Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790)
Inventor of the autobiography, the idea that reading on someone else’s success rubs off. He sets himself up to be a model of American success

New England Primer

Bible (huge influencer to religion within the western world)

Edgar Allan Poe - Edgar Allan Poe was an American writer, poet, editor, and literary critic who is best known for his poetry and short stories, particularly his tales of mystery and the macabre.

Henry David Thoreau - advocate of transcendentalism, or the belief in the inherent goodness of people and nature, making a virtue of self-reliance

Brown v Board - supreme casee that deemed racial segregation between children in schools was unconstitutional

John Winthrop - Puritan who wrote a model of christin charity, which advocated for predestination, and compared humanity to be a “city on a hill” meaning society should look up to them and be an example not only for others, but because it is their duty and it would insult God not to.

Henry Ford
As with most famous people, Henry Ford was complex and had traits and took actions that were laudatory as well as troublesome. The most controversial and least admirable aspect of Ford’s career was his descent into anti-Semitism. Convinced that “bankers” and “the Jews” were responsible for a whole range of things he didn’t like, from the world war to short skirts to jazz music, Ford used his newspaper, the Dearborn Independent, to carry on an active anti-Semitic campaign. Between 1920 and 1922 a series of articles denounced all things Jewish. While officially apologizing for the articles in 1927, Ford’s anti-Jewish sentiments ran deep. Seen within the context of the times, they demonstrate the sharp realities and tensions that emerge in societies undergoing profound cultural, economic and political change.

Phillis Wheatley (1753-1784) First black poet in English., she had a trial to prove she wrote her own poems (she wrote on hypocrisy on slavery being hypocacy if all men are created equal) . Her ability to write proves she is an equal. This is why the poems were so important "

Booker T Washington - Emphasised that the African American Community to use resources they have to battle oppression. Instead of advocating for policy, use what you have and befriend your neighbor. He felt as if the black community should focus on edjucation. (First black person to get PHD from Harvard

William du Bois - Major sociological figure, he wanted to fix the inequality in education, specifically in the African American communities. He looked at how black families had their budget and why funding had to go to particular places. he used facts to demonstrate history that blacks have spend money on versus wealthy Latin Americans.

Martin Luther King JR - Martin Luther King Jr. was an American Baptist minister and activist who was one of the most prominent leaders in the civil rights movement from 1955 until his assassination in 1968. He wrote a letter from Birmingham jail after getting put in their for a peaceful protest. "“A just law is a man-made code that squares with the moral law or the law of God." Dr. King was a strong advocate for peaceful protest and freedom can be obtained if you speak up about it. He was a political icon.

Malcom X - Malcolm X was an American Muslim minister and human rights activist who was a prominent figure during the civil rights movement. Malcom X differed from king in his approach towards freedom. He was an advocate for using violence if voices weren't heard. He famously said "If violence is wrong in America, violence is wrong abroad. If it's wrong to be violent defending black women and black children and black babies and black men, then it's wrong for America to draft us and make us violent abroad in defense of her."

Betty Freidan - Betty Friedan was an American feminist writer and activist. A leading figure in the women's movement in the United States, she wrote about the problem that has no name which adresses the American housewife and how they feel about their career. It is a social norm for women to accept thier life as being a stay at home mom, which some are fine with, but others want more.

Phyllis Schlafly, “What’s Wrong with Equal Rights for Women” (1972) Phyllis Stewart Schlafly was an American attorney, conservative activist, author, and anti-feminist spokesperson for the national conservative movement. She wrote on what's wrong with equal rights for women and argued that women's rights were already protected under the Constitution and that the ERA would undermine the family. She wanted women to be thankful for the right's they haven now.

Audre Lorde, “The Master’s Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master’s House” (1983) Invoking Lorde, I use the "master's tools" as a metaphor for conventional theoretical and methodological approaches and "dismantle the master's house" as a metaphor for intersectional structures and systems of oppression that created and sustain health inequity in U.S. Black communities.

Raph Martin's "life in the new suberbia" - Martin states that as life became harsher within the cities, and industrialists continued to mass produce affordable housing on the outskirts of urban areas, middle class families began to flood into these "cookie-cutter" communities. He advocates for women by saying they are invisible labor. ""your wife busy in the kitchen making another fancy dessert, the crying of a brand new baby..."

Dorthy Parker writes on "the waltz" which goes over society's standards at the time. In the story a man approaches her and asks to dance, she wants to say no and doesn't dance with him but society pressures her into dancing with the man.