The Life of Anna Arnold Hedgeman!

Today we celebrate the life of Anna Arnold Hedgeman. Hedgeman is not known by many, but her accomplishments are grand and important. She was an American civil rights leader, politician, educator, and writer. EVERYDAY is Black History.

Anna Arnold was born in Marshalltown, Iowa, to an encouraging family that believed in the power of education and hard work. She was encouraged by her parents to seek educational greatness. She attended Hamline University, a Methodist College in Saint Paul, Minnesota, and was the college’s first African-American student. In 1922, Hedgeman became the first African-American graduate, having earned a B.A. degree in English. Inspired by the passion of W. E. B. Du Bois, she decided to succeed as an educator. For two years, Hedgeman taught English and History at Rust College in Holly Springs, Mississippi, where she experienced the humiliation of segregation for the first time.

Anna and A. Philip Rudolph

She then worked for the YWCA as an executive director in Ohio, New Jersey, Harlem, Philadelphia, and Brooklyn. In 1944, she became the executive secretary of the National Council for a Permanent Fair Employment Practices Commission (FEPC). In 1946, Hedgeman served as assistant dean of women at Howard University. In 1954, she became the first African American woman to hold a mayoral cabinet position in the history of New York. She served as an assistant and advisor to Mayor Robert F. Wagner from 1954 to 1958.

Anna and Mayor Robert F. Wagner

In 1958, she held a position as a public relations consultant in Fuller Products Company. She became an associate editor and columnist for New York Age in 1959. Then she held a position as a Coordinator of Special Events for the Commission of Religion and Race of the National Council of Churches in 1963. It is in 1963 that she met A. Phillip Rudolph and Bayard Rustin and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. She worked with Rudolph and Rustin in helping plan logistics for the March on Washington of 1963. In later years, she owned Hedgeman Consultant Services in New York City.

Anna and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

 

Hedgeman has served as teacher, lecturer, and consultant to numerous educational centers, boards, and colleges and universities, particularly in the area of African-American studies. She traveled to Africa and lectured throughout the United States, primarily in black schools. She has stressed to students the importance of understanding history as a basis to achieve equality. Hedgeman held honorary doctorates from both Howard University and Hamline University. She also is also the author of two books The Trumpet Sounds (1964), The Gift of Chaos (1977), as well as and articles in numerous organizational publications, newspapers, and journals.

Anna Arnold Hedgeman is another unsung black female pioneer and heroine. She is a black woman who knew her worth, and cold not be held bond by her race or gender. We can all learn from this black women. Your race and gender does not have to stop you from reaching the highest of heights. You can become great too. Hedgeman also used education and a desire to attain success to aid her in her life. She also demonstrated great skill and work ethic, for others recognized her work and she gained numerous opportunities because of it. Family, know that when you use education and hard work, success will come your way. Build a reputation of excellence, paired with your education. Achievement will follow you and you will find that life’s hurdles will never set you back far enough, for you have the power and will to overcome. Learn from the life of Anna Arnold Hedgeman. Know your history, gain your education and work hard. You will become limitless. ~Know Your Worth~

Wilma Rudolph: A Life of Triumph

Today we celebrate the life of Wilma Rudolph. Rudolph was an African-American athlete. She is an Olympic Champion, once named the fastest woman in the world. Everyday is Black History.

Rudolph was born premature and sickly on June 23, 1940, in St. Bethlehem, Tennessee. Stricken with polio as a child, she had problems with her left leg and had to wear a brace. It was with great determination and the help of physical therapy that she was able to overcome the disease as well as her resulting physical disabilities.

Rudolph as a child.

Growing up in the South before segregation was outlawed, Rudolph attended an all-black school, Burt High School, where she played on the basketball team. A naturally gifted runner, she was soon recruited to train with Tennessee State University track coach Ed Temple.

While still in high school, Wilma Rudolph, nicknamed “Skeeter” for her famous speed, qualified for the 1956 Summer Olympic Games in Melbourne, Australia. The youngest member of the U.S. team at the age of 16, she won a bronze medal in the sprint relay event. After finishing high school, Rudolph enrolled at Tennessee State University, where she studied education. She also trained hard for the next Olympics.

In the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome Rudolph became the first African American woman to win three gold medals in track and field during a single Olympic Games.

Rudolph with her three Olympic medals.

A track and field champion, she elevated women’s track to a major presence in the United States. Rudolph became an international star due to the first international television coverage of the Olympics that year.

Rudolph crossing the finish line in 1960.

The powerful sprinter emerged from the 1960 Rome Olympics as “The Tornado,” the fastest woman on earth.The Italians nicknamed her La Gazzella Negra (“The Black Gazelle“); to the French she was La Perle Noire (“The Black Pearl”). She is one of the most famous Tennessee State University Tigerbelles, the name of the TSU women’s track and field program.

Rudolph signing autographs for fans.

Rudolph officially retired from track and field in 1962 at the age of 22. She went on to gain her degree in Elementary Education from Tennessee State University. She was a school teacher as well as a sports track teacher.

Rudolph in her cap and gown after receiving her education degree.

Her triumph gained her many awards and recognition. She was United Press Athlete of the Year 1960 and Associated Press Woman Athlete of the Year for 1960 and 1961. Also in 1961, the year of her father’s death, Rudolph won the James E. Sullivan Award, an award for the top amateur athlete in the United States, and visited President John F. Kennedy.

Rudolph at the White House with President John F. Kennedy and Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson.

She was voted into the National Black Sports and Entertainment Hall of Fame in 1973 and the National Track and Field Hall of Fame in 1974. She was inducted into the U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame in 1983, honored with the National Sports Award in 1993, and inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame in 1994. In 1994, the portion of U.S. Route 79 in Clarksville, Tennessee between the Interstate 24 exit 4 in Clarksville to the Red River (Lynnwood-Tarpley) bridge near the Kraft Street intersection was renamed to honor Wilma Rudolph.A life-size bronze statue of Rudolph stands at the southern end of the Cumberland River Walk at the base of the Pedestrian Overpass, College Street and Riverside Drive, in Clarksville.

On July 14, 2004, the United States Postal Service issued a 23-cent Distinguished Americans series postage stamp in recognition of her accomplishments.

Wilma Rudolph was an amazing woman. Lets honor and remember her life today. She used her talent and skill to attain the goals she sought. She worked hard and believed in her abilities. Family we must do the same. We must couple or talents with hard work and belief in ourselves. This is a winning combination. We can all become great if we use our god given skills, hard work and confidence to make greatness happen for us. So look in the face of failure and defeat and know that you, like Wilma Rudolph are not limited by sickness, problems or circumstance. You too, can reach heights of success, achievement and greatness. ~Know Your Worth~ -M. Millie

Wilma Rudolph with fellow Olympian Florence Griffith Joyner

Gwendolyn Elizabeth Brooks ~African American Pioneer

Gwendolyn Elizabeth Brooks was an African American poet. She was the first African American author to win the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1950. She was also appointed Poet Laureate of Illinois in 1968. She later became the first African American woman appointed Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress, in 1985. EVERYDAY is Black History.

Brooks was raised in an educational family, for her mother was a teacher. As a youth she encountered racial prejudice growing up in Illinois. She attended an all high school and was then transferred to an all black high school, she finished high school in an integrated school. These changes however did not stop her from working hard educationally. She graduated from Wilson Junior College in 1936. Brooks growing up in Illinois, educational experiences and encounters with racial prejudice influenced her literary work

By the time she was sixteen, she had compiled a portfolio of around 75 published poems. At seventeen, she started submitting her work to “Lights and Shadows”, the poetry column of the Chicago Defender, an African-American newspaper. Her poems, many published while she attended Wilson Junior College, ranged in style from traditional ballads and sonnets to poems using blues rhythms in free verse. Her characters were often drawn from the poor of the inner city. Brooks published her first poem in a children’s magazine at the age of nineteen.

By 1941, Brooks was taking part in poetry workshops. Inez Cunningham Stark, an affluent white woman with a strong literary background, trained her. The group dynamic of Stark’s workshop, all of whose participants were African American, energized Brooks. Her poetry began to be taken seriously. In 1943 she received an award for poetry from the Midwestern Writers’ Conference. Brooks’ first book of poetry, A Street in Bronzeville (1945), published by Harper and Row, earned instant critical acclaim. She received her first Guggenheim Fellowship and was included as one of the “Ten Young Women of the Year” in Mademoiselle magazine. With her second book of poetry, Annie Allen (1950), she became the first African American to win the Pulitzer Prize for poetry; she also was awarded Poetry magazine’s Eunice Tietjens Prize. After, President John F. Kennedy invited Brooks to read at a Library of Congress poetry festival in 1962. She then began a second career teaching creative writing.

Brooks has taught at Columbia College Chicago, Northeastern Illinois University, Chicago State University, Elmhurst College, Columbia University, Clay College of New York, and the University of Wisconsin–Madison.

    Gwendolyn Teaching at Columbia University. 

In 1967 she attended a writers’ conference at Fisk University where, she said, she rediscovered her blackness. This rediscovery is reflected in her work In The Mecca (1968), a long poem about a mother searching for her lost child in a Chicago apartment building. In The Mecca was nominated for the National Book Award for poetry. On May 1, 1996, Brooks returned to her birthplace of Topeka, Kansas. She was invited as the keynote speaker for the Third Annual Kaw Valley Girl Scout Council’s “Women of Distinction Banquet and String of Pearls Auction.” A ceremony was held in her honor at a local park at 37th and Topeka Boulevard.

Gwendolyn Elizabeth Brooks was truly a pioneer in African American poetry and creative writing. She championed for the acknowledgement of black literacy. She also strived to portray the black experience in her body of work. She is a woman to be admired. She is also a woman who KNEW her worth. She did not let circumstance limit her ability to prosper. She created her own opportunities and effectively utilized the opportunities presented to her to become better. Family, remember to use education as a vessel to reach your goals and be passionate in your work. Also, use every challenge and life experience as a means to communicate whom you without trepidation. Let your beliefs and passion shine through always. ~Know Your Worth~ -M. Millie