LAVERNE COX  (1972 - )

Laverne Cox has emerged as a tireless advocate for the LGBTQ+ community. A prominent actress and the first openly transgender person nominated for an Emmy, Laverne Cox has promoted visibility and awareness on behalf of the transgender community.

Laverne Cox was born on May 29, 1972. Assigned male at birth, she grew up in Mobile, Alabama with her mother and twin brother. Cox never knew her father. Her mother was a teacher, and as a single parent focused her energies on raising her two children. As a child, Cox described herself as “very creative,” and credited her creativity with sustaining her. She dreamed of being on the stage. She loved to dance and began taking classes and performing in recitals and talent shows in the third grade. Cox’s mother allowed her to take tap and jazz classes, but not ballet, fearing it was too feminine for a young boy. Cox began to feel ashamed and fearful of her inclination towards femininity, due to harsh comments from adults, bullying and harassment from peers, and messages she was hearing at her church. Cox feared she was disappointing her grandmother, who had passed away. Finding that idea horrifying, Cox attempted suicide at the age of 11.

Cox received a scholarship to study at the Alabama School of Fine Arts in Birmingham for high school. While there as a boarder, Cox began to embrace androgyny. She then earned a dance scholarship to attend Indiana University, where she arrived as a “gender-nonconforming” freshman. After two years at Indiana, Cox transferred to Marymount Manhattan College and graduated with a B.A. in Fine Arts in Dance. These early years in New York were formative for Cox. While at Marymount, she caught the acting bug. Cox participated in plays in Marymount’s Theater Department as well as a student-directed film. She also transitioned from being gender-nonconforming to “being more and more femme.” Cox recalled in an interview that while in NYC, she saw other transgender women who changed her outlook and challenged her misconceptions, including her belief that transgender people could not be successful. While at Marymount, Cox began her medical transition and began living and identifying as female.

After graduation, Cox knew she wanted to continue performing. She tried for years to be an actress. By 2007, Cox had done several student and independent films, off-off Broadway shows, and had begun auditioning for professional acting gigs. She mostly auditioned for and got roles for transgender characters. After seeing the 2007 premiere of the soap opera “Dirty Sexy Money,” in which Candis Cayne became the first openly transgender actor to have a recurring role on a prime-time TV show, Cox realized she could be openly trans and have a successful career. She made postcards with her photo and the statement “Laverne Cox is the answer to all your acting needs.” She sent the postcard to about 500 agents and casting directors, and it led to four meetings. Cox appeared on two episodes of “Law & Order,” a pilot for HBO, a reality show, and produced and starred in her first show on VH1 called “TRANSform Me.” In 2012, she booked her breakout role on the show “Orange is the New Black.”

Cox’s role as Sophia Burset on “Orange is the New Black” catapulted her to fame. TIME Magazine named her “the most dynamic transgender character in history.” In 2014, Cox became both the first openly transgender person to be nominated for an Emmy Award for her role in “Orange in the New Black” and the first openly transgender person to appear on the cover of TIME in June. When asked what these two milestones meant, Cox said “I was told many times that I wouldn’t be able to have a mainstream career as an actor because I’m trans, because I’m black, and here I am…And it feels really good.” Of the Emmy nomination, Cox said it was just as important to her as an actress as it was to her as an activist, arguing the transgender community deserved the opportunity to turn on the TV and “see [themselves.]” Since her role on “Orange is the New Black,” Cox has appeared on many magazine covers and received numerous acting awards and nominations. Her other recent acting credits include “Promising Young Woman” (2020) and “Inventing Anna” (2021).

In 2015, Cox returned to Indiana University to speak about her experiences as a member of the transgender community with a speech titled “Ain’t I a Woman,” echoing the speech of the same title given by activist Sojourner Truth in 1851. In the speech, Cox told her audience to have “difficult conversations” to educate others and combat misconceptions about the transgender community. She hopes that through these conversations, people can understand “not everybody who is born feels that their gender identity is in alignment with what they’re assigned at birth…if someone needs to express their gender in a way that is different, that is okay…That’s what people need to understand, that it’s okay and that if you are uncomfortable with it, then you need to look at yourself.”

Works Cited

Aleksandra Gjorgievska and Lily Rothman, “Laverne Cox is the First Transgender Person Nominated for an Emmy—She Explains Why That Matters,” Time, July 10, 2014, https://time.com/2973497/laverne-cox-emmy/

Chris Gardner, “Laverne Cox Explains Why She Wants to ‘Share’ Her Historic Third Emmy Nomination,” The Hollywood Reporter, August 23, 2019, https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/laverne-cox-explains-why-shes-sharing-historic-third-emmy-nomination-1233682/

Katy Steinmetz, “Laverne Cox Talks to TIME About the Transgender Movement,” Time.com, May 29, 2014, https://time.com/132769/transgender-orange-is-the-new-black-laverne-cox-interview/

“Laverne’s Story,” Lavernecox.com, https://lavernecox.com/about/

Marc Malkin, “Webby Awards: Laverne Cox to Be Honored for LGBTQ Advocacy Work,” Variety.com, May 10, 2022, https://variety.com/2022/scene/news/webby-awards-laverne-cox-1235262280/

Sarah Zinn, “Laverne Cox Details Her Transgender Journey at IU,” Indianapolis Monthly, January 15, 2015, https://www.indianapolismonthly.com/arts-and-culture/circle-city/laverne-cox-details-transgender-journey-iu

How to Cite this page

MLA – Rothberg, Emma. “Laverne Cox.” National Women’s History Museum, 2022. Date accessed.

Chicago – Rothberg, Emma. “Laverne Cox.” National Women’s History Museum. 2022. www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/laverne-cox.

Image Credit: "Laverne Cox at Paley Fest Orange Is The New Black.jpg" by Dominick D, CC BY-SA 2.0.

Additional Resources

Katy Steinmetz, “The Transgender Tipping Point,” TIME Magazine, May 29, 2014, https://time.com/magazine/us/135460/june-9th-2014-vol-183-no-22-u-s/

Jacob Bernstein, “In Their Own Terms,” The New York Times, March 12, 2014, https://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/13/fashion/the-growing-transgender-presence-in-pop-culture.html

Erik Piepenburg, “Helping Gay Actors Find Themselves Onstage,” The New York Times, December 12, 2010, https://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/13/theater/13actout.html

Underpaid and Discriminated Against

Annie Jump Cannon was a pioneering astronomer who specializesd in the classification of stellar spectra.

Born in 1863, she was the eldest daughter of Deleware State Senator Wilson Cannon and Mary.  Annie Cannon was inspired by her mother to pursue science.  They would often open the trapdoor to the roof of their home so they could watch the stars in the small observatory the two of them had built.

 One of the first women from Delaware to attend college, she was her class valedictorian when she graduated from Wellesley College, where she studied physics and astronomy despite the fact she experienced progressive hearing loss starting at a young age.

In 1896, she was hired as a “woman computer” at the Harvard College Observatory, along with another prominent deaf astronomer, Henrietta Swan Leavitt.

The work involved looking at photos of stars and calculating their brightness, position, and color. Unfortunately the two were paid between 25 and 50 cents an hour—half the rate paid to men doing similar work.  This, however, did not stop Cannon from making major scientific discoveries.

In a catalog of 1,122 stars published in 1901 Cannon drastically simplified classifying stars.  It was soon recognized that Cannon was actually classifying stars according to their temperature and her spectral classifications were universally adopted.  In 1922 the International Astronomical Union adopted Cannon's method as the official spectral classification system.

She eventually obtained and classified spectra for more than 225,000 stars.  Her work was published in nine volumes as the Henry Draper Catalogue (1918-24).

In addition to her scientific work, Cannon also worked for women’s rights. She was dedicated to fighting for women’s suffrage and was a member of the National Women’s Party. In 1923, Cannon was voted one of the 12 greatest living women in America by the National League of Women Voters.

After decades of hard work, Cannon was finally appointed a permanent faculty position at the Harvard College Observatory in 1938. Although she officially retired two years later, Cannon worked in the observatory all the way up until her death in 1941.

Annie Jump Cannon died in April of 1941 in Cambridge, Massachusetts. She was seventy-seven years old.

For more stories of remarkable women, see HERSTORY on womensvoicesmedia.org

 

 

 

In the first few months of this year two identical historical events occurred in two cities in the U.S.

Early this year the metropolis of St. Paul, MN, swore in an all-female city council.  The first in the city's history.

The three returning councilmembers: Councilmember Rebecca Noecker, Ward 2, begins her third term; Councilmember Mitra Jalali, Ward 4, begins her third term; and Councilmember Nelsie Yang, Ward 6, begins her second term. 

The four newly elected councilmembers include: Anika Bowie, Ward 1; Saura Jost, Ward 3; Hwa Jeong Kim, Ward 5; and Cheniqua Johnson, Ward 7. 

Additionally significant - the majority of the council members are women of color, and all are younger than the age of 40.

In the picturesque little city on the Gulfcoast of Florida, Gulfport elected an all-female, five member city council and a female mayor.

On April 1, Gulfport swore in Mayor Karen Love, Ward 2 council member Marlene Shaw and Ward 4 council member Nancy Earley.

They joined reelected council members April Thanos and Cosi Jackson to complete the city’s first all-female City Council — and one of the few, if any, in the state.

According to a recent report from the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University, nearly 34% of municipal officers in Florida are women, compared to the national average of 32%. Florida ranks 18th nationally with 34% female representation in local government.

“There is just not enough data out there,” said Jean Sinzdak, associate director of the center, explaining the difficulty of tracking leadership compositions across all municipalities nationwide.

“It’s hard to tell where Gulfport stands on a statewide or national level, as far as an all-female government,” Sinzdak said. “But it is rare and quite an accomplishment for the city.”

All-female councils remain uncommon but not unprecedented in American history. In 1888, Oskaloosa, Kansas, became the first town in the United States known to have an all-woman government, with Mayor Mary Lowman leading the council.

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For more stories of remarkable women, see HERSTORY on womensvoicesmedia.org

As we are winding down this year's celebration of Women's History Month, we think it is especially appropriate that we honor the accomplishments of the woman we should have as President - former Vice President Kamala Harris.

There are those who believe that she is  "the one"  who had the Presidency stolen from her.  While that is within the realm of possibility, we must leave the determination of that to others.  Our purpose here is to honor her and all her considerable accomplishments.

To say she is more principled, more educated, and more experienced than the current occupant of the White House is the understatement of the century.  Further it can be said, her qualifications are equal to or surpass those of any man who has ever sat in the Oval Office.

She was born October 20, 1964, in Oakland California, to Shyamala Gopalan Harris and Donald J. Harris.  Both of her parents were well-educated and accomplished.  Her mother was a breast cancer scientist and pioneer in her own right who came to the United States from India at the age of 19 and then received her doctorate the same year that Kamala was born.  

Both of the Vice President’s parents were active in the civil rights movement and instilled in her a commitment to build strong coalitions that fight for the rights and freedoms of all people. They brought her to civil rights marches in a stroller and taught her about heroes like Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall and civil rights leader Constance Baker Motley.

Vice President Harris went on to graduate from Howard University and the University of California Hastings College of Law. In 2014, she married Douglas Emhoff, a lawyer. They have a large blended family that includes their children, Ella and Cole.

Harris began her legal and political career as a courtroom prosecutor in Oakland  standing up for women and children against predators who abused them, in 2004, Vice President Harris was elected District Attorney of San Francisco. There she was a national leader in the movement for LGBTQ+ rights, officiating some of the first same-sex weddings. She also established the office’s environmental justice unit and created a ground-breaking program to provide first-time drug offenders with the opportunity to earn a high school degree and find employment, which the U.S. Department of Justice designated as a national model of innovation for law enforcement.

In 2010, Vice President Harris was elected Attorney General of California where she oversaw the largest state justice department in the country. She took on those who were preying on the American people, winning a $20 billion settlement for Californians whose homes had been foreclosed on and a $1.1 billion settlement for students and veterans who were taken advantage of by a for-profit education company. As Attorney General she cracked down on the transnational gangs that smuggled drugs, guns and people across the U.S.-Mexico border. She also defended the Affordable Care Act in court and enforced laws to protect public health and the environment.

In 2017, she was sworn into the United States Senate where she championed legislation to fight hunger, provide rent relief, improve maternal health care, expand access to capital for small businesses, revitalize America’s infrastructure, and combat the climate crisis. She questioned two Supreme Court nominees while serving on the Judiciary Committee. She also worked to keep the American people safe from foreign threats and crafted bipartisan legislation to assist in securing American elections while serving on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence.

On January 20, 2021, Kamala Harris was sworn in as the 49th Vice President of the United States — the first woman, the first Black American, and the first South Asian American to be elected to this position.

The Biden-Harris administration delivered monumental achievements that are life-changing for millions of Americans. The President and Vice President were focused on investing in economic opportunity resulting in a record 21 million new small business applications, created a record 16 million jobs, lowered the unemployment rate to the lowest average in 50 years, capped the cost of insulin at $35 a month for seniors, cut prescription drug prices, and improved maternal health by expanding postpartum care through Medicaid. They passed the largest investment in a generation to upgrade the nation’s water, transportation, and internet infrastructure and the Vice President cast the tie-breaking vote on the largest investment ever to tackle the climate crisis.

.On July 21, 2024, Vice President Harris announced her campaign for president after President Joe Biden withdrew his bid for reelection. She officially became the party’s nominee on August 5 after a formal roll call vote of DNC delegates and made history again as the first Black woman and first South Asian woman nominated for president by a major U.S. political party.

Unfortunately her campaign was not successful.  Her vision of ensuring all Americans can climb the ladder of economic opportunity, including by bringing down the cost of living and making housing more affordable will not become a reality.  

As a trailblazer throughout her entire career, the Vice President has been committed to fulfilling her mother’s advice: “Kamala, you may be the first to do many things, but make sure you are not the last.”

NOTE: Biographical information in this post is from the Kamala Harris website:   https://kamalaharris.com/

She was born as Georgia Blanche Douglas Camp in 1880 in Atlanta, Georgia, to Laura Douglas and George Camp.  Both parents were of mixed ancestry, with her mother having African-American and Native American heritage, and her father of African-American and English heritage.

Camp lived much of her childhood in Rome, Georgia. It was there and in Atlanta that she received her education.  She  excelled in reading, recitations and physical education.  Camp taught herself to play the violin and developed a lifelong love of music that she expressed in her plays.

She graduated from Atlanta University's Normal School in 1896 and taught school in Marietta, Georgia after she left college. In 1902 she left her teaching career to pursue her interest in music, attending Oberlin Conservatory of Music in Ohio. She wrote music from 1898 until 1959. After studying in Oberlin, Johnson returned to Atlanta, where she became assistant principal in a public school.

On September 28, 1903, Camp married Henry Lincoln Johnson (1870–1925), an Atlanta lawyer and prominent Republican party member who was ten years older than her.  Douglas and Johnson had two sons, Henry Lincoln Johnson, Jr., and Peter Douglas Johnson (d. 1957).  In 1910, they moved to Washington, DC, when her husband was appointed Recorder of Deeds for the District of Columbia, a political patronage position under Republican President William Howard Taft.  While the city had an active cultural life among the elite people of color, it was far from the Harlem literary center of New York, to which Johnson became attracted.

Johnson's marital life was affected by her writing ambition, because her husband was not supportive of her literary passion, insisting that she devote more time to being a homemaker,  not on publishing poetry. But in Washington Johnson met many of the leading African American artists and she was inspired to write.  In 1918 she published her first book of poetry, The Heart of a Woman.  Its' searing lyriscicm reflected her frustration at the racial and gender prejudices of her era. With the publication of her second book of poetry, Bronze, in 1922, Johnson became the most widely published woman poet of the Harlem Renaissance, a nationwide movement to create new African-American art.  She published a total of four volumns of poetry.

After her hucband's death, she began writing plays and was one of the earliest female African-American playwrights, and an important figure of the Harlem Renaissance.  Sadly most of Johnson’s plays were destroyed after her death, when workers inadvertently threw them away while clearing her house.

After her husband's death in 1925, Johnson began to host weekly "Saturday Salons" for freinds and authors, including Langston Hughes, Jean Toomer, Anne Spencer, Richard Bruce Nugent, Alain Locke, Jessie Redmon Fauset, Angelina Weld Grimke and Eulalie Spence — all major contributors to the New Negro Movement, which is better known today as the Harlem Renaissance.  Georgia Douglas Johnson's house at 1461 S Street NW would later become known as the S Street Salon. The salon was a meeting place for writers in Washington, D.C., during the Harlem Renaissance. For four decades Johnson's S Street Salon helped nurture and sustain creativity by providing a place for African-American artists to meet, socialize, discuss their work, and exchange ideas.

The death of her husband necessitated her having to support herself and her two sons until they graduated from medical school and law school respectively.  Johnson worked for more than a decade at the U.S. Department of Labor.  During this same timeframe she published another volume of poetry, "An Autumn Love Cycle", and several plays.  From 1926 through 1932 she wrote a weekly column, "Homely Philosophy", which was syndicated in over twenty newspapers.

Gorgia Douglas Johnson  published her final book, "Share My World", in 1962.  In 1965, she was awarded an honory doctorate in literature from Atlanta University.  She died in Washington, D.C. in 1966.

In 2010, she was posthumously inducted into the Georgia Writers Hall of Fame.