Hidden Heroes

This series of messages focus on individuals who make advances to society in a number of different areas. Some of the hidden heroes were unknown at the time of their innovations. Others did receive recognition at the time, but are virtually unknown today. In some cases, others took credit for the innovations made by the hidden heroes. The messages are broken down into the following categories:

  • Chico Mendes

    Chico Mendes was born in Brazil. His father was a rubber tapper, and at nine years old, Chico began work as a rubber tapper as well. Rubber tapping is the process of obtaining latex from trees. Rubber tappers were denied education by the owners of the rubber...

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  • Henry Goddard

    Henry Goddard was born in Maine in 1866. His father died when he was 9 years old, and Henry was sent to live with an older sister. Two years later, Henry began studies at a boarding school. He would eventually graduate from Haverford College. A trip to California to...

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  • William Florville – A President’s Friend

    William (Billy) Florville was born in Haiti in 1807. He left Haiti for the U.S. in the 1820s. Landing in Baltimore, he learned to become a barber. America wasn’t welcoming to people with dark skin, so Billy sought a place where he could be accepted. After spending...

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  • Bernice Sandler – The Godmother of Title IX

    Bernice (Resnick) Sandler was born in 1928 in New York to Jewish immigrant parents from Russia and Germany. She graduated from Brooklyn College in 1948, which was at that time the first public liberal arts college in New York City. She then received a Master’s degree...

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  • Judith Heumann – disABILITY Activist

    Judith Heumann was born in Philadelphia in 1947. Her parents were both German-Jewish immigrants to the U.S. Virtually all of her family who remained in Germany died during the Nazi Holocaust. At age 18 months, she was inflicted with polio and for the rest of her life...

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  • Benjamin Banneker

    Benjamin Banneker was born in Ellicott’s Mills, Maryland, in 1731. Both of his parents were free African Americans, so he never faced the evils of slavery. His grandmother taught him to read. Other than attending a Quaker School for a short amount of time, he was...

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  • Dr. William Murphy Jr. – Inventor of the Blood Bag

    William Murphy, Jr. was born in 1923 in Massachusetts. If ever there was a person born into a career, it was Dr. Murphy. His father was a Nobel Prize winner in Medicine and his mother was the first licensed dentist in Massachusetts. He majored in pre-medicine at...

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  • Harlem Hellfighters

    The 15th New York National Guard had existed prior to the U.S. Civil War. They were a military unit of African-Americans and had protected the New York harbor during the Civil War. When the U.S. entered World War I, African Americans were eager to join the fight,...

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  • Waverly Woodson – The Savior of Omaha Beach

    It was June 6, 1944, and U.S. troops had begun their landing on the beaches of northern France. This was to become the turning point in the allied victory defeating Germany in World War II. Waverly Woodson was one of those soldiers. He was born in 1922 in...

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  • Ellen Swallow Richards – Consumption Sanitation and STEM

    Ellen (Swallow) Richards was born in Massachusetts in 1842. Her parents were of modest means and were strong supporters of her education. Ellen was home-schooled at first but was later accepted into a prominent academy. Ellen was accepted into Vassar at age 26 after...

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