Ida B Wells understood what working with others could do. She collaborated with others throughout her life to form some life changing organizations like the NAACP. She also did work that put a spotlight on lynchings through her journalistic work.
Wells did not focus on one thing with her life, but spread out to collaborate with others throughout her
life over many things.
This month the word is Collaboration. This is the action of working with someone to produce or create something. Some of the most amazing things in the world were created when people worked together on it.
To defy anything is not easy. It usually requires passion and a desire to accomplish something. Josephine Baker lived a life that accomplished a lot defying her naysayers.
Josephine Baker faced a lot of rejection but was able to move past it. She defied the odds. She did not give up performing. She continued and became one of the best in the business.
Baker then used her gift of performance to work for French Intelligence during World War II. She was awarded a medal of honor after the war.
Josephine Baker defied all things in life. When she was young, she really wanted to be in the chorus line on Broadway, but they told her she was too skinny. She created a comic route that ensured she would always be in the line. She did not allow the impossibility of her dream stop her from achieving it.
This month, I am examining the things that seem impossible. What does it really take to achieve them? Do I have it in me? Lets see.
I will be presenting More Than A Color, Saturday June 8 at the Quincy Public Library 526 Jersey St Qunicy Il. Come join us.
This month the word is Defy. It means to confront with assured power of resistance; to challenge to do something considered impossible. In facing some of these fears, we change the world.
Nannie Helen Burrough’s life exemplifies what determination looks like. She wanted to ensure that African American women and girls had access to education that could improve their lives. She worked through many different ways to provide that education, as a teacher, as an activist and as a businesswoman.
It reminds me that I can be determined about something, but it doesn’t mean there is only one way to get it done. Use all the paths to accomplish the goal.
Determination is not always that strong will to keep going no matter what. I think that is where people get tired and stop. At least that is where I get tired and stop.
Determination for me is that moment when you want to stop and you do a little bit more. Then you do a little bit more. Then you realize that you are almost done, so your go ahead and finish it.
So I do.
She had worked hard for an education during a time it was a hard won prize for African Americans. When Nannie Helen Burroughs finished school and applied for teaching positions in the system that educated her, she was refused because of the color of her skin. Her dark brown skin would relegate her to jobs as domestic servants.
She was determined to not let that happen. She set out for a life where she could teach and help other women in her place have a different future. Her determination changed lives.
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