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Byrne, Leslie (1946– )
Leslie Byrne was the first woman elected to the U.S. Congress from Virginia, serving as a Democrat for one term, from January 3, 1993, until January 3, 1995. Byrne emerged as a skilled fund-raiser and...
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Magill, Mary Tucker (1830–1899)
Mary Tucker Magill was a Virginia educator and author whose work portrays the generation of Virginians who endured the hardships of defeat following the American Civil War (1861–1865) and looked ahead...
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Giovanni, Nikki (1943– )
Nikki Giovanni is a poet, civil rights activist, and outspoken social critic—particularly on issues of gender and race—who uses her poetry as a vehicle for political commentary. Her self-published...
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Boyd, Belle (1844–1900)
Belle Boyd was one of the most famous Confederate spies during the American Civil War (1861–1865), repeatedly and under dangerous circumstances managing to relay information on Union troop strengths...
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Burial of Latané, The
The Burial of Latané was one of the most famous Lost Cause images of the American Civil War (1861–1865). Painted by Virginian William D. Washington in Richmond in 1864, the work shows white women,...
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Chalmers, Anna Maria Mead (1809–1891)
Anna Maria Mead Chalmers was a writer and educator. She authored numerous children's books in the 1830s, later wrote short works of fiction and devotion, and contributed to the Boston Home Journal,...
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Pickett, LaSalle Corbell (1843–1931)
LaSalle Corbell Pickett was a prolific author and lecturer, and the third wife of George E. Pickett, the Confederate general best known for his participation in the doomed frontal assault known as...
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Stuart, Flora Cooke (1836–1923)
Flora Cooke Stuart was the wife of Confederate general J. E. B. Stuart and the daughter of Union general Philip St. George Cooke. She met Stuart, a dashing subordinate of her father, while living in...
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Ford, Antonia (1838–1871)
Antonia Ford was a Confederate spy during the American Civil War (1861–1865), credited with providing the military information gathered from her Fairfax Court House home during the First Battle of...
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Harland, Marion (1830–1922)
Marion Harland was a writer of novels, short stories, biographies, travel narratives, cookbooks, and domestic manuals whose career stretched across seven decades of sectional conflict and great change...
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Lee, Mary Anna Randolph Custis (1807–1873)
Mary Anna Randolph Custis Lee was an artist, author, and early antislavery activist. The great-granddaughter of Martha Washington, she enjoyed virtually unequalled social status throughout her life....
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Agnew, Ella G. (1871–1958)
Ella G. Agnew was a prominent educator and social worker who advanced employment opportunities for women early in the 1900s long before there was a woman's liberation movement. She served as the first...
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Cooperative Education Association
The Cooperative Education Association was organized in 1904 to advocate for public education reform in Virginia. The group was part of the larger, national Progressive movement, which generally pushed...
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Equal Suffrage League of Virginia (1909–1920)
The Equal Suffrage League of Virginia was an organization of white women dedicated to securing for women the right to vote. Aligned with the national woman suffrage movement, the league worked for...
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Fain, Sarah Lee (1888–1962)
Sarah Lee Fain was one of the first two women elected to serve in the Virginia General Assembly following ratification in 1920 of the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which gave...
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Henderson, Helen Timmons (1877–1925)
Helen Timmons Henderson, from the town of Council in Buchanan County, served in the Virginia House of Delegates (1924–1925), one of the first two women elected to that body (the other was Norfolk's...
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Mason, Lucy Randolph (1882–1959)
Lucy Randolph Mason was a social liberal and prominent labor activist who took advantage of a genteel southern pedigree in order to promote the aggressive Congress of Industrial Organizations...
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Morgan v. Virginia (1946)
Morgan v. Virginia is an often-overlooked landmark case of the civil rights movement. Decided on June 3, 1946, nearly a decade before Rosa Parks challenged segregated seating on a public bus in...
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Munford, Mary-Cooke Branch (1865–1938)
Mary-Cooke Branch Munford was an advocate of woman suffrage, interracial cooperation, education, health, and labor reforms. Armed with a pedigree that connected her to some of the wealthiest families...
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Roberts, Ruby Altizer (1907–2004)
Ruby Altizer Roberts is the author of two collections of poetry, three memoirs, a children's book, and a genealogy. She was named Virginia's first female poet laureate in 1950 and, until 1994, was the...
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