OCTOBER BIRTHDAYS

Please join us in celebrating the birthdays of these notable figures and applaud them for their work in Social Justice.
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*** The Museum of Social Justice would like to hear from you! If there is a notable figure who should be recognized in our Monthly Birthday posts, please feel free to email [email protected].***

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FANNIE LOU HAMER (10/06/1917 – 04/14/1977)
Fannie Lou Hamer was an American civil rights leader. In 1964, she organized the Mississippi Freedom Summer, a campaign to register as many African American voters, for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. She later became the vice-chair of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic party. In addition, Hamer participated in projects such as Head Start programs, The Freedom Farm Cooperative, and Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Poor People Campaign.

LARRY ITLIONG (OCTOBER 25, 1913 – FEBRUARY 8, 1977)   
Larry Itliong was a Filipino American labor organizer. He immigrated to the United States and organized West Coast agricultural workers to demand for equal wages in the 1930s. By 1965, Itliong was leading the AFL–CIO union Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee and helped organize the Delano Grape Strike. The Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee and National Farm Workers Association merged to form the powerful United Farm Workers in 1966. In 2010, California State University, Dominguez Hills honored Itliong with a mural.

ELEANOR ROOSEVELT (OCTOBER 11, 1884 – NOVEMBER 7, 1962)
Eleanor Roosevelt was the longest American serving First lady of the United States. She advocated for gender equality, civil rights for African Americans and Asian Americans, and the rights of WWII refugees. In addition, she served as the United Nations’ first delegates and became the first chair of the UN Commission and Human Rights. Roosevelt has been recognized as “one of the most esteemed women in the world.”