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Noor Inayat Khan- The Spy Princess
Noor Inayat Khan was a mass of contradictions. She was a devout Muslim Sufi who believed in nonviolence and refused to tell a lie and disliked the British because of their involvement in India. Described as a “dreamy” and “sensitive” person who spent time writing children’s stories, poetry and music, Noor was the last person who anyone would have thought could be a spy against the Nazis. However, underneath that soft exterior was a spine of steel the Nazis could not break no matter how hard they tried. Noor Inayat Khan was born in the Kremlin in Moscow on January 2, 1914. Her father was a musician and a Sufi…
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“The Motorcycle Queen of Miami” Bessie Stringfield
To say she was an amazing woman would be an understatement. She was the first African-American woman to ride across the United States solo, and during World War II she served as one of the few motorcycle dispatch riders for the United States military. Stringfield was born in Kingston, Jamaica, in 1911 to a black Jamaican father and a white Dutch mother. The family migrated to Boston when she was still young. Her parents died when Stringfield was five and she was adopted and raised by an Irish woman. At the age of 16 Stringfield taught herself to ride her first motorcycle, a 1928 Indian Scout. In 1930, at the…
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Stagecoach Mary Fields
Mary Fields was a badass. Pure and simple. She was the toughest woman in Montana Territory, and was said to be a match for any two men. At six foot two inches and two hundred pounds, she towered over most men at that time. She had a standing bet she could knock out a man with one punch, and never lost a dime on anyone stupid enough to take her up on that bet. After about the third or fourth time, no one took her up on her offer. In a time when African Americans and women of any race faced significant obstacles, Mary had the sand to live her…
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Nzinga of Ndongo and Matamba- Always have a Chair for the Queen
The Portuguese had begun colonizing Africa after their rounding of the Cape of Good Hope in 1488. The English and the French had begun exploring northeast Africa, so the Portuguese concentrated on the south, what is now Congo and Angola. Their chief aim was to provide slaves for their colony of Brazil in South America. Ndongo was ruled by a king called a Ngola, and the government was run by slaves. This was similar to the system of the janissaries in the Ottoman Empire. Slaves loyal to the royal family took high positions in the government and the military to ensure absolute loyalty. Ndongo was a trading partner of the…
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Yu Gwan-sun- Korea’s Joan of Arc
In 1904, Korea allied with Japan during the first Russo-Japanese war and lent its territory for Japan’s military operations. This was only a stepping stone to the Japanese occupation of Korea. They came and never left. This was the government’s plan to make Japan a world power. Tough luck for anyone in Korea that wasn’t fine with this plan. On March 1, 1919, the Korean independence movement began. The so called March 1st Movement started with demonstrations mainly made up of students and Christians as all other political groups had been disbanded by the Japanese government. The rebels created a Declaration of Independence, which was signed by thirty-three representatives. Then…
