Sidney Poitier, Pioneering African-American Actor
Sidney Poitier was the child of tomato farmers in the Bahamas. He moved to New York as a teenager and worked as a dishwasher...
Charles Atlas, Famed Bodybuilder
Legendary bodybuilder Charles Atlas became an icon in the 1920s as the man who transformed himself from a skinny weakling into a muscle-bound celebrity.
Charles...
Sonia Sotomayor, First Hispanic Supreme Court Justice
Sonia Sotomayor is the first Hispanic and the third female justice to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court. Hailing from a working-class background, Sotomayor...
Eugene Debs, Labor Leader
Eugene V. Debs spearheaded labor movements, led the American Socialist Party and is remembered today for being an agitator who never shied from passionately...
Mary Lyon, Champion of Women’s Higher Education
Mary Lyon was a progressive educator and pioneer of women’s higher education. In 1837 she founded the Mount Holyoke Female Seminary in South Hadley,...
Charles Schulz, Creator of Peanuts Comic Strip
For more than 50 years, Charles Schulz’s comic strip Peanuts has been an essential part of the newspaper’s daily comics page for millions of...
Miriam Makeba, Singer and Anti-Apartheid Activist
Miriam Makeba, widely known as “Mama Africa,” was exiled from her home of South Africa for her revolutionary words and songs, but was widely...
Joan Miró, Surrealist Painter and Abstract Artist
A man who worked in many styles and mediums, Joan Miró is regarded as one of Spain’s best abstract artists. He’s known for pushing...
Pablo Neruda, the “People’s Poet” of Chile
One of the most beloved and widely read Latin American poets, Pablo Neruda defies categorization. His work was as stylistically varied—from sensuous love poetry...
Primary Sources About George Washington, Father of Our Country
As commander-in-chief of the Continental Army, George Washington led American troops to victory against the more powerful British forces in the Revolutionary War. After...
