Women's History Month observes female achievements and shines a light on women who have acted as role models for others. As we continue with our series of articles for this month, we celebrate four women who made a difference in the U.S. Civil Rights Movement.
Mahalia Jackson
The date was August 28, 1963. The place was the US National Mall, and Martin Luther King, Jr. was just about to address 250,000 people who had marched on Washington to show support for civil rights legislation.
But there was another person who also gets credit for his delivering his impassioned speech.
An acclaimed gospel singer, Mahalia Jackson (October 26, 1911 – January 27, 1971) , had shared the stage with Dr. King many times. Since she’d been on the podium with him often, and had heard his speeches, she was familiar with his “dream.”
On this particular occasion, Dr. King hadn’t planned to give his now-famous “I’ve got a dream” speech and had prepared something different. At one point in the speech Mahalia Jackson yelled out to him from behind the podium, “Tell them about the dream, Martin.”
Dr. King put aside his prepared notes and from that point on, improvised his now most famous speech. It wasn’t the speech he planned to give. It was Mahalia Jackson’s urging that moved him to give one of the most famous speeches in history at that time.
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Myrlie Evers
Most Americans, watching her deliver the invocation at the second inauguration of President Obama in 2013, would likely be surprised to know of her heroic history.
As the wife of Medgar Evers, Mississippi’s first NAACP field secretary, she knew the dangers of activism for racial equality. She and her husband were partners in every way. Their home was firebombed and Medgar was assassinated in their driveway. Maintaining her commitment to civil rights and public service, she waged an unsuccessful campaign for congress and later became the first black woman to serve on the Los Angeles Board of Public Works.
At the age of sixty-two, she became the chair of the NAACP and helped to reinvigorate the organization. Meanwhile, she vigilantly pursued justice for the assassination of her husband, a three-decade commitment that ended in 1994 when the killer, an avowed white supremacist, was convicted of murder.
Claudette Colvin
Few people know the story of Claudette Colvin (September 5, 1939 – present): When she was 15, she refused to move to the back of the bus and give up her seat to a white person — nine months before Rosa Parks did the very same thing.
Most people know about Parks and the Montgomery, Ala., bus boycott that began in 1955, but few know that there were a number of women who refused to give up their seats on the same bus system. Most of the women were quietly fined, and no one heard much more.
Colvin was the first to really challenge the law. She was one of four women plaintiffs in Browder v. Gayle, the court case that successfully overturned bus segregation laws in Montgomery and Alabama.
When asked why she is little known and why everyone thinks only of Rosa Parks, Colvin says the NAACP and all the other black organizations felt Parks would be a good icon because “she was an adult. They didn't think teenagers would be reliable.”
Anna Arnold Hedgeman
Anna Arnold Hedgeman (July 5, 1899 – January 17, 1990) was an African-American civil rights leader, politician, educator, and writer. After being the executive director of Harry Truman's 1948 presidential campaign, Hedgeman was rewarded with a federal appointment in the Health, Education, and Welfare Department in the new president's administration.
She was also appointed to the cabinet of New York City mayor Robert F. Wagner, Jr. Hedgeman was a major advocate for both minorities and the poor in New York City. She also served as a consultant for many companies and entities on racial issues, and late in her life founded Hedgeman Consultant Services. Throughout her many years involved in the civil rights movement, she befriended Dorothy Height.
Finally, she was instrumental in the organization of the 1963 march on Washington where MLK made his famed “I Have a Dream” speech. Anna Arnold Hedgeman was the author of The Trumpet Sounds (1964), The Gift of Chaos (1977), and articles in numerous organizational publications, newspapers, and journals.
These women, along with countless other women and men, changed history. They're only a few of the strong individuals who serve as role models for others.
Guest blogger Nina Moore, who specializes in health and longevity helps people through health and wellness practices designed for living longer and living well.
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