The National Women’s Hall of Fame features a variety of women who have made history and impacted our future for years to come. This year’s inductees include U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor and civil rights icon Angela Davis, who were among 11 women in total, according to the Huffington Post. Both Davis and Sotomayor are women of color who have made incredible strides against the injustices that invade our country.
All the inductees are first nominated by the public and then chosen by a panel of professionals who have strong expertise in fields such as art, government, history, and science. Once selected, the inductees are honored at a ceremony in the hall located in Seneca Falls, New York.
Although the hall doesn’t normally have a particular theme, the chairwoman of the induction, Sujatha Ramanujan, said that the group of nominees for this year reflect the country’s political climate.
“It shows up in the nominations because we ask the general public — and in a time when women are feeling like their voices need to be heard, they’re nominating women whose voices were loud,” said Ramanujan, according to the Washington Post.
During her acceptance speech, Davis celebrated female activists, saying, “at each significant turning point in my life, when I was introduced to the world of progressive political activism, anti-racist prison abolition struggles, when I myself was on the FBI’s 10 Most Wanted List and ended up spending two years in jail and on trial, when I became involved in many international solidarity efforts, intersectional feminist movements, I’ve always been one of many.”
“My own consciousness has been enabled always by shared endeavors and collective consciousness,” she added.
Sotomayor, who is the first Latinx justice on the Supreme Court, also delivered an inspiring speech that acknowledged her fellow inductees and praised their extraordinary work.