Lawyer and political activist Florynce "Flo" Kennedy's wide-ranging career fought sexist and racist policies in and out of the workplace.
Kennedy attended Columbia Law School after an initial rejection because she was a woman. After Kennedy threatened a discrimination suit, the school admitted her and she became one of its first black female graduates in 1951.
After opening her own office, one of Kennedy's first cases was on behalf of jazz legend Billie Holiday, who was seeking money her record company owed her. Kennedy quickly grew tired of law, writing the practice had "taught me more than I was really ready for about government and business delinquency and the hostility and helplessness of the courts."
Turning to activism, Kennedy took on Ti-Grace Atkinson, a white feminist who led the New York Chapter of NOW in the late 1960s, as a mentee. Together, they took aim at want ads in The New York Times that were segregated by sex, thus blocking women from jobs that consistently paid more.
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission acknowledged NOW's contention in 1968 that separate want ads for men and women violated the Civil Rights Act's Title VII, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex.
The victory was a strong initial development for empowering women who were trying to enter the workforce and a shot of energy to feminist movements in the 1960s.