To celebrate Black History Month, we’re uplifting the voices and stories of Illinois Action for Children’s Black female leaders. Here, they answer questions about their influences, their leadership journey, and what Black History Month means to them.
I grew up in Clarksdale, Mississippi. I was actually born in a house on the same sharecropping plantation where enslaved Africans had been forced to work just 100 years prior to my birth! I feel particularly close to Black history in America because I was able to see the culmination of the Civil Rights Movement, and a lot of what resulted from that movement, lived out in my life – school desegregation, neighborhood integration, White flight, [and] affirmative action in corporate America and higher education. I was able to actualize the struggle for equality that my parents and grandparents had fought for since reconstruction!
All of my elementary and high school teachers made an impact on me. They really instilled in me a solid academic foundation and a belief that with hard work, I could achieve whatever any White kid in Mississippi could achieve. This confidence took me to Mississippi State University and later to Carnegie Mellon University! I really appreciate the solid foundation that was laid out for me during my formative years by my teachers and family.
All of my influences growing up were Black because I grew up in the segregated South. My neighborhood had Black entrepreneurs, Civil Rights leaders, teachers, doctors, pharmacists, nurses, ministers, letter carriers, stay-at-home mothers, mechanics, janitors, and everyone else that represented a productive society. So, I didn’t have to look far to see people that I wanted to be like when I grew up.
This work is a reflection of everything that has made me who I am today. I am a product of Head Start! I graduated from the Silent Grove MB Church Head Start Program in 1970 – just six years after the founding of the Head Start Program, created in 1965 by President Lyndon B. Johnson as part of his “War on Poverty” to provide comprehensive early childhood education and support services to low-income preschoolers. It aimed to break the cycle of poverty by addressing children’s emotional, social, health, nutritional, and educational needs before entering kindergarten. I truly believe that I entered first grade equipped with a quality preschool experience that led me to academic success in elementary, high school, college, and graduate school!
Black History Month, to me, means that we should always understand our past in order to successfully chart our future.
I understood the sacrifices made by my ancestors in order for me to have the opportunities I was afforded in my life. I understand that my parents and grandparents toiled in the cotton fields of Mississippi, as their enslaved ancestors previously did in Virginia, Kentucky, and Georgia so that my children and I could move closer to the promised equality that all human beings deserve in this country!
My belief is that everyone should know the history of America so we do not repeat the past and so that we can make the corrections in laws, policies, and practices that are still necessary to move us closer to equality and not further away from it—as we seem to be moving since the most recent election. Accurate and real teaching of the history of America would have lessened the possibility of people feeling that revisionist history is now somehow justified and necessary. It would also allow us to know that we still need laws on the books to ensure that we continue to move toward a true reckoning with our past to ensure a better future for all Americans.
I am a supporter of several Black businesses in Chicago. I have particularly enjoyed the past couple of weeks because we were celebrating Black Restaurant Week. A few of my favorites are:
In addition to the obvious restaurants and retail establishments owned by Black entrepreneurs, I support the DuSable Black History Museum throughout the year, but especially during February. If you have not already done so, please take a trip to this museum with your family soon!
