Heroes you should know: Elizabeth Blackwell

“It is not easy to be a pioneer --- but oh, it is fascinating! I would not trade one moment, even the worst moment, for all the riches in the world.” -Elizabeth Blackwell

Elizabeth Blackwell (3 February 1821 – 31 May 1910), social and moral reformer, was the first woman to earn a medical degree in the United States.

Born in England, she immigrated to the United States in 1832 with her parents and siblings. There her family became deeply connected to the Abolitionist movement and her character formation deepened. She would routinely attend anti-slavery conventions and lectures on civil rights.

After her father’s death, Elizabeth and her sisters founded a school for girls. During this time, Elizabeth also began expressing her thoughts on women’s rights and the importance of economic independence. When a friend died a painful death from what was described as a gynecological disorder Blackwell believed could have been better understood and treated by a woman, she began to consider medical school. The fact that abortionists were known as "female physicians" is also said to have influenced her decision, as she found the phrase both degrading and misrepresentative of what an actual female physician could achieve. She was denied acceptance to several medical schools because of her gender, but was finally admitted to Geneva Medical College after the all-male student body voted to allow her to attend.

Once there she continued to face resistance, being treated as a pariah and even needing to face down a professor who attempted to ban her from lectures on reproduction. She graduated in 1849, and for two years worked in England and France. She decided to return to the United States in 1851 where she believed the bias against women doctors was less strong.

Inspired by her struggles against prejudice from fellow physicians, hospital staffs, and patients, Blackwell started an infirmary in New York for indigent women and children, along with a training program for nurses. She also began mentoring other young women attempting to become physicians. During this period she also became close friends with Florence Nightingale (who argued with her about the legitimacy of training women as physicians).

During the Civil War Blackwell helped train nurses for the Union, undeterred by the male physicians who threatened to not help with the program if Blackwell was involved.

After the war, she returned to London where she co-founded the London School of Medicine for Women.

In 1877 she retired from medical practice and spent the rest of her professional life writing and lecturing on a wide variety of issues, including the role of morality in medical education and practice, women’s rights, physical education for girls, the evil of eugenics, natural family planning, and preventative medicine.

Elizabeth Blackwell was a physician of the body, but her moral courage and willingness to fight for equal rights made her a healer of the human soul as well.

She is a hero you should know.



To learn more about this hero, you might consider:

Elizabeth Blackwell, M.D., (1821-1910): a biography, by Nancy Ann Sahli

Elizabeth Blackwell, Encyclopedia Americana.

1,000 years, 1,000 People, by Agnes and Henry Gottlieb and Barbara and Brent Bowers

Heroes you should know: Jane Addams

“The good we secure for ourselves is precarious and uncertain until it is secured for all of us and incorporated into our common life.” -Jane Addams



Jane Addams (September 6, 1860 – May 21, 1935) was a social activist for the poor, for women’s rights, and for world peace, and she became the first American woman to receive the Nobel Peace Prize.


Addams grew up in an affluent home that knew both great privilege and great loss. Her father was a prominent politician, a founding member of the Illinois Republican party, a state senator for fifteen years, and a personal friend of Abraham Lincoln. But at two years-old Addams’ mother died in childbirth, and by the time she was eight four of her seven siblings had also died. Addams also contracted tuberculosis of the spine at age four, which led to lifelong health issues.


Observing the work of her father, and reading the Bible, the writings of social reformers, and the novels of Charles Dickens, Addams developed a heart for the poor and longed to be of service. Believing that the most good could be done by becoming a doctor, Addams graduated from Rockford Female Seminary in 1881, and prepared to attend medical school. That summer her beloved father died, and she inherited the equivalent of what today would be $1.2 million. Her plans were unaltered by this event, and she began her graduate studies that fall. However, health issues and a mental breakdown forced her to quit school.


Despondent, she decided to travel to Europe, and it was there she understood that her desire to help the poor could be accomplished without a medical degree. After studying models of settlement homes in London, where students live among the poor and learn by serving the underserved, Addams decided to replicate the model in the United States. She used her sizeable fortune to purchase a run-down mansion in Chicago and pay for the considerable capital expenses. And Hull House was born.


Over time, Addams was able to engage many wealthy women benefactors for Hull House, where 25 women lived and approximately 2,000 people were served weekly. There, the poor of Chicago were able to receive food, children received an education, and adults were able to attend night school. But those who served at Hull House, or came to observe the work there, were impacted as much if not more. And the settlement house became a school for social reform, where the preached message was actually practiced as well.


Jane Addams would go on to lecture throughout the world, advocating for social justice issues. Her pacifism during World War 1 and her strong opinions about immigrants’ civil rights drew sharp criticism in America, and she was called “unpatriotic”, “anarchist”, and “socialist.” But she was undaunted. Addams was elected president of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom in 1915, and was also an active member of the Fellowship of Reconciliation USA. She remained outspoken in her belief that women had a special responsibility to fight for peace.


In 1931 she became the first American woman to receive the Nobel Peace Prize, and she promptly donated her prize money to the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom.


Jane Addams was the quintessential example of, “Think globally and act locally.” Her compassionate vision for the socially and economically vulnerable made her a prophet. But her willingness to act, to suffer and sacrifice for that vision, makes her great.


She is a hero you should know.




To learn more about this hero, you might consider:

Citizen: Jane Addams and the Struggle for Democracy, By Louise W. Knight
Encyclopedia of women's history in America, Kathryn Cullen-DuPont
The Jane Addams Collection at Swarthmore College Peace Collection

Heroes you should know: Gino Bartali

“One does these things, and that’s that…” -Gino Bartali


Gino Bartali (July 18, 1914 - May 5, 2000), known affectionately as “Gino the Pious,” was an international cycling champion. He won the Giro d’Italia three times, and the Tour De France twice (1938 and 1948) ---the ten year gap between Tour victories being the largest in the history of the race. But what he did on and with his bike, was about so much more than athleticism.


Bartali was already famous for his racing success when the dark clouds of Nazism and Fascism began to shadow his world. Because of his standing as a national sports hero, though, he could have easily avoided the politics and suffering around him and waited out the war. But Bartali loved what was best about his country and humankind too much to avoid engagement. And when a friend asked him to become involved in the Italian Resistance, he agreed…aware that his choice would put not just him in jeopardy, but potentially his wife and newborn son as well.


He began using his cycling workouts as a cover for his new calling. He’d don his racing jersey with his famous name emblazoned across the back and ride hundreds of miles between Florence and Rome carrying secret messages and documents to the network of safehouses, churches, and convents in the resistance. This included counterfeit identity documents which Jews were able to use to hide their true identities and avoid deportation to concentration camps. His fame allowed him to ride without harassment by the fascist police and the Nazi soldiers, who wished to avoid a potential public relations nightmare

And as if  this wasn't enough, Gino Bartali also hid a Jewish family in an apartment he’d purchased with his cycling prize money until the end of the war.


In 1943, one of the Italian resistance groups was discovered, and Bartali was brought in for questioning by the fascists. He was interrogated and threatened with death, but admitted nothing and was eventually released. Soon after, he literally pulled a number of Jews to safety by attaching a wagon with a secret compartment to the back of his bicycle and riding for the Swiss Alps. He told patrols that stopped him along the way that it was part of his new training regimen.


Gino Bartali was a remarkable athlete who cycled for Italy…but even more for humanity. And that’s what made him not just a true champion, but an eternal champion.

He is a hero you should know.


To learn more about this hero, you might consider:
Road to Valor: A True Story of WWII Italy, the Nazis, and the Cyclist Who Inspired a Nation, by Aili McConnon and Andres McConnon.

Heroes you should know: Dorothea Dix

“Man is not made better by being degraded…”
-Dorothea Dix


Dorothea Lynde Dix (April 4, 1802 – July 17, 1887) was an American activist who overcame an abusive childhood and chronically poor health to become a crusader for poor and imprisoned people struggling with disabilities and mental illness.


At the age of 19, Dix opened a school that catered to the wealthy families of Boston, but also began educating poor children out of her home. Due to health issues, however, she was forced to leave the school after three years. For the better part of two decades she wrote devotional and children’s books, and travelled to England where she was mentored by a Quaker community that deeply influenced her thinking about social reform.


Back in the United States in 1841, Dix returned to writing and teaching, and also began going to the jail in East Cambridge Massachusetts to lead a Sunday school class. It was there, one Sunday, that she witnessed a group of shivering, mentally ill people being herded into cells like animals. When she expressed concern, she was told not to worry about those patients since they could not feel the cold.


And an activist was born!


Dorothea Dix, outraged at this inhumane treatment, began her own statewide investigation. She discovered that most towns and cities would contract out the care of indigent mentally ill people not imprisoned to the private sector, where there were no regulations and generally poor funding. These conditions led to widespread abuse.


To build her case for national reform, Dix began travelling throughout the United States, studying and documenting the treatment of these terribly vulnerable members of society. And because of her findings and her passionate lobbying of state legislatures and the United States Congress, new laws were written to protect the indigent mentally ill. Additionally, special hospitals were built in fifteen states and Canada.


Except for the Civil War, where she served as the Superintendent of Army Nurses for the Union Army and distinguished herself by her compassionate attention to Union and Confederate soldiers alike, Dix continued to champion the cause of proper care for poor people struggling with disabilities and mental illness until she was eighty.



Those dismissed by too many as “throw-aways” were seen by this exceptional woman as precious, and worthy of respect and care.


“If you’ve done it to the least of these, my brothers and sisters, you’ve done it to me...”


Dorothea Dix did more than hear the words of Jesus, she lived them. And humanity is nobler because of it.

She is a hero you should know.




To learn more about this hero, you might consider:

The Life of Dorothea Lynde Dix, by Francis Tiffany
Angel of Mercy; The Story of Dorothea Lynde Dix, by Rachel Baker
Breaking the Chains: The Crusade of Dorothea Lynde Dix, by Penny Colman
1,000 years, 1,000 People, by Agnes and Henry Gottlieb and Barbara and Brent Bowers

Heroes you should know: Lucretia Mott

“If our principles are right, why should we be cowards?”
-Lucretia Mott


Lucretia Mott (January 3, 1793 – November 11, 1880) has been called “the first voice of American women.” She was a Quaker, an abolitionist, a minister, a women’s rights activist, and a social reformer.

Her activism was first ignited by her discovery that male colleagues at the Nine Partners Quaker Boarding School she taught at were being paid three times what females doing the same work were paid. In protest she left, along with her future husband James, and moved to Philadelphia.
There she would marry, raise six children, and become a Friends minister. She also travelled and spoke extensively on issues of justice and human dignity, led a boycott of cotton cloth, cane sugar, and other slavery-produced goods, and co-founded the Philadelphia Female Anti-Slavery Society.

And she was utterly fearless.

As an angry mob began destroying the building where the Anti-Slavery Convention of American Women was being held in 1837, Mott defiantly linked arms with black and white delegates and led a procession out of the hall and through the street. And when the mob found where she lived, and threatened to burn her house down as well, Mott calmly sat in her parlor and called their bluffs.

Before and during the Civil War, she also hid runaway slaves in her home.

Mott demonstrated courage as well in confronting her own abolitionist community. In 1840 she was one of six women elected to be delegates to the World’s Anti-Slavery Convention in London, England. But before the convention began the men voted to exclude the women from participating, and forced them to sit in a segregated area. The excuse given was that abolitionist leaders didn’t want the issue of women’s rights to distract from the issue of ending slavery. Still, Mott had enough of an impact to earn the nickname “the lioness of the convention” by journalists present.

Fundamentally Lucretia Mott understood that one justice issue could not in good conscience be separated from another. And she would spend the next forty years challenging inconsistencies and prejudices in political and religious circles alike. Her list of causes included full citizenship and voting rights for blacks, women’s political, economic, and marital rights, and the peace movement. She also served as a mentor to Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton (with whom she founded the American Equal Rights Association).

Like few before her, and few sense Lucretia Mott practiced what she preached. And this country is a far better place for it.

She is a hero you should know.

Heroes you should know: Jerome Lejeune

"A society that kills its children has lost its soul and its hope..." -Dr. Jerome Lejeune


Dr. Jerome Lejeune (June 13, 1926 – April 3, 1994) was a French pediatrician and geneticist, renowned in the field of medicine for discovering a link between intellectual disabilities and chromosomal irregularities.

In the early 1950’s Lejeune began researching Down syndrome in an effort to find its cause. He first discovered that children with Down syndrome have anomalies in their fingerprints, and the lines on their palms. From there, studying tissue samples, he confirmed that these irregularities were due to chromosomal “accidents.” And by 1957 Lejeune had demonstrated that these children have an extra chromosome.

His discovery revolutionized the field of genetics, and paved the way for new therapeutic treatments. Lejeune went on to identify several other syndromes related to chromosomal abnormalities as well. For his trailblazing work, he was celebrated internationally, and in 1964 Dr. Lejeune was named the first chair of human genetics at the Paris School of Medicine.

He always saw research and treatment as inseparable, and his ultimate goal was to alleviate suffering while celebrating the dignity of life. Thus, Lejeune was mortified to see that his genetic discoveries had slowly begun leading to the termination of pregnancies involving special needs children. In critiquing his own profession, he wrote:

“They brandish chromosomal racism like the flag of freedom…. That this rejection of medicine—of the whole biological brotherhood that binds the human family—should be the only practical application of our knowledge of Trisomy 21 is beyond heartbreaking….”

Dr. Lejeune’s answer to what he considered the grave misuse of his findings was to become a passionate advocate for the dignity of all human beings, born and unborn. He would dedicate the rest of his life, and his immense genius, to speaking, writing, and organizing in support of a culture of life.

Jerome Lejeune died on Easter Sunday 1994.

The Catholic Church has opened his cause for canonization as a saint, and given him the title “Servant of God.”

Dr. Jerome Lejeune was a groundbreaking doctor and scientist who was profoundly committed to supporting human life, in all its complexity.

He is a hero you should know.

Heroes You Should Know: Liviu Librescu

“If you are limited, then you miss the freedom. And I—I would like to be fluid. I would like to be free as a bird and fly everywhere.” -Liviu Librescu


Liviu Librescu (August 18, 1930 – April 16, 2007) had faced death many times before his final minutes of life on the campus of Virginia Tech University. He had survived the Nazis, the Holocaust, and relocation to a labor camp. And he had endured over thirty years of Communist oppression in his native Romania. In between, he'd earned a Ph.D., and become a scientist and research professor in the area of aeroelasticity and aerodynamics.

Because he refused to swear allegiance to the Communist party, Librescu’s career stalled in Romania. But in 1978 he was finally allowed to immigrate to Israel with his wife and two sons, where he continued to teach Aeronautical and Mechanical Engineering. In 1985, Dr. Librescu left for Blacksburg, Virginia on a sabbatical, accepting a teaching position in Engineering Science and Mechanics at Virginia Tech University. He would eventually decide to make this move permanent, and for over two decades his professional life continued to blossom. Dr. Librescu lectured, conducted research, had hundreds of articles published, along with scores of book chapters and monographs, and served on the editorial boards of numerous scientific journals. He was reknowned internationally, and was a beloved teacher and a devoted family man.

On the morning of April 16, 2007, crazed student Seung-Hui Cho entered the engineering building where Dr. Librescu was lecturing. As gunfire and screaming echoed in the hallway, Librescu ordered the students to exit the room through windows. Meanwhile, he headed for the door, and threw his body in front of it just as the gunman was attempting to enter. By blocking the entrance to the classroom, the professor kept Cho out long enough for twenty-two of his twenty-three students to escape without harm. Librescu was shot five times in the process, and died on the scene.

Ironically, the Virginia Tech massacre occurred on Holocaust Remembrance Day (Yom HaShoah). But perhaps there could be no more fitting day for Librescu’s martyrdom.

Dr. Liviu Librescu is a model of courage, of industriousness, of generosity, of love---and worthy of study. He lived a life of significance, which his death only confirmed.

He is a hero you should know.