Helen Keller
“The most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched. They must be felt with the heart”
Helen Keller is an icon of twentieth century political activism who campaigned for disability rights, female suffrage and labour rights. After becoming dead-blind during an illness in the second year of her life, she became the first deaf-blind person to earn a BA degree from Harvard University. She then worked for over four decades for the American Foundation for the Blind, travelling to 35 countries globally and giving speeches to advocate for its work. Throughout her life she wrote 14 books and hundreds of speeches, unprecedented achievements for those with such disabilities in this period. In 1964 she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom- the highest award that can be given to an American citizen- by Lyndon B. Johnson.
Audrey Hepburn
“For beautiful eyes, look for the good in others; for beautiful lips, speak only words of kindness; and for poise, walk with the knowledge that you are never alone.”
Audrey is best remembered as a twentieth century icon of female elegance and grace. While she is frequently remembered for her regal physical beauty, her character ought to be equally celebrated for its courage and generosity. As a child during WWII, Audrey aided the Dutch resistance against the Nazis by dancing in illegal fundraising performances. She performed with considerable effort, given the malnutrition she and other Dutch citizens suffered during the war, and with great courage too, for those involved faced personal danger if the performances were discovered by German soldiers.
Furthermore, Audrey was involved with the charity UNICEF for over 40 years. It was in the latter decade of her life that she fully devoted herself to the charity, embarking on humanitarian field missions around the world. In 1991 George HW Bush awarded Audrey the Presidential Medal of Freedom for her charitable work.
Maya Angelou
"In diversity there is beauty".
Maya Angelou is celebrated as a literary and cultural heroine of the twentieth century, and an icon of feminist and civil rights activism. She overcame great challenges in her life, from the racism that dominated pre-civil rights America to homelessness, abuse, and teen pregnancy, to build a life of great creativity, integrity and courage. She published seven autobiographies, received more than fifty honorary degrees and dozens of awards during her life. She was the first black female tramcar conductor in San Francisco in the 1940s, worked as a journalist in Cairo and Ghana, and with leading civil rights leaders of her time, including Martin Luther King.
She was a highly respected lecturer, giving up to 80 public lectures a year into the last decade of her life. She recited one of her poems at the 1993 inauguration of President Bill Clinton, and also received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2010, this time from Barack Obama.