The 2011 honor roll, unveiled Tuesday, includes Barbara Mikulski, the longest-serving woman in the history of the US Senate, and Lilly Ledbetter, an Alabama woman whose lawsuit against Goodyear sparked a pay equity act in Congress. The 11 women will be inducted at an Oct. 1 ceremony in Seneca Falls, a western New York village where the first known women's rights convention was held.
Established in 1969, the hall acclaims women who have made valuable contributions to society and especially to the freedom of women. "Each of these women have demonstrated fortitude, perseverance, intelligence and hope," said the hall's executive director, Christine Moulton.
Four other women being honored posthumously are King, the widow of the Martin Luther King Jr.; early suffragist Abby Kelley Foster; missionary Katharine Drexel; and Dorothy Harrison Eustis, co-founder in 1929 of the nation's first dog-guide school for the blind.
