Tarana Burke is most notably known for starting the #Metoo hashtag in 2006! After graduating Burke encountered numerous women of color that were survivors of sexual violence. She started using #MeToo on MySpace to show other survivors they are not alone. She said she created the phrase to give “empowerment through empathy.”

Fannie Lou Hamer was born in 1917 to sharecroppers in Mississippi, the granddaughter of an enslaved woman. She worked picking cotton from age six, full time at 12 to help support the large family, as the youngest of 20 children. In 1961 at age 44, she had surgery for a uterine tumor and received a non-consensual hysterectomy—part of the forced sterilization methods in the U.S. to “control population” of targeted populations, such as poor Black women. 

Born in 1928, she spent early childhood between her birth place of Missouri and her grandmother’s home in Arkansas. At age 8, she was assaulted by her mother’s boyfriend and after disclosing to her family, her attacker was jailed for one day, and murdered after his release. Maya was then mute for nearly five years, believing “my voice killed him; I killed that man, because I told his name. And then I thought I would never speak again, because my voice would kill anyone." With the help of a teacher and access to the literature she grew to love, Maya began her healing process.