Lynchburg is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. First settled in 1757 by ferry owner John Lynch, the city's population was 79,009 at the 2020 census, making Lynchburg the 11th most populous city in Virginia. Located in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains along the banks of the James River, Lynchburg is known as the "City of Seven Hills" or the "Hill City". In the 1860s, Lynchburg was the only city in Virginia that was not recaptured by the Union before the end of the American Civil War.
Lila Meade Valentine was a Virginia education reformer, health-care advocate, and one of the main leaders of her state's participation in the woman's suffrage movement in the United States. She worked to improve public education through her co-founding and leadership of the Richmond Education Association, and advocated for public health by founding the Instructive Visiting Nurses Association, through which she helped eradicate tuberculosis from the Richmond area.
The Boston Women's Heritage Trail is a series of walking tours in Boston, Massachusetts, leading past sites important to Boston women's history. The tours wind through several neighborhoods, including the Back Bay and Beacon Hill, commemorating women such as Abigail Adams, Amelia Earhart, and Phillis Wheatley. The guidebook includes seven walks and introduces more than 200 Boston women.
Z. D. Lewis (1859–1926) was an influential Baptist church leader and the first president of the Southern Aid and Insurance Company based in Richmond, Virginia. It was the oldest African American owned insurance company in the U.S. when it was acquired by another agency in 1977. The company wrote insurance for industrial life, accident and sick benefits insurance and was licensed in New Jersey, Virginia and District of Columbia, and had offices in Alexandria, Bristol, Charlottesville, Danville, Farmville, Fredericksburg, Lynchburg, Newport News, Norfolk, Petersburg, Portsmouth, Richmond, Roanoke, Saluda, Suffolk, Winchester, Virginia; and Washington, D.C. Lewis was politically influential and became involved in leadership disputes within the African American Baptist community of Richmond.
Romulus Cornelius Archer Jr. was an American architect. An African American, he is credited with designing Virginia University of Lynchburg in Lynchburg, Virginia and Saint Paul African Union Methodist Church in Washington D.C. Both are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Anna Whitehead Bodeker was an American suffragist who led the earliest attempt to organize for women's suffrage in the state of Virginia. Bodeker brought national leaders of the women's suffrage movement to Richmond, Virginia to speak; published newspaper articles to draw attention and supporters to the cause; and helped found the Virginia State Woman Suffrage Association in 1870, the first suffrage association in the state.
Naomi Silverman Cohn was an American social activist and government worker. She cofounded the Virginia Council on State Legislation which followed legislative bills dedicated to women's issues. Cohn directed the Division of Women and Children of the Virginia Department of Labor and Industry until 1942. Her activism resulted in posthumous recognition by the Women of Virginia Historic Trail and Virginia Women in History. Cohn's name was added to the Virginia Women's Monument in 2020.
Mary Elizabeth Nottingham Day was a painter under the professional name Elizabeth Nottingham. She was primarily known for her work depicting the landscape of Virginia. With her husband, painter Horace Day, she co-directed the art department of Mary Baldwin College in Staunton, Virginia from 1941 to 1956.
Lucy Addison High School was an all-African American high school founded in 1928 during Jim Crow racial segregation in Roanoke, Virginia.
India Hamilton was an African-American educator.
Lillie Mary Clinedinst was an American suffragist and labor activist.
Mary Hatwood Futrell is an American educator, professor, and pioneer in women's rights education. In her unprecedented six-year-term as president of the National Education Association, she worked to advocate for students in poorer and lower-achieving schools.
Fannie Bayly King was an advocate for women's suffrage and social reforms in the early 20th century.
Mary Belvin "Laughing Dove" Wade was a Native American community organizer and activist.
Mavis Claytor-Ford was the first black woman admitted to the University of Virginia (UVA) School of Nursing in Charlottesville, Virginia in 1968 and the first African American to receive a bachelor's degree from the school in 1970. She became one of the first black nurses to work at the university's hospital, paving the way for other black nurses in a newly desegregated Virginia.
