1) Let’s all take a moment to admire Madam CJ Walker.
She was the first female self-made millionaire, made all the more impressive when you realize this was during the Jim Crow Era. Born in 1867 (just two years after slavery was abolished) to former slaves. She grew up poor, working as a sharecropper and then a laundress. She had a daughter who she worked her to put through school. Then she started to lose her hair. Hygiene back then was not what it is today, especially for poorer people. This disproportionally effected African American women. To combat this she created a beauty system specifically for African American women (she claimed the formula came to her in a dream but let’s be real she was talented and hard-working). She started selling her products door to door, connecting on a personal level with her customers and eventually had enough to hire a team that would help her grow her business into an empire.
She invested back in the community. She set up scholarships, a YMCA, the NAACP and even a college so more women could study cosmetology. She paid well- allowing her employees to escape poverty. Walker was not just a businesswoman but a social activist.
This short article does not do this woman justice so here’s a list of further readings if you’re interested.
http://www.history.com/topics/black-history/madame-c-j-walker
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/african-americans-many-rivers-to-cross/history/1…
http://www.madamcjwalker.com/bios/madam-c-j-walker/
On Her Own Ground-A’Lelia Bundles (the author of this book is her great-granddaughter)
2) Maria Tallchief was the first Prima Ballerina of the New York Ballet Company. She was born on a reservation in Oklahoma where her family was well off. They moved to L.A. where she continued to train and eventually became the muse to Balanchine- a choreographer. They were briefly married but they kept a good professional relationship. Not only did she dance with the New York Ballet Company, she also worked with the Paris Opera Ballet Company. She was inducted into the Women’s Hall of Fame, received the National Medal of Arts (the highest award an artist can receive from the federal government). Once she retired from dancing, she became a teacher at the Lyric Opera of Chicago. She passed away in 2013.
Many ballerinas would change their names to something Russia but not her. She was proud of her Native American heritage. A talented athlete and artistic she is truly someone to admire.
3) Born in Pennsylvania in 1907, Rachel Carson was a talented marine biologist and a leading conservationist. Her books on the ocean, including The Sea Around Us, lead to her fame within the scientific community. In the late 1950s, Carson moved for focus from research to conservation work. Her most famous book is Silent Spring, which warns about the harm pesticides have on the environment. This book helped launch the environmental movement, effects that we still benefit from (for now). Though chemical companies protested and attacked Carson, the public outcry lead to a ban on various pesticides. After her death, Jimmy Carter awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom.