Stop only quoting MLK
I mean, don’t get me wrong, the guy is ridiculously quotable. But he’s not the only one.
The Black History Month showcase at my kid’s school is literally the best day of the year. 300+ kids take the tiny stage and sing and read poetry and dance and march and generally make all of the adults in the gym sob right before we head off to our respective jobs.
This year, my favorite thing was that one of the first grade classes wore t-shirts with their favorite black women heroes on them. Some of them were household names, like Rosa Parks, and some of them were less well known, like Septima Clark (if you don’t know, now you know). A few of them even sported the visage of black women teachers at our very own school. Heroes indeed.
Today, I take their lead and encourage you to check out the incredible legacy of some lesser known black heroes who made history…
If you’re one of those people who loves Martin Luther King Jr., check out Bayard Rustin instead. He was less palpable to white people of the time (because, in part, he was gay), but he had a lot of brilliant things to say, including: “When an individual is protesting society’s refusal to acknowledge his dignity as a human being, his very act of protest confers dignity on him.”
If you’re interested in the incredible brave little Ruby Bridges, how about reading The Lost Education of Horace Tate by Vanessa Siddle Walker? There is so much more to the school de-segregation story than most of us know.
Thanks to Hidden Figures, many people are aware of Katherine Johnson, NASA mathematician who died this week. But do you know about Gladys West? She’s still alive and created the core technology that GPS runs on.
And remember, if there is anything we’ve learned from the past, it’s that black women’s leadership is a safe bet. Check out some of my favorite contemporary organizations run by black women and donate to them!