2025 American Women's Quarter Program Honeree's
IDA B. WELLS
Ida B. Wells was born on July 18th, 1862, in Holly Springs, Mississippi into slavery by her parents, Elizabeth Warrenton and James Wells. Due to the civil war, Wells was not enslaved for that long because the war granted her and her family their freedom. When she was 16, she became a teacher and then moved to Memphis, Tennessee, where she would become an activist, journalist, and newspaper owner. At the age of 22, her role as an activist started when she sued a railroad company due to racial discrimination. With Wells' career in journalism, she typically wrote about racism, segregation, and discrimination in the south and it affected African Americans. She would then go on to write many articles about the lynchings that occurred, which happened to be three of her friends. While writing this article, her life was threatened by a mob, but still she persevered. In New York City, Memphis, and England, she spoke up about the horror and violence African Americans faced in the South. Throughout her life, she wrote several pamphlets and articles about race riots, lynching, and discrimination in the hope that her advocacy and writing would put the violence to rest. Other contributions she made would be making the first kindergarten for African American children in Chicago, co-founding the National Association of colored women, and the National Association for the Advancement of colored people. Wells was also part of the suffrage movement and founded a suffrage organization to fight for voting rights for women. She would also break more barriers by meeting with two different presidents to fight for liberty and equality, and running for the state senate in Illinois. With all her accomplishments, Ida B. Wells would be the 16th woman featured in the American Women Quarters Program, being released on February 4th, 2025. Designed by Laura Gardin, the design features her portraits with the words journalist, suffragist, and civil rights activist inscribed, reflecting her life.
JULIETTE GORDON LOW
Juliette Gordon Low was born on October 31st, 1860, in Savannah, Georgia, to William Washington Gordon II and Eleanor Lytle Kinzie. Low relocated to the U.K. with her husband, where she experienced a frivolous and leisurely marriage, which she was not accustomed to or even liked. With her actions always being hands-on rather than paying a sum of money to support a cause, her husband disapproved of this concept and thought of stereotypical activities appropriate for women during that time. After being a widow for several years and exploring new places, she found her destined calling when she met the founder of boy scouts, Robert Baden-Powell, in 1911. In 1908, Boy Scouts were started, and many girls were intrigued and tried to join but were denied, leading to his sister Agnes Baden-Powell starting Girl Guides in 1909. With Low being so interested in this idea, she started two groups of Girl Guides on her own. During the progressive era, which was characterized by multiple political and societal reform efforts, Low founded the scouting movement. The scouting movement was popularized by women in the U.S. and U.K. advocating for a better non-sterotypical society. This movement promoted and supported suffrage, education, and labor reforms. As a young child, Low was always supporting young girls by first starting the “helpful hand clubs’ and volunteering with factory girls when she relocated to England later in her years. Knowing this, Girl Scouts was always an undeniable passion for Low; she just had to discover and execute her idea. When she returned to her birthplace in 1912, she would begin the road to her idea of Girl Scouts. The Girl Scout movement was endorsed by many other women of the progressive movement, which led the program to grow rapidly. Low would also host tea parties to convince mothers of how the idea of Girl Scouts would benefit their daughters. During this time, there were many societal norms for females to adhere to, but Low used these norms perfectly to persuade families to support her Girl Scouts movement. With all her efforts and work to put Girl Scouts together, she would contribute to fizzling out these societal customs that girls are put under. In 1912, there were only 18 girls a part of Girl Scouts, but in 1914 it grew to a 1000, and in 1918 it grew to an abundant amount of 10,000 girls, and lastly in 1920 there were over 90,000 girls a part of this movement, Girl Scouts. In the world today, there are over 2 million Girl Scouts, including myself. With Low's relentless effort to change the world and make it a better place, she earned herself the title of being the 17th woman featured on an American quarter. With the quarter being released on March 25th, 2025, it features Juliette Gordon Low wearing her Girl Scout uniform with a fish pin- silver fish award, which represents overcoming obstacles to reach a goal- and wearing the thanks badge-highest honor an adult can receive in Girl Scouts for making an exceptional impact on the program. This quarter was designed by Tom Hipschen.
DR. VERA RUBIN
Dr. Vera Rubin was born on July 23rd, 1928, in Philadelphia, Pennslyvianna to Rose Applebaum Cooper and Philip Cooper. Rubin always had a calling for astronomy, and at the age of 10, she was already sketching the path of stars. She also built a homemade telescope to look further into the sky and took long exposure star photos, and essentially, she went to pursue her interest in astronomy. She attended Vasse College, where it was one of the few schools to allow women to study astronomy. In 1948, Rubin obtained her bachelor's degree in astronomy and attended Cornell for graduate school. Often she would chart galaxies at night, and persuaded by her husband, she obtained her Phd in astronomy in 1954 from Georgetown University. She would later teach at Georgetown for over 10 years. Rubin would then, in 1965, become the first woman to observe at California’s Palomar Observatory, a historical moment for women and the astronomy field. Rubin’s work was instrumental, as in 1970 she began studying the rotational speed of spiral galaxies. Next, she studies the speed of stars in their orbit around their galactic centers. She discovered that even stars far away from the center move just as fast as stars near the core. With the discovery of this, it led Rubin to make another breakthrough discovery on why the stars were being held in place and not flung into space in the context of the laws of gravity. She discovered the concept of dark matter. From her research and observations, it was found that 90% of the galaxy could possibly be dark matter. The astonishing discovery changed the world of astronomy forever. With the discovery of dark matter, it acts like glue that holds the galaxies together. Over time, Rubin observed many other spiral galaxies-measurements of rotation curves- and completed over 75 different profiles for galaxies, which all had the same answer that the stars in the outer region of the galaxy moved at the same amount of speed as the ones close to the center. Even with her discovery of dark matter, she never claimed the term, and she always stayed humble in her findings and made sure that people knew it was a collaborative effort and never claimed personal credit. With her contributions to the astronomy field, she would be the 18th woman to be on U.S. currency, with her quarter being released on June 3rd 2025. Designed by Christina Hess, it shows Dr. Vera Rubin looking at the spiral galaxy and inscribes the word dark matter.
STACEY PARK MILBERN
Stacey Park Milbern was born on May 19, 1987, in Seoul, South Korea, to Joel and Jean Milbern. Milbern was born with Congenital Muscular Dystrophy, which was a condition that caused weakness in her arms and legs. During adolescence, Milbern always had peers, teachers, and family members who were really supportive and always helped her when needed. With her having many friends of different ethnicities and races, she saw how the diversity was unique, which led her to consider her disabilities as her own unique differences. Growing up, she never thought of herself as a person with a disability; she thought she was the same as everyone else, just with challenges. At 16, Milbern attended the National Youth Leadership Network, which was a youth-led cross-disability organization. At the conference, Milbern listened to the speaker Judy Heumann talk about the disability rights movement, which led her to find her calling and who exactly she was. After this conference, she would go on to advocate for rights and equality for the disabled community. This conference allowed her to realize she has a disability, and she would go on to serve the disabled community. Milbern, as a teen, organized several disability rights organizations in North Carolina. She had also co-founded the North Carolina Youth Leadership Forum and created a state law for disability history to be learned in North Carolina public schools. Even in college, Milbern still advocated for the disabled community by leading youth forums, publishing her activist blog post, and even co-founding the disability justice movement. In her early 20s, she would be appointed to the presidential commission and become one of the main authors for the disability rights platform for the Biden Administration. With all her hard work and dedication to the disabled community, she would be honored on the U.S. quarter, which was released on August 13th, 2025. Designed by Elana Hagler, it depicts Milbern in her wheelchair with the words “Disability justice” inscribed.
ALTHEA GIBSON
Althea Gibson was born on August 25th, 1927, in Clarendon County, South Carolina, to Annie Bell Gibson and Daniel Gibson. Gibson loved and played many sports early in life, but her love for tennis was undeniable. She started playing in public rec centers, then competing in tournaments such as the women's paddle championship, where she won at only 12 years old. After being discovered by a tennis coach, she started professional tennis lessons, got a membership at the Cosmopolitan Tennis Club, and played in the American Tennis Association (african american organization). She would then be named ATA player for 7 years in a row, win her first junior national championship, and win the New York state championship six times. After having so many consecutive wins, she would get noticed by prominent figures and receive a bachelor's degree from FAMU. Even with her respectable talent in tennis, she was not given the easy road and was denied opportunities due to her race. With Gibson advocating for herself alongside other tennis players advocating for her, she got the chance to play in the prestigious Eastern Lawn Tennis Association grass court championship in 1950. In that same year, Gibson would be the first african-american women permitted to play in the U.S. nationals. A year later, she would start playing internationally, and she would make history again by being the first african-american women to play at Wimbledon. Another record-breaking history moment would be in 1956 when Gibson was the first african-american woman to win the French Championship. In the same year, she would win twice at the Wimbledon tournaments and U.S. nationals; in doing so, she was the first african-american woman to do it. She would be named female athlete of the year in 1957 and 1958. She would also trailblaze in the sport of golfing as she was the first black female in the Ladies Professional Golf Association. Even though playing a total of 171 golfing events and not winning a single one, she paved the way for people of color in the sporting industry. With Althea Gibson’s astonishing career she would be the last woman a part of the women's quarter program, with her quarter being released on October 21st, 2025. Designed by Don Everhart, it depicts Althea Gibson posing with her tennis racket, with the trailblazing champion inscribed.