Today, at the age of 83, he is a researcher at the French National Center for Scientific Research and a member of the French Academy of Sciences.

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Marie Curie: 7 Facts on the Groundbreaking Scientist

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This seventh of November commemorates the birth of legendary scientist Marie Curie (born Maria Salomea Skłodowska) 148 years ago. With her husband, Pierre, the Polish-born Frenchwoman pioneered the study of radioactivity until her death in 1934. Today, she is recognized throughout the world not only for her groundbreaking Nobel Prize-winning discoveries, but also for having boldly broken many gender barriers during her lifetime.