 As March gives way to April, I am thrilled to introduce you to eight women from a diverse set of life experiences in the 2018 Annual Women's History Month Salute. They are: Martha Germann; Sharon Matlock; Viola Cole; Rose Braziel, Dorothy Jones; Rachel Shankman; Lillian Barnett and Wendy Calhoun. I know these women: some are from my native Memphis, others I met in Texas. Some hired me to provide communication services, others cheered me on in some form or fashion. I met Wendy virtually while working with her mother, Marilyn Calhoun, on projects. (Check out Wendy's '90s flashback attire.) I asked each three questions: 1. Why do you think Women's History Month is important? 2. What contribution are you most proud of? 3. What is the best advice or wisdom you ever received? You'll note their responses are numbered accordingly. Please take a moment to express your thoughts in the Comments section. I also ask that you share this post with your family, friends, colleagues and others. Feel free to contact me if your organization needs communication support such as blogs, corporate communication resources or copy editing. Thank you. Martha Germann: Lewisville, Texas, Founder of Mindful Games Institute 1. As with any celebration, from birthdays and anniversaries to Presidents Day, Women’s History Month is designed to bring a conscious focus on the topic. It is a time to bring back in to the collective conversation all the amazing things that women have contributed and accomplished. Our job is to keep that conversation alive throughout the year by recognizing and celebrating the ongoing contributions and accomplishments women make daily. 2. My mission is to make a difference in the quality of people’s lives and I bring that mindset into everything I do. I am most proud of the journey of self-development that brought me to my Thriving beyond Survival Model because it not only made a difference in my ability to thrive each day, it gave me a way to convey that to others. It is information and strategies that I use in presentations, workshops and my book ("Thriving beyond Survival: How to Know What You Really Want and Have Fun Getting It") so that it can be accessible to more people. We are designed to thrive but have been trained to just survive. The world needs more focus on getting back to thriving and I am proud to have created an option for others to get there. 3. The wisdom that made the most impact on me centers on two things. The first is the conscious practicing of self-love and appreciation, actually practicing the emotion. This has not only grown my compassion for myself, but spread to everyone in my world. The second is always knowing that I have ultimate choice of what I think, feel and believe. I am mindfully aware of what I am choosing and these things shape my experience. Community engagement: TEDx speaker
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| Courageous. Caring. Called. Those words bring to mind Jannette Watts and Marilyn Calhoun, of Dallas, Texas; and, Millicent Hoskin, Paula Casey, Priscilla "Pan" Awsumb, and Dr. Mary Crawford, all from Memphis, Tennessee. Each woman is being celebrated in my 2017 Making History Profiles Q&A, which was changed from the previous name, Women's History Month Salute. Jannette Watts (in the video) invited me to attend a Career Day event at an elementary school back in 2011. During my presentation, the attentive young students helped me create an audio clip featuring them making bird sounds. Since then, I have chatted with Watts throughout the years at the church we attend, The Potter's House of Dallas. | And I was honored when she asked me two consecutive years to serve as Mistress of Ceremonies for the Annual Gospel Explosion during Black History Month at Kennedy-Curry Middle School. 'Ms. Community' Watts is the community liaison for Kennedy-Curry, located in Dallas' Oak Cliff neighborhood. Principal David Welch defines her work: "A community liaison is the bridge between the school and the community... [The person] needs to be well-grounded to know what's in the community and [to work] with parents to help the school," he said during a telephone interview. In his first year at the school, Welch has turned to Watts repeatedly to support his leadership and each time, she delivered results. |
"I am a demanding administrator and she has gone over and above. I give you an example -- she has increased the number of parents who are involved in Parent Portal (a Dallas Independent School District online resource that allows a parent to follow their child's academic progress). Prior to my arrival, the percentage was very low. Thanks to her involvement, the number is 71 percent."
He ticked off a detailed list of Watts' other key accomplishments. All said, her work is driving academic progress and community involvement. And, he praised her hidden talent -- being great with crafts and decorating the school.
"She is a wonderful individual. I wish I could clone her. If I had three or four of her, it would really make my job easier," Welch said.
He ticked off a detailed list of Watts' other key accomplishments. All said, her work is driving academic progress and community involvement. And, he praised her hidden talent -- being great with crafts and decorating the school.
"She is a wonderful individual. I wish I could clone her. If I had three or four of her, it would really make my job easier," Welch said.
| I first met Millicent Cade Hoskin in the library of Central High School, in my native Memphis, Tennessee, when I was a student there. To this day, I recall the now-retired librarian's commitment to excellence and education. What is your place in history? My place in the world is embodied in each of these titles -- God's child, mother, educator, teacher, mentor/friend, and enabler. At one time in my life, I embraced each of them, usually all of them at the same time. However, each title has to do with service to God and mankind. My role models, beginning with my Mother, Mrs. Laura Turpin Cade, have been for the most part, strong African-American women who faced and overcame the two overwhelming forces of being both African-American and female: Sojourner Truth; Diana Ross; Nikki Giovanni; Marva Collins (imagine my delight in actually attending one of her workshops!); and yes, even Queen Latifah. Also included are my female teachers, and women at my church who nurtured me and treated me as though I was their own. What was the focus of your career? Share some of your milestones and accolades. I concentrated on reading and writing literacy, to ensure not only that students were able to read and write, but also that they were able to comprehend as well. Today, former students continue to thank me for the positive contributions to their attainment of education and life goals. I was the first African-American librarian at Central High School. I served 29 years with Memphis City Schools and also worked with other educational organizations. Various groups have honored me and I received grants from the Memphis Rotary Club to provide more resources. Additionally, I received a special request to write a Litany of Unity for the 30th commemoration of Dr. Martin L. King Jr.'s death. It was shared during the April 3,1998 service at Mason Temple Church of God in Christ. Why do you think Women's History Month is important? Women’s History Month will be important as long as women are important. A month is good, but a daily and monthly focus would be awesome. The initiative should be taken to keep women in the forefront of published articles in every venue, especially social media. Our daughters must be constantly reminded of their Godly inheritance, motivated, and trained to use their inherent strengths to achieve meaningful goals and to live fulfilled lives. |  Millicent Hoskin was the first African-American librarian at Central High School in Memphis, Tennessee. Her mantra is "teach with feeling." Photo from Facebook. Will you suggest one book that everyone should read? "Just a Sister Away: A Womanist Vision of Women’s Relationships in the Bible" is one book I would recommend that all read, especially African-American women. According to its author Dr. Renita J. Weems, this book “was written unapologetically with African-American women in mind as a way of reminding us that we are not an afterthought to salvation, that the first step toward satisfying the gnawing hunger within us is to pick up a pencil.” ... In times when African-American women are still viewed as unequal and even not permitted to preach or be a meaningful part of religious services in certain places, we need an anchor. We need recognition as persons other than slaves forced to come to a foreign land. We need to FULLY realize that our salvation may be ‘”just a sister away." This book gives us that assurance. |
As a native Memphian, I have known Paula Casey for a long time. Her amazing work is inspiring.
 Paula Casey is President, Vote 70, Inc., a nonprofit educational company founded in 1989 whose mission is to preserve and promote woman suffrage history. www.paulacasey.com. Photo provided by Paula Casey. How can Women's History Month can be elevated so that more people take notice of it? While it's hard to ascertain an exact number, approximately 8 percent of the statues and monuments in this country are of women. That's too few. I believe more people will start paying attention as the national centennial of the 19th Amendment's ratification in 2020 draws near. People celebrate public art and particularly notice statues and monuments of women since there are so few. Public art also reflects what we think is important as a society. | What is your place in history? My adult life has been spent trying to get women elected and promoting women's accomplishments, particularly the effort for American women to be included in the U.S. Constitution. I have studied political and social movements and concluded the woman suffrage movement was the greatest nonviolent revolution in the United States. And, I speak around the country about the woman suffrage movement and voting rights. How did you stand out in your work or industry? I started the company in 1989 to produce a video,"Generations: American Women Win the Vote." Later, it became a DVD and is also available in streaming video. The book, "The Perfect 36: Tennessee Delivers Woman Suffrage," was first published in May 1998 before one of the co-authors, Carol Lynn Yellin, died of breast cancer in March 1999. She wanted this history preserved. I got the audiobook completed in 2013 read by Dr. Jan Sherman, the other co-author. The book is available in three e-book formats - Kindle, Apple, and Nook. Can you suggest one book that everyone should read? "The Warmth of Other Suns" by Isabel Wilkerson is absolutely outstanding. I think it should be required reading in all high schools. It is beautifully written and provides context for understanding the overt and covert racism that persists in our country. See also: http://www.pbs.org/video/2365977400/ http://www.nwhp.org/tennessee/ https://goo.gl/NU3V1z www.tnsuffragemonument.org https://goo.gl/mROxdM |
Pan Awsumb has been a dear friend for many years. She and husband Carl have demonstrated integrity and determination and are making a difference in the lives of many in Memphis, Tennessee, and beyond.
| What is your place in history? I don't know what my place in history is. I really don't give it much thought. I'm too busy living life fully as a wife, mother of two, grandmother of two, good friend, and involved citizen. I enjoy speaking out about issues of importance to our community and our nation, and being a catalyst, weaving/knitting people of different backgrounds together. My 13 years at Leadership Memphis, the last seven as executive director, were fulfilling because we ran three programs that changed many peoples' lives - an excellent yearlong in-depth executive program, a one-day intensive for new executives called Inside Memphis that was replicated in other cities across the United States, and a unique leadership training program for residents of the Memphis Housing Authority - while successfully raising an endowment to sustain Leadership Memphis in the future. How did you stand out in your work or industry? While heading up Leadership Memphis, I served on the boards of the Tennessee Association of Community Leadership and the National Leadership Association, and received the Chair's Community Circle Award. Furthermore, I was also chosen to receive an award as one of Fifty Women Making a Difference in Memphis. Why do you think Women's History Month is important? The term 'Women's History Month, like 'Black | History Month', carries some negative connotation to me. Teaching women's history and black history should be ongoing and woven into all our historical narratives, not relegated to one month a year and then given short shrift the rest of the time. However, it is essential that women be recognized for their accomplishments. In fact, I have supported Women of Achievement in Memphis for many years. What causes or work are you involved in? Currently, I serve on the Leadership Council of the Lynching Sites Project of Memphis. We are part of a growing network of citizens who want the whole and accurate truth to be told about the history of Shelby County. We believe that we can heal and grow in understanding when we openly face the history of racial violence in our community. The vision of the Lynching Sites Project is "to open our hearts and our communities to racial healing by shining thelight of truth on lynchings in Shelby County, Tennessee." We join in this work with the national effort of Bryan Stevenson and the Equal Justice Initiative that he founded to memorialize known lynchings in our nation from 1877 - 1950. We are working on a major commemoration of Ell Persons, who was lynched 100 years ago on May 22, 1917, to tell the truth that has been hidden too long. Our service of healing and repentance will be held May 21, 2017 at the site of his horrific lynching, which was attended by between 3,000 and 5,000 people. Ell Persons' lynching led to the founding of the Memphis Branch of the NAACP in 1917. It was Tennessee's first NAACP branch and two years later, heralded as the South's largest. (For additional references, please see: the "Memphis Burning" cover feature by Martha Park in the Memphis Flyer, February 4, 2016; "Students Memorialize |  Pan Awsumb, of Memphis, Tennessee, is currently serving on the Leadership Council of the Lynching Sites Project of Memphis. https://www.facebook.com/lynchingsitesmem.Photo from Facebook. a Past Tragedy to Create a More Hopeful Future" on the Facing History and Ourselves website; and, "Putting Lynching on the Map.") We meet weekly from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. at Caritas Village, 2509 Harvard Avenue, Memphis, Tennessee. Visit us on Facebook at lynchingsitesmem. I am also regularly protesting the absolutely horrible policies of the Trump administration, by email, phone, and in person. I strongly support Bernie Sanders' and Elizabeth Warren's approach to governing. Got any good book suggestions? My husband Carl and I are currently reading the book "Wonder" with 5th-grade students at Brewster Elementary School. We are encouraging the young people we read with to become discerning thinkers, not rote memorizers and responders. There is SO much great literature out there - one book couldn't begin to touch what we all might share, except the Bible. I've come back to "The Little Prince" at different times in my life, and enjoy sharing it with our grandchildren. "And now here is my secret, a very simple secret: It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye." |
Marilyn Calhoun is one of the first people I met when I originally arrived in Dallas. We had the pleasure of working together on various projects and I continue to be enlightened by her compassion and lifelong love of learning. She is also a breast cancer survivor. In 2011, I videotaped her story of breast cancer awareness.
 Marilyn Calhoun, Dallas, Texas, is President /CEO of Learning Exposures Foundation, started in 2005. She provides consulting services in education. She is also a breast cancer survivor. Photo from Facebook. What are you are currently involved with? I am involved with but not limited to: Breast Health & Cancer Research fund drives (www.komen-dallas.org), oral history projects with Remembering Black Dallas (www.rbDallas.com), service projects of Metropolitan Dallas Alumnae of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., Disciples Women's Ministries for the Christian Church (DOC), and south Dallas community service, e.g. K. J. Gilliam Museum (www.kathlynjoygilliammuseum.org), African American Education Archives and History Program @ African American Museum (www.aaeahp.org & Clean South Dallas. I serve as parliamentarian for four community or professional associations to educate the membership on parliamentary procedures, practices and law as an active member of The Sounding Block Unit of the National Association of Parliamentarians (https://goo.gl/pwPfYe). | What is your place in history? My place in history is being the person I am and fulfilling my life purpose as a master teacher and an educator of personal development, to everyone I meet. I love to encourage others to be their best. Describe your career and accomplishments. I retired from Dallas Independent School District after serving 32 years as an elementary science teacher, demonstration teacher, site coordinator/Title 1 Dunbar I Special Projects, K-12 Science curriculum writer, instructional facilitator, assistant principal, principal, and specialist for internal charter schools. I was showcased as a presenter at local, state, and national conferences as an innovator of educational programs. After retiring, I trained and observed teachers/interns in the Alternative Certification program. What do you think about the importance of Women's History Month? Women's History Month is important for HerStory to be told and shared. This would provide role models and levels to aspire for young girls and women. I think the observance of Women's History Month should include public forums such as the one held March 26, 2017 by The North Texas Business and Professional Women League, Inc. (http://www.ntbpwl.org/). Do you have a book suggestion? My favorite author is Toni Morrison but the book I think all should read is "The Mis-Education of the Negro" by Carter G. Woodson. This book will help the reader gain insights and concepts of being a free person - first in your mind from your own thoughts, beliefs, and perspectives. Currently, I am reading "Walking with the Wind: A Memoir of the Movement" by Civil Rights Congressman John Lewis & Michael D'Orso. It is a survival story about life, experiences, and the thoughts of an American patriot. Encourage youth to read the "March" trilogy by John Lewis, Andrew Aydin, and Nate Powell. The book won most of the 2016 book awards. |
Dr. Mary F. Crawford was my dentist and I am so thankful I was her patient. She saved my smile. And, she became one of the early clients who hired me for marketing projects in Memphis. Beyond that, when I asked for help with the long distance care of my mother in Memphis, she immediately rearranged her life to support me in Dallas. Not only did she help me locate a new Memphis care facility, but she regularly visited my mother and provided me with telephone updates. Months later, when I called her from the Memphis hospital room where my mother had just died, she came to the hospital, immediately, and provided AMAZING support afterward. Thank you, Mary, for helping me when I needed it most!!!!
| What is your place in history? I decided to move back to the states permanently when my father became sick. I also had a failed marriage with an Italian dentist. So, I was thrilled to learn that once I returned to my hometown of Memphis, Tennessee, I was in time to apply for acceptance to UT Dental School (now the University of Tennessee Health Science Center College of Dentistry) in 1980. I applied after completing pre-dental studies and a battery of tests to ascertain that I could perform acceptably in that curriculum. Coming from a long stint in Italy, 1966-1979, the last five years of which I had worked in Dentistry, I discovered I really enjoyed working in that field of medicine, even though my college degree was a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Sculpture and Printmaking. I obtained the D.D.S. degree from the UT Center for the Health Sciences in Memphis in 1984 at age 40, almost 41. It was a good thing to have already worked in dentistry before entering dental school because when I graduated, I felt more confident. And that confidence helped me to land an ownership position with Dr. Mary L. Blackwell, one of the first women to graduate from Dental School in 1954 and to successfully practice Dentistry in her own office in Memphis. I chose to move her practice to the Poplar Plaza Shopping Center in Memphis, setting myself up to build my own practice and to work success- | fully together with Dr. Blackwell. Once she retired, I worked with two other women dentists. The first went on to practice in the dental specialty of endodontics. The second became my partner and we worked together for 18 years until I retired in September of 2015. How did you stand out in your work or industry? Did you receive any special recognition? My first claim to fame has been to practice Dentistry in my own practice for 31 years before successfully retiring. A second is that during those years I maintained a happy relationship with a wonderful husband, Paolo Solferini, and we are both healthy enough to enjoy our retirement years. The third is that I have enjoyed many friendships over my practice years, with fellow dentists, employees, lab technicians, and with patients, many of which I maintain to this day. Currently, women make up 40 percent of graduating dentists. When I graduated in 1984, we were barely 5 percent. When Dr. Blackwell graduated in 1954, she was the single woman graduate in her class of more than 50 dental students. Additionally, I am very proud of being one of the Women Ground Breakers into the medical professions! Why do you think Women's History Month is important? Women's History Month celebrates ALL women who have paved the way out of constrictive roles in our American society and for that reason, it is important to continue its celebration. |  Dr. Mary F. Crawford obtained her D.D.S. degree in 1984 when she was almost 41. She successfully retired in 2015 after practicing Dentistry in her own Memphis practice for 31 years. Photo provided by Dr. Crawford. What causes or work are you involved in? Currently, I attend dental society meetings and other occasions to collect continuing education credits should I ever need to reactivate my retired dental license. The main reason I remain involved is to continue some form of cohesion with Dentistry. I have been a member since graduation of the American Dental Association, the Tennessee Dental Association, and the Memphis Dental Society. A word of appreciation Many thanks go to Regina Burns, a ground breaker in her own right, with whom I have enjoyed such a long and fruitful friendship over many years. Thank you, Regina, for everything! |
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 Norma Adams-Wade is one of the founders of the National Association of Black Journalists. In 1974, she became the first black full-time staff writer to cover citywide news hired by The Dallas Morning News. She retired in 2002 and still writes a weekly column for the Morning News. Q: Do you have or do you make [New Year's] resolutions? | Norma Adams-Wade broke the story that Dallas' two distinctive parades honoring civil rights leader Rev. Martin L. King Jr., were facing massive changes. Her original reporting led to a request for more Morning News staffers to cover the controversy, which eventually resulted in Dallas having one MLK parade Jan. 18, 2016, instead of two. She has been making journalistic history for decades and has no plans to stop any time soon. Adams-Wade first made history in 1974 when R.E. "Buster" Haas literally came to her front door to hire her as the first black full-time staff writer to report about all of Dallas. She made history again Dec. 12, 1975, as one of the 44 founders of the National Association of Black Journalists to convene in Washington, D.C., to launch the organization. She was among the 12 cofounders who attended a 40th NABJ anniversary celebration in December 2015. The columnist and former senior staff writer retired from the Morning News in 2002. In 1988, she started writing a column devoted to events in Dallas' black community, which she writes weekly. Adams-Wade is quick to mention a name not heard much these days: Julia Scott Reed, whom the Morning News hired to cover the black community in 1967, making Reed the first black staffer at the newspaper. You should also know that December was a busy month for Adams-Wade because the Dallas-Fort Worth Association of Black Journalists honored her and several others at its holiday mixer. And that event is where I learned about all that she did to further the profession. We discussed my interest in writing about her trailblazing career and you can listen to excerpts of the Jan. 11, 2016, telephone interview to the left.  2015 DFW/ABJ Holiday Mixer Invite |
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| Mahalia Jackson’s vibrant gospel singing uplifted thousands of WDIA-AM listeners in Memphis, Tenn., back in the day. I was reminded of that when I saw the talented Ledisi portray Jackson in “Selma.” In the movie, Ledisi sang "Take My Hand, Precious Lord," which Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. frequently asked Jackson to sing during the battle for civil rights. Ledisi’s “Selma” performance has awakened interest in Jackson and her music, rightly so. I remember hearing Jackson’s singing on WDIA, the first radio station in America with an all-black format, when my late father, Prince Whiting Jr., used it as a get-up-and-go-to-Sunday-School-alarm-clock. As a child growing up in Memphis, I did not know the extent of Jackson’s dynamic contribution to history or that the “Queen of Gospel Singing” recorded work composed by Memphis pastor Rev. William H. Brewster and Chicago composer Thomas A. Dorsey, among others. | According to Women'sHistoryMonth.gov, "The Library of Congress, National Archives and Records Administration, National Endowment for the Humanities, National Gallery of Art, National Park Service, Smithsonian Institution and United States Holocaust Memorial Museum join in paying tribute to the generations of women whose commitment to nature and the planet have proved invaluable to society." You can read more about Jackson's legacy in the resources below. Check out my previous Women's History Month blog posts. What's your favorite Mahalia Jackson song? ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ New Mahalia Jackson Biopic to be Filmed in Chicago Mahalia Jackson: The Library of Congress TV One: Ledisi Dishes On Selma, Readies For Hello Beautiful’s ‘Interludes Live’ Snubbed by Grammy telecast, Ledisi keeps her head up The Mahalia Jackson Story's Facebook Page Mahalia Jackson: Historyswomen.com "Imitation of Life" FAQ Mahalia Jackson Quotes NPR: Mahalia Jackson |
With Marion Edington, my former Advanced Placement English high school teacher, 01.13
I recently fulfilled a longtime goal to find my Central High School Advanced Placement English teacher to share how much her great instruction impacted my life and my career. This Women's History Month, I am saluting Mrs. Marion Edington.
Mrs. Edington and I reunited Jan. 6 at her East Memphis home, for the first time since my graduation from Central.
The reunion more than met my expectations because she provided insight into her career and she allowed me to record her well-remembered saying, “Students, details students, Hershey Bar details.” Listen to her great wisdom. Mrs. Edington drummed that "mnemonic rule of thumb" into her students.
Her "Hershey Bar details" maxim embodies the essence of great writing. It underscores what sets award-winning writers, playwrights, journalists and communicators apart from the mundane.
She was a demanding teacher who asked us to reach for the world through literature, writing and grammar. I am thankful to her and to all of my teachers, guidance counselors, and principals at all of the Memphis City Schools I attended. Thank you for caring enough to teach, to instruct, to correct and to help. You made the difference!
Previous Women's History Month Blog Salutes
2 Lives Impacted by the 16th Street Baptist Church Bombing: Guest Post By Jacqueline Wald
My Women’s History Month Salute: Belva Davis, the first African-American woman television journalist in the western US
A Tribute to My Mother, Mrs. Rowena Whiting
Happy Birthday Ma Dear; I 'sure am' grateful for your life lessons
PBS Documentary
“Makers: Women Who Make America”
More Resources
The National Women's History Project
Jewish Women and Social Activism
Discovering American Women's History Online
300 Women Who Changed The World
Mrs. Edington and I reunited Jan. 6 at her East Memphis home, for the first time since my graduation from Central.
The reunion more than met my expectations because she provided insight into her career and she allowed me to record her well-remembered saying, “Students, details students, Hershey Bar details.” Listen to her great wisdom. Mrs. Edington drummed that "mnemonic rule of thumb" into her students.
Her "Hershey Bar details" maxim embodies the essence of great writing. It underscores what sets award-winning writers, playwrights, journalists and communicators apart from the mundane.
She was a demanding teacher who asked us to reach for the world through literature, writing and grammar. I am thankful to her and to all of my teachers, guidance counselors, and principals at all of the Memphis City Schools I attended. Thank you for caring enough to teach, to instruct, to correct and to help. You made the difference!
Previous Women's History Month Blog Salutes
2 Lives Impacted by the 16th Street Baptist Church Bombing: Guest Post By Jacqueline Wald
My Women’s History Month Salute: Belva Davis, the first African-American woman television journalist in the western US
A Tribute to My Mother, Mrs. Rowena Whiting
Happy Birthday Ma Dear; I 'sure am' grateful for your life lessons
PBS Documentary
“Makers: Women Who Make America”
More Resources
The National Women's History Project
Jewish Women and Social Activism
Discovering American Women's History Online
300 Women Who Changed The World
Guest Post By Jacqueline Wald
Photo by simonse15 via Flickr http://flic.kr/p/2AriYN We never crossed paths, Denise and I. That would have been impossible. She lived in Birmingham, Ala., and I was way up north in Marshalltown, Iowa.
We did a lot of the same things, though. We both liked dolls and belonged to a Brownie troop. We both organized skits, dance routines and performances for the neighbors in our garages. We both dreamed of husbands, children and careers.
In my life, a rewarding job, marriage and motherhood all became a reality.
Denise's life ended at age 11.
I did not know of Denise McNair until Sept. 18, 1963, the day of her death. I was in my synagogue for Sunday school when we were summoned from the classrooms to assemble in the sanctuary. The rabbi solemnly addressed us from the pulpit. His sermons often contained messages of the civil rights struggle in the South. He spoke of the need for social justice and its connections to our lives and community.
On that particular Sunday, he had the radio on in his office and heard about the bombing of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, in which four little girls had been killed.
"Why does this matter to us?" he asked. "Why is it important?"
As I remember, the gist of his message that day was that a crime against one group is a violation of us all. He said if you change the words "colored church" to "Jewish synagogue," one can see that mindless disregard for human life can be directed at any group. After further discussion of the day's events, we were dismissed.
Communication did not approach Internet speed in 1963. The grainy images of Addie Mae Collins, Cynthia Wesley, Carole Robertson and Denise McNair did not appear in the newspaper or television until the next day. Three of the girls were 14. Denise was 11. So was I.
In her photo, Denise wears a coat and matching hat. She is a very soft, sweet-looking child, slightly smiling. The image gripped me. I stared at the picture of her. I was incapable of looking away.
Here was a girl, just my age, blown apart by a bomb when she was in church, of all places. Had she been frightened? Did she cry out? What did it feel like to get blown up by a bomb? Did she suffer?
Ever since that day, Denise has haunted me. I have carried her with me at some level of consciousness all my life, like a lovely dream that I never got to finish.
How deeply she has been ingrained in my psyche became apparent when the SMU Civil Rights Pilgrimage took us to Birmingham in spring 2005. The Sixteenth Street Baptist Church was first on our itinerary. I sat in the sanctuary where Denise had worshipped. I saw the recessed stairway where the bomb had been planted. I saw that familiar photo of her looking out at me.
Those September events were posted on the wall in the museum area of the church basement.
Seeing it again was like reading it for the first time. I felt the heaviness, the nausea, the loss of those four little girls.
How many times I had thought of Denise over the years – on my birthdays, when I graduated from high school and college, when I cradled my newborn babies in my arms. There was the nagging, wordless sensation that she would do none of these things.
I remembered when her parents had two more daughters, young girls who would never know their older sister, Denise. I noted when Joan Baez wrote the song "Birmingham Sunday," which included the lyrics "On Birmingham Sunday a noise shook the ground, and people all over the world turned around." I thought of Denise when Spike Lee went to Birmingham to make the film "4 Little Girls" 30 years after the church bombing.
Sitting there in that church in March 2005, the full force of September 1963 finally hit me. A dam of tears unleashed as I wept for Denise, a sister of my soul.
Denise McNair never intended to become a symbol of the civil rights movement. But, like Anne Frank in the Holocaust, her image will always be a poignant reminder of man's inhumanity to man.
If all children can be taught, when they hear her story and see her sweet young face, to choose an alternative path to violence and destruction, her death will not have been in vain.
Rest in peace, Denise.
Wald's 2007 remembrance originally appeared in The Dallas Morning News.
Jacqueline Wald is a professor of Spanish at Richland College. She is reachable at jwald@dcccd.edu.
During my Feb. 19, 2011 visit to the Newseum in Washington, DC, I met Belva Davis, the first black female TV journalist in the western United States. Ms. Davis was promoting her memoir “Never in My Wildest Dreams: A Black Woman’s Life in Journalism,” which was written with veteran journalist and editor Vicki Haddock. The Newseum is a breath-taking interactive museum of news. I happened to fortuitously hear the announcement that Ms. Davis would be taping a television interview in the Knight Studios at the Newseum that afternoon.
“Never in My wildest Dreams” chronicles the rugged path she endured en route to achieving her journalistic milestone. The book describes some of the hardships and indignities she endured, such as when she and then-KDIA news director Louis Freeman, also an African-American, were driven from the 1964 Republican national convention by a group of attendees hurling racial epithets.
Ms. Davis is married to veteran photojournalist, William Moore, whom I also had the pleasure of meeting during the book signing at the Newseum, a double treat.
While reading her book, I was struck by the fact that I never heard of her in any of my collegiate journalism studies. If I hadn’t been in Washington, DC that February day, I would have missed meeting two American journalism pioneers. I just hope our textbooks are being updated to acknowledge their contributions to journalism and American history.
Thanks for all your hard work and fortitude!
Check out these links:
Belva Davis's website: http://www.belvadavis.com/
The Newseum, Washington, DC: http://www.newseum.org/index.html
National Association of Black Journalists's Hall of Fame (2008), http://www.nabj.org/?page=HallOfFame
“Never in My wildest Dreams” chronicles the rugged path she endured en route to achieving her journalistic milestone. The book describes some of the hardships and indignities she endured, such as when she and then-KDIA news director Louis Freeman, also an African-American, were driven from the 1964 Republican national convention by a group of attendees hurling racial epithets.
Ms. Davis is married to veteran photojournalist, William Moore, whom I also had the pleasure of meeting during the book signing at the Newseum, a double treat.
While reading her book, I was struck by the fact that I never heard of her in any of my collegiate journalism studies. If I hadn’t been in Washington, DC that February day, I would have missed meeting two American journalism pioneers. I just hope our textbooks are being updated to acknowledge their contributions to journalism and American history.
Thanks for all your hard work and fortitude!
Check out these links:
Belva Davis's website: http://www.belvadavis.com/
The Newseum, Washington, DC: http://www.newseum.org/index.html
National Association of Black Journalists's Hall of Fame (2008), http://www.nabj.org/?page=HallOfFame
I am with Ms. Belva Davis, a pioneer who withstood numerous indignities on the road to becoming the first African-American woman television journalist in the western United States. Photographed on Feb. 19, 2011 at the Newseum in Washington, DC.
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Author:
Regina L. Burns, M.A., Project+, is an award-winning multimedia editor and journalist, specializing in Black history and African American stories at Harvest Reapers Communications. Her work has been published in Texas Highways magazine, WFAA-TV, The Dallas Morning News, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram as well as The Commercial Appeal, the Tri-State Defender and The Flyer, among others.
She previously worked for a variety of news media organizations as an editor and journalist, including The Associated Press in Mississippi and Texas. She was news director at WLOK-AM and WGKX KIX-106 FM in Memphis. Learn more
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