Beverly Cleary, Author of the “Ramona” Books
Beverly Cleary captured the experiences of childhood and created a world of fiction that children have enjoyed for decades. Beloved characters such as Ramona...
Marian Wright Edelman, Children’s Defense Fund Founder
Crowned by Harper’s Bazaar as “America’s Universal Mother,” and a winner of the Library of Congress Living Legend award, Marian Wright Edelman has dedicated...
Catherine Hughes, Radio and TV Executive
From a high school dropout and single teenaged mother to the first woman owner of a number one radio station and the first African-American...
Martin Scorsese, Director of “Taxi Driver” and “Raging Bull”
“It’s easy to think of Scorsese as a kind of poet of the underworld,” the American Film Institute reflected when they granted him a...
Thurgood Marshall, Civil Rights Lawyer and Supreme Court Justice
Before Thurgood Marshall became the first African-American justice of the Supreme Court, he was also the most successful person to argue cases before the...
Oleg Cassini, Fashion Designer
The elegant designs worn by Jackie Kennedy and Grace Kelly came to embody American fashion during the 1950s and 1960s. The man responsible for...
Marshall McLuhan, Canadian Philosopher
As a prolific lecturer, author and communication theorist, Marshall McLuhan explored the implications of technology on society, encouraging people to reconsider their relationship with...
Romualdo Pacheco, California’s First Latino Governor
Romualdo Pacheco, born October 31, 1831, was the first Hispanic representative of a state in Congress and to date, California’s only Latino governor.
Romualdo Pacheco's...
Hayao Miyazaki, the Japanese Walt Disney
Animator Hayao Miyazaki is often called the Japanese equivalent of Walt Disney. His prodigious imagination has given rise to Japan’s most popular manga, animated...
Fred Rogers, Host of “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood”
For more than 30 years Fred Rogers welcomed children and their parents into a realm of imagination on his show, “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood.” Through...
