1800s
1810s
Elizabeth Taylor Greenfield (13 jul 1819 – 31 mar 1876 | Natchez MS – Philadelphia PA) African-American singer, music teacher, abolitionist, aka The Black Swan, fundraiser for black orphans and the aged
1820s
Varina Banks Howell Davis (07 may 1826 – 16 oct 1906 | Natchez MS – New York NY) writer, memoirist, columnist, Confederate States First Lady, post-war reconciliation activist
Sarah Anne Ellis Dorsey (16 feb 1829 – 04 jul 1879 | Natchez MS – New Orleans LA) US Southern novelist, lecturer, historian, philanthropist
1830s
1840s
Eliza Jane Poitevent Holbrook Nicholson (11 mar 1849 – 15 feb 1896 | Hancock County MS – New Orleans LA) poet, lyricist, journalist, aka Pearl Rivers, newspaper manager
Katherine Sherwood Bonner McDowell (26 feb 1849 – 22 jul 1883 | Holly Springs MS – Holly Springs MS) novelist, feminist, short story writer
1850s
1860s
Ida Bell Wells-Barnett (16 jul 1862 – 25 mar 1931 | Holly Springs MS – Chicago IL) journalist, suffragist, sociologist, newspaper editor, NAACP co-founder, early civil rights movement leader
Carrie Belle Kearney (06 mar 1863 – 27 feb 1939 | Flora MS – Jackson MS) author, activist, novelist, legislator
Leonora [Nellie] Nugent Somerville (25 sep 1863 – 01 sep 1952 | Greenville MS – Ruleville MS) suffragist, legislator, child labor activist, educational advocate, temperance union leader, state college promoter, first woman elected to Mississippi Legislature
Anne Walter Fearn (21 may 1865 – 28 apr 1939 | Holly Springs MS – Berkeley CA) physician, memoirist, missionary
1870s
Elizabeth Howard West (23 mar 1873 – 04 jan 1948 | Pontotoc MS – Pensacola FL) librarian, archivist, Texas State Librarian, first Head Librarian of Texas Technological College [later Texas Tech University]
1880s
Gertrude Homan Thanhouser (23 apr 1882 – 29 may 1951 | Beauvoir MS – New York NY) actress, film editor, screenwriter, studio executive, film company co-founder
Lucie Eddie Campbell-Williams (30 apr 1885 – 03 jan 1963 | Duck Hill MS – Nashville TN) writer, hymnist, musical director
A’Lelia Walker (06 jun 1885 – 17 aug 1931 | Vicksburg MS – Long Branch NJ) businesswoman, cultural salon hostess, Harlem Renaissance patron of arts
Elizabeth Lee Hazen (24 aug 1885 – 24 jun 1975 | Rich MS – Seattle WA) researcher, microbiologist, developed first non-toxic anti-fungal drug nystatin
Ellen Bailey Sullivan Woodward 11 jul 1887 – 23 sep 1971 | Winona MS – Washington DC) women / children’s security activist, New Deal director of women’s work relief programs
1890s
Theora Alton Hamblett (15 jan 1895 – 06 mar 1977 | Paris MS – Oxford MS) teacher, pointillist painter, religious visionary, first Mississippi artist exhibited at MoMA
Muna Lee (29 jan 1895 – 03 apr 1965 | Raymond MS – San Juan, Puerto Rico) lyric poet, novelist, feminist, Pan-American, translator, women’s activist, US-Puerto Rico Cultural Affairs specialist
Lucy Somerville Howorth (01 jul 1895 – 24 aug 1997 | Greenville MS – Cleveland MS) lawyer, editor, feminist, politician, public speaker, civil rights activist
Charlemae Hill Rollins (20 jun 1897 – 03 feb 1979 | Yazoo City MS – Chicago IL) author, pioneering librarian, African-American storyteller, head librarian of Chicago Public Library Children’s Department
1900s
Willie Mae Ford Smith (23 jun 1904 – 02 feb 1994 | Rolling Fork MS – St. Louis MO) preacher, composer, gospel singer, arranger, National Convention of Gospel Choirs and Choruses co-founder, major figure in Baptist then Pentecostal Churches
Ruby Elzy (20 feb 1908 – 26 jun 1943 | Pontotoc MS – Detroit MI) pioneer African-American operatic soprano
Mollie Moon (31 jul 1908 – 24 jun 1990 | Hattiesburg MS – Queens NY) civil rights / community activist, founder / president National Urban League Guild
Eudora Alice Welty (13 apr 1909 – 23 jul 2001 | Jackson MS – Jackson MS) novelist, photographer, short story writer, Pulitzer Prize laureate
Willa Beatrice Player (09 aug 1909 – 29 aug 2003 | Jackson MS – Greensboro NC) educator, college president, civil rights activist, first female African-American president of four-year accredited liberal arts college
1910s
besmilr moore brigham (29 sep 1913 – 30 sep 2000 | Pace MS – Las Cruces NM) poet, short story writer, née Bess Miller Moore
Anger Winson Gates Hudson (17 nov 1916 – 01 may 2004 | Carthage MS – Jackson MS) freedom fighter, civil rights activist, autobiographical author
Dorothy Vredenburgh Bush (08 dec 1916 – 21 dec 1991 | Baldwyn MS – Naples FL) political figure, Secretary of Democratic National Convention
1920s
Gladys Noel Bates (26 mar 1920 – 15 oct 2010 | McComb MS – Denver CO) African-American educator, community activist, pioneering civil rights / equal pay advocate
Beulah Elizabeth [Beah] Richards (12 jul 1920 – 14 sep 2000 | Vicksburg MS – Vicksburg MS) poet, author, playwright, stage / screen / television actress
Viola B. Sanders (21 feb 1921 – 28 apr 2013 | Sidon MS – Greenwood MS) civic / veterans activist, US Naval Intelligence officer, Deputy Director / then Director of Women in the Navy
Elizabeth Spencer (19 jul 1921 – 22 dec 2019 | Carrollton MS – Chapel Hill NC) novelist, memoirist, short fiction writer, retired creative writing professor
Mamie Carthan Till Mobley (23 nov 1921 – 06 jan 2003 | Webb MS – Chicago IL) educator, civil rights activist, autobiographical author
Florence Latimar Mars (01 jan 1923 – 23 apr 2006 | Philadelphia MS – Philadelphia MS) author, civil rights activist
Evie Garrett Dennis (08 sep 1924 – Farmhaven MS) teacher, superintendent, former, asthma researcher, former vice-president of US Olympic Committee
Maryon Pittman Allen (30 nov 1925 – 23 jul 2018 | Meridian MS – Birmingham AL) columnist, journalist, state politician
Mary Violet [Leontyne] Price (10 feb 1927 – Laurel MS) author, lirico spinto soprano
Wilma Cozart Fine (29 mar 1927 – 21 sep 2009 | Aberdeen MS – Harrison NY) classical music record producer, co-directed classical music division of Mercury Records
Ava Carroll Waller (08 aug 1927 – 28 oct 2014 | McComb MS – Jackson MS) author, preservationist, born Ava Carroll Overton, former First Lady of Mississippi
Peggy Josephine Varnadow Helmerich (18 mar 1928 – Columbia MS) aka Peggy Dow, philanthropist, arts / libraries supporter, namesake for Distinguished Author Award of Tulsa Library Trust
1930s
Myrlie Louise Beasley Evers-Williams (17 mar 1933 – Vicksburg MS) author, journalist, biographer, civil rights activist, widow of Medgar Evers, former chairperson of NAACP
U. Z. [Unita] Blackwell (18 mar 1933 – 13 may 2019 | Lula MS – Biloxi MS) civil rights activist, autobiographical author, first female African-American elected in Mississippi, Chinese-American cultural exchange activist / advocate
Etta Zuber Falconer (21 nov 1933 – sep 2002 | Tupelo MS – Atlanta GA) educator, mathematician, advocate for women mathematicians, one of first African-American female PhDs in mathematics
Audrey Forbes Manley (25 mar 1934 – Jackson MS) author, former US Surgeon General, pediatrician, public health administrator, past president of Spelman College, first African-American female chief resident at Cook County Children’s Hospital, first black female appointed Assistant Surgeon General-Rear Admiral
Ellen Gilchrist (20 feb 1935 – Vicksburg MS) poet, novelist, short story writer
Reba White Williams (21 may 1936 – Gulfport MS) novelist, philanthropist, library research analyst, contributing editor, fine art prints expert, Print Research Foundation co-founder
Carolyn Tyler-Guidry (25 aug 1937 – Jackson MS) former voter / civil rights activist, African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church bishop, second female bishop in AME Church, first female presiding elder in Fifth Episcopal District
Thea Bowman (29 dec 1937 – 30 mar 1990 | Yazoo City MS – Canton MS) African-American, singer, author, Catholic nun / teacher / scholar / evangelist, National Black Sisters Conference founding member
Lynda Lee Mead Shea (17 apr 1939 – Natchez MS) businesswoman, former beauty pageant holder, owner / president of Shea-Moore [Interior] Design, president of Shea Design & French Country Imports
1940s
Peggy Elaine Hussey Webb (08 feb 1942 – Mooreville MS) romance novelist
Mary Lovelace O’Neal (10 feb 1942 – Jackson MS) artist, author, arts educator, professor emerita, focus on minimalism / abstract mixed-media / painting and printmaking
Penne Percy Korth Peacock (03 nov 1942 – Hattiesburg MS) diplomat, ambassador, commissioner of US Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy
Mildred D. Taylor (13 sep 1943 – Jackson MS) serial children’s / young adult novelist
Joyce Ann Ladner (12 oct 1943 – Battles MS) author, sociologist, civil servant, civil rights activist, first female interim president at Howard University
Mary Wilson (06 mar 1944 – Greenville MS) vocalist, musical activist, autobiographical author
Valerie Jaudon (06 aug 1945 – Greenville MS) artist, painter, public artist, associated with Postminimal / Pattern and Decoration movements
Heather Booth (15 dec 1945 – Brookhaven MS) feminist, civil rights activist, community organizer, progressive political strategist
1950s
Angela Jackson (25 jul 1951 – Greenville MS) poet, novelist, playwright, short story writer
Charlaine Harris (25 nov 1951 – Tunica MS) editor, mystery novelist, short fiction writer
Elizabeth Becker [Beth] Henley (08 may 1952 – Jackson MS) actress, playwright, screenwriter, Pulitzer Prize for Drama laureate
Carolyn Haines (12 may 1953 – Lucedale MS) former journalist, romance / mystery novelist, aka Lizzie Hart, Caroline Burnes, R. B. Chesterton
Oprah Winfrey (29 jan 1954 – Kosciusko MS) African-American actress, activist, producer, philanthropist, tv talk show host
Mamie Evelyn Locke (19 mar 1954 – Brandon MS) educator, politician, Professor of Political Science and Dean of the School of Liberal Arts at Hampton University
Ruby Bridges Hall (08 sep 1954 – Tylertown MS) memoirist, civil rights activist, first black child in all-white Southern elementary school
Marilyn Mims (08 sep 1954 – Collins MS) operatic soprano, university voice professor
Grace Hightower De Niro (07 apr 1955 – Kilmichael MS) singer, actress, socialite, philanthropist, women’s advocate, founded Grace Hightower & Coffees of Rwanda
Shirley Ann Turner Coleman (04 dec 1955 – Sunflower MS) pastor, politician, former alderman, first / only African-American Chicago female ordained minister alderman
Cassandra Wilson (04 dec 1955 – Jackson MS) jazz vocalist, producer, songwriter
Sela Ward (11 jul 1956 – Meridian MS) actress, author, producer, spokesperson
Cheryl Prewitt Salem (15 feb 1957 – Ackerman MS) singer, author, musician, international Christian evangelist, founding member Salem Family Ministries