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

Lelia Foley Davis A Name You Should Know

Lelia Foley Davis was the first African American woman to be elected mayor in the United States. She lost her seat and regained it again. She was and currently is mayor of the all black town, Taft, Oklahoma. EVERYDAY is Black History.

Davis was born on November 7, 1942, and raised in Taft, Foley-Davis graduated in 1960 from Moton High School. In January 1973, Foley was a divorced mother of five, surviving on welfare. She had run for a spot on the school board of Taft, Oklahoma. She lost the election, but was inspired to positively changer her town and by the successful election A. J. Cooper as mayor of Pritchard, Alabama. Davis raised $200 dollars from her supporters and family. She then pursued Tafts’ mayoral seat.

On April 3, 1973, the citizens of Taft elected Foley as mayor. In doing so, she became the first African American female mayor in United States history. Her election predates that of Doris A. Davis, who was elected mayor of Compton, California later that year. In the wake of her victory, Foley would confer with Presidents Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter. In 1974, Oklahoma named Foley Outstanding Woman of the Year. Davis lost her mayoral seat in the 1980s,, however she continued to serve her community. In 2000, known Lelia Foley-Davis regained her position as mayor. At the beginning of the twenty-first century she continued to reside in Taft, where local highway signage proclaimed the town “the Home of Lelia Foley-Davis.”

Lelia Foley Davis is truly an amazing black women pioneer. She was the first black woman to become mayor of an American city. This accomplishment is grand. What is grander is Davis ability to strive despite difficulty. Davis was a single parent of five children, but still felt passionate about pursuing her dreams of helping her town. She did not become a victim of her circumstance. She exuded the inner strength, confidence and hard work needed to reach her aspirations. Family, this is what we must do to. We must not become victims of our circumstance. We can change any problems that enter our lives, as long as we do not give up. Use your situations as Davis did to motivate you towards triumph and happiness. We can all become better and have our lives flourish if we make it happen and believe in ourselves. ~Know Your Worth~ -M. Millie

 

When History is a Lie, what do you do?

Yes, our history. Black History spans centuries far before the Civil Rights movement and slavery. We were the first. We were the first people in Asia, Africa, North America, South America, Europe, Australia and Antarctica. This is ludicrous? There is no proof to validate this? This is what people who want to keep you from your true history will say. They will try to make you  believe this because they want to continue to use systematic tactics of oppression and degradation. They want us to believe that we are powerless. They want us to question our abilities and value. Have you ever heard of the Willie Lynch syndrome? Well, it is real, and it is alive and working through the minds of many of us.

What do you do to combat this? Look for history books that are not made by the oppressor. Visit the walls of tombs in Europe, India and Africa. Look to find that there are images of us as champions of success, rulers, leaders and warriors before that of the European. Look to immerse yourself in the knowledge that we were the first creators of Mathematics, Literature, Science and Architecture.

There is a wonderful two-part documentary called Hidden Colors. This movie gives factual traceable evidence of the greater lineage we blacks, African-Americans, Caribbeans, Africans and Afro people come from.  You can find the link here to the website  www.hiddencolorsfilm.com Upon watching this movie I thought it was 30% true, with exaggerated details. Oh, was I wonderfully surprised.

As I began to research some of the topics in the movie from the true founder of the art Karate, to the destruction of the Tasmanian people, to the Moors of Ethiopia, I learned how much history has been distorted. When I learned about the truth with Michelangelo and the Sixteenth chapel I could not believe my ears. You see, our image is worshiped throughout the world. Our great contributions to the development to life on Earth is known by everyone else, but us. Our contributions were stolen, because they feared us as they do now.

Here is that question again. What do you do when your history has been a lie? What do you do when the feeling of insecurity, the feeling of worthlessness, the feeling of degradation has been indoctrinated in you throughout your educational, family and societal experiences? What do you do. Reclaim the truth. Educate yourself with our real history and teach others. Teach your daughters, sons, husband and wife. Teach them that greatness is in their veins.

Yes, we were kings and queens. Yes, we were rulers, but we were and are still so much more than that. We single-handedly created the seeds to flourish all the conveniences that people enjoy today, We set the foundation. We were the brains behind it all. Stop allowing fear to cloud your mind. Stop allowing fear to subjugate you from learning your real worth. Learn where you come from and be a vessel for change and continued greatness.

Our ancestors, with the mark they have made and the accomplishments they have reached have sewed within us all we need to survive, achieve, maintain and win at life. Use the gifts, knowledge and understanding of our past to propel you forward always.

-M. Millie