Priceless and Diverse
The United States mint is releasing a series of quarters featuring prominent women in U. S. history, representative of the diversity of this country. Issued from 2022 through 2025, the series will feature up to 20 women. The line-up for 2022 includes Maya Angelou, who we discussed in last week’s blog. Other are:
Sally Ride who was an astronaut, physicist, and the first American woman in space. After earning a PhD in physics, she was one of six women accepted to the first class of astronauts open to women and men of color.
She was selected to be a mission specialist aboard the Space Shuttle Challenger on mission STS-7 which launched on June 18, 1983. She helped to build the robotic arm for the shuttle. Yet, the press was concerned with the type of make-up she was taking on the flight.
After her work with NASA, she championed STEM education for young people from all backgrounds, especially young girls, and founded Sally Ride Science, a company that provided science curriculums for schools.
Wilmer Mankiller was a social worker, community developer and the first woman elected principal chief of the Cherokee Nation, grew up on land her grandfather received from the government settlement for forcing the Cherokee to move to Oklahoma. At the age of 10, the government relocated her family to California.
Finding her way back to her grandfather’s land, she entered politics. Overcoming sexism, opposition, criticism and death threats she was elected deputy principal chief of the Cherokee Nation before being elected principal chief.
Under her leadership, the Cherokee government built new health clinics and created early education and adult learning programs. They negotiated the right to manage their own finances and developed factories, restaurants and bingo operations.
Adelina “Nina” Otero-Warren was an advocate for women’s right to vote and better education, and the first Hispanic woman to run for a seat in Congress. Born in New Mexico on her family’s hacienda, she was educated in St. Louis where she was instilled in social consciousness and the conviction that women could be community leaders.
Otero-Warren was one of the first female government officials in New Mexico as Santa Fe superintendent of schools where she worked to improve the education of Hispanic and Indigenous students and those in rural areas.
An activist, she recruited Hispanic women to the suffrage campaign. She was also the director of New Mexico’s Civilian Conservation Corp.
Anna May Wong, an actress considered the first Chinese American Hollywood movie star, was born in the Chinatown area of Los Angeles. From the time she began acting in 1921, she was often cast in supporting roles or as typical Asian characters. Anti-miscegenation laws prevented interracial marriages and interracial actors from kissing on-screen.
To escape the discrimination she faced in Hollywood, she moved to Europe where she starred in many plays and films. She returned in 1930 for a successful run on Broadway. However, unlike her white colleagues, and despite being born in the United States, she had to obtain a certificate of identity from the Immigration and Naturalization Service before re-entering the country.
All of these women made contributions to women’s lives and to the general public. Their stories are priceless.