The People Who Paved the Way

Trailblazers

Pioneers, barrier-breakers, and history-makers who changed what's possible.

All A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Ida B. Wells

Investigative journalist, anti-lynching crusader, and suffragist — Ida B. Wells exposed the horror of racial violence in America and refused to be silenced when the truth needed telling.

Isabel Wilkerson is the author of two of the most important nonfiction books of the twenty-first century: The Warmth of Other Suns (2010), which documented the Great Migration of six million Black Americans from the South to the North and West, and Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents (2020), which reframed American racism as a […]

Issa Rae

Business & Entrepreneurship

Jo-Issa Rae Diop — Issa Rae — built a media empire by starting where the gatekeepers couldn’t stop her: YouTube. Her web series The Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl, launched in 2011, resonated with millions of viewers who saw themselves in her portrayal of a young Black woman navigating life with humor, vulnerability, and a […]

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Trailblazers

Ida B. Wells

Isabel Wilkerson

Issa Rae

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