Learn more about the five remarkable women being honored by the U.S. Mint this year.

Have you heard of Bessie Coleman, Edith Kanaka’ole, Eleanor Roosevelt, Jovita Idár, and Maria Tallchief? You probably know one or two, as I did. The others are less famous but just as fascinating. These women’s stories are all very different, but they have a couple things in common: During their lifetimes, they were all fiercely determined to stand up for equality and overcome discrimination and injustice. And in 2023, they might show up in your pocket change.

Last year, the United States Mint launched a new American Women Quarters series honoring accomplished women from diverse backgrounds who played an important role in U.S. history. The 2022 list included Maya Angelou, Sally Ride, Wilma Mankiller, Nina Otero-Warren, and Anna May Wong. Women on the 2023 quarters include Coleman, Kanaka’ole, Roosevelt, Idár, and Tallchief. To celebrate, I took a deep dive into their biographies so I could share the most interesting and inspirational parts with you. 

Help me celebrate the women on the 2023 quarters by learning more about the crucial role each of them played in shaping the world we live in today:

Bessie Coleman (1892-1926) 

Who would have thought that a young woman who was born into a family of sharecroppers and grew up picking cotton would become the first African American and first Native American woman pilot? Inspired by the stories of World War I pilots, Bessie Coleman decided she would become a pilot—not an easy feat at the turn of the 20th century. No American flight schools would accept her because of the color of her skin. That didn’t deter Coleman. She went to France, was accepted into a flight school, and learned to fly in just seven months. (Yes, really!)

Known by her fans as “Queen Bess” or “Brave Bessie,” Coleman didn’t let racism or sexism stand in her way. The secret to her success: “I refused to take no for an answer.” 

Coleman also refused to let fear hold her back. When she returned to the U.S., she quickly became a sensation due to the dangerous stunts she performed at air shows around the country. There were far fewer safety regulations back then, and primitive aircraft were prone to mechanical failures, but Coleman never shied away from taking risks. Her daredevil ways made her famous but also led to an early death at age 34,  when she died in a plane crash while rehearsing for a show.

In her short life, she advocated for racial equality and encouraged other women and people of color to pursue their dreams in spite of the many obstacles they faced. And whenever possible, she removed those obstacles. She refused to perform in air shows where black people were not allowed to use the front entrance. This was during the “Jim Crow era” in America, when black and white people were required by law to be segregated. People of different races couldn’t use the same entrances or bathrooms or even sit together in the stands. Coleman wasn’t having any of that. If white people wanted to watch her risk her life, they would have to do it on her terms and show some degree of respect for her people.

“The air is the only place free from prejudice,” Coleman once told a reporter. “You’ve never lived until you’ve flown.”

Her untimely death prevented her from achieving her goal of opening a flight school for black pilots, but her legacy inspired generations of racially diverse fliers to follow in her footsteps and take to the skies.

Maria Tallchief (1925-2013)

Considered one of the greatest ballerinas of the 20th century, Maria Tallchief was the first Native American (Osage Nation) to become a prima ballerina and is widely credited as having helped establish ballet as an artform in the U.S. Tallchief believed one should, “Dance from your heart and love your music, and the audience will love you in return,” and that’s exactly what she did. 

In 1947, Tallchief became the first prima ballerina of the New York City Ballet—a title she would hold for the next 13 years. That same year, she became the first American to dance with the Paris Opera Ballet. She was also a guest performer with the American Ballet Theatre and later founded the Chicago City Ballet, where she served as artistic director.

As she once put it, “Above all, I wanted to be a prima ballerina who happened to be Native American, never as someone who was an American Indian Ballerina.” Again, she accomplished her mission. In 1996, Tallchief became one of only five artists to receive the Kennedy Center Honors for their artistic contributions in the U.S. And in 1999, she was awarded the National Medal of Arts, the highest award given to artists and arts patrons by the U.S. government. (Other recipients of the award include Mikhail Baryshnikov, Harry Belafonte and Cab Calloway.)

Never forgetting her Native American ancestry, Tallchief consistently spoke out against injustices and discrimination. She not only broke barriers for Native Americans; she also became an international superstar.

“If anything at all, perfection is not when there is nothing to add, but when there is nothing left to take away,” she once said. One thing no one could take away from her was her talent, which she used as a launching pad for herself and for generations of indigenous women.

When Tallchief died at age 88, her daughter Elise Paschen made the following statement: “My mother was a ballet legend who was proud of her Osage heritage. Her dynamic presence lit up the room. I will miss her passion, commitment to her art and devotion to her family. She raised the bar high and strove for excellence in everything she did.”

Eleanor Roosevelt (1884-1962)

Eleanor Roosevelt rewrote the role of First Lady. No longer on the sidelines, she became the most politically active and influential president’s wife in history. She advocated for human and women’s rights, held press conferences, and penned her own newspaper column called “My Day.” After leaving the White House in 1945, she served more than a decade as a delegate to the United Nations, becoming chair of the U.N.’s Human Rights Commission, and helped write the 1948 Declaration of Human Rights, which Roosevelt said was her greatest achievement. After all, she firmly believed that one should: “Do what you feel in your heart to be right, for you’ll be criticized anyway. You’ll be damned if you do, and damned if you don’t.” 

While her husband was in office, Roosevelt had immense influence on his decisions as president, helping to shape both his cabinet and the New Deal. She lobbied him to appoint more women, and Frances Perkins became the first woman to head the Department of Labor. 

In the spirit of inclusiveness, she also sought revisions to the New Deal, advocating to have more women included in the heavily male-dominated Civilian Conservation Corps. She stood up for black miners in West Virginia, advocated for the NAACP and National Urban League, and famously resigned from the Daughters of the American Revolution when they wouldn’t let African-American singer Marion Anderson perform in their auditorium.

There’s not enough room to write about all of Roosevelt’s accomplishments. A prolific writer and speaker, she is one of the most quoted women in U.S. history. Some of her most famous words of wisdom include:

• “No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.” 
• “Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people.” 
• “Do one thing every day that scares you.” 
• “Happiness is not a goal; it is a by-product.” 
• “You wouldn’t worry so much about what others think of you if you realized how seldom they do.” 
• “I am who I am today because of the choices I made yesterday.”
•  “You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face.” 

President Kennedy nominated Eleanor Roosevelt for the Nobel Peace Prize, and though she did not win, she has been consistently named one of the most respected women in American history decades after her death.

Edith Kanaka’ole (1913-1979)

Also known as “Aunty Edith,” Edith Kanaka’ole was a native Hawaiian composer, chanter, and dancer who made it her life’s mission to celebrate and preserve native Hawaiian culture, particularly the art of hula dancing. She led the internationally renowned Hālau o Kekuhi dance school, where she served as Kumu Hula, or chief hula practitioner.  Kanakaʻole’s and the school were known for teaching the ʻaihaʻa style of hula and chanting—a “low-postured, vigorous, bombastic style of hula that springs from the eruptive volcano personas of Pele and Hiʻiaka.” 

During the 1970s Hawaiian Renaissance, she helped revive cultural traditions, languages, and institutions that had been largely forgotten by many Native Hawaiians. She helped to repopularize these traditions in Hawaii and beyond. As she once said, “Hula is the language of the heart and therefore the heartbeat of the Hawaiian people.” 

In addition to teaching dance, she was also a Hawaiian studies instructor at the major universities, where she taught about the connection between nature and Hawaiian culture. A mother of six and teacher of many, she was a beloved authority figure in her community 

Kanaka’ole composed a chant entitled “E hō mai ka ʻike” (which means “granting the wisdom”), and this phrase is inscribed on the back of her commemorative coin—a nod to her role as both a teacher and a voice for native Hawaiians. 

Kuhao Zane, one of her grandchildren, said that his grandmother’s inclusion among the women on the 2023 quarters feels like a “larger than life interpretation of her work.” He added, “I think it was surreal just to see a 50th state coin at one point, and now to be able to see my grandma on a coin, it definitely is recognition at almost the highest level. I felt like [the U.S. Mint was] really trying to honor, alongside these women, some of the Indigenous knowledge America holds.”

Jovita Idár (1885-1946)

Jovita Idár was a gutsy woman. Being a Mexican-American journalist, activist, and suffragist was at times a dangerous life, but she fearlessly faced each challenge head on, standing up for what she knew was right and protesting what she knew was wrong. For example, she protested Woodrow Wilson’s decision to send troops to the border, and when the U.S. Army and Texas Rangers showed up at her newspaper looking to shut it down, she refused them entry and single-handedly protected her right to free press.

Idár began her career as a teacher in 1903, but she quickly grew frustrated by the segregation and poor conditions for Mexican-American students. She resigned from teaching and joined her two brothers in working for their father’s newspaper, La Crónica, where she became an activist for Mexican-American rights. She spoke out against the racism and violence that her community faced and wrote in support of the Mexican revolution. In 1911, Idár and her family organized the First Mexican Congress to unify Mexicans across the border to fight back against racist policies that affected everything from education to economics.

She was also an active feminist who supported women’s suffrage and encouraged women to vote. As she once said, “When you educate a woman, you educate a family.” 

Celebrating Women on the 2023 Quarters

These are just a few of the noteworthy women being honored by the U.S. Mint, which will release five new coins a year between 2022 and 2025. To select honorees for the American Women Quarters Program, the U.S. Mint is working closely with the Smithsonian American Women’s History Initiative, National Women’s History Museum, the Congressional Bipartisan Women’s Caucus, and other organizations focused on celebrating the accomplishments and contributions of history-making women. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has final approval of the honorees. 

The obverse (“head” side) of each coin will still feature the likeness of George Washington, which was originally sculpted by a woman, Laura Gardin Fraser. The reverse (“tail” side) will feature the likeness of one of each of the women celebrated. 

The women on the quarters will be from diverse backgrounds and a variety of fields, but they all have one thing in common: They have each left an indelible mark on history through their groundbreaking achievements, unyielding determination, and unwavering commitment to their passions. Their stories serve as a reminder that anything is possible with hard work, dedication, and the courage to challenge the status quo, chase our own dreams, and fight for a world that empowers all people, regardless of gender, race, or background. I hope their stories inspire you as much as they’ve inspired me this Women’s History Month.

Learn more about the women who made the list of women on the quarters in 2022.