Serena Williams and Ruby Bridges will be inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame next year, the Women’s National Hall of Fame announced Thursday, adding the tennis great and civil rights icon to the previously announced March Women’s History on the list of women honored during the month.
“The 2024 inductees have broken barriers, challenged the status quo and made an impact on history,” the Hall of Fame said in its statement.
Eight additional winners were announced in the spring. A spokesman said Williams and Bridges were able to attend after the date and location of the ceremony were changed.
Bridges, 69, became one of the first black students to attend New Orleans’ segregated schools in 1960, as a first-grader. In 1963, painter Norman Rockwell recreated the scene from the painting “The Problem About Us.” “Everybody lives together.” The Ruby Bridges Foundation, which she founded 24 years ago, promotes tolerance and change through education.
Williams and Bridges could not immediately be reached for comment.
Others in the class include Peggy McIntosh, 88, an activist known for exploring privilege; and Kimberlé Crenshaw, 63, who helped develop critical The academic concept of race theory, the idea that racism is systemic in national institutions; Judith Plaskow, 76, is considered the first Jewish feminist theologian because she argued that Jewish There is a lack of female perspectives in history.
Also inducted are Loretta Ross, 69, founder of the National Center for Human Rights Education in Atlanta, and Allucquére Rosanne “Sandy” Stone , a transgender woman born in 1936, is considered the founder of the discipline of transgender studies.
Three women will be inducted posthumously: Dr. Patricia Bass (1942-2019), an early pioneer of laser cataract surgery and the first black female doctor to receive a medical patent; Anna Wessels William Dr. Anna Wessels Williams (1863-1954), who isolated a strain that helped treat diphtheria; Elouise Pepion Cobell, known as the “Yellow Bird Woman” ( 1945-2011), she founded the first tribally established bank on the Browning reservation in Montana.
According to the Hall of Fame, the induction ceremony will be broadcast nationally in prime time in New York for the first time. The previous 30 ceremonies had been held at venues around Seneca Falls, site of the first Women’s Rights Convention in upstate New York and home to the National Women’s Hall of Fame.
“The 2024 inductees include scientists, activists, performers and athletes who are today’s changemakers and an inspiration to the women of tomorrow,” Hall of Fame CEO Jennifer Gabriel said in a statement .” “Their dedication, drive and talent got them here, and we’re excited to honor them on the national stage.”
The public nominates women for induction into the Hall of Fame. Nominations will then be reviewed by an expert selection committee.
