Black History Voices

Sharif El-Mekki was reared in a culture of social justice activism by his parents who were both Black Panther members.  “Responsibility for the entire community was important for each individual to work towards.”  As a lifelong educator, teacher and principal, Sharif has been frustrated by the lack of Black educators.  He maintains that it is important for all students to see teachers that reflect themselves back and can understand their experiences.  In 2018, Sharif founded the Fellowship-Black Male Educators for Social Justice, a regular-meeting support system for Black male teachers. At the time he started the group, there were only 4% Black male educators in his area.  Going forward, he has expanded to found The Center for Black Educator Development, https://thecenterblacked.org/ which works through all sorts of strategies to change our national framework around education and how we can recruit, grow and continue to support teachers, especially Black teachers.  

Action Step: The  Anderson Community School System needs more teachers, and our group hopes to see the diverse population in Anderson represented better by any new hires.  We also like to support teachers already serving our population. Give your local school a call and see what resources or help you could provide.

Christian Cooper is a writer, nature enthusiast, activist and entertainer.  He was Marvel’s first gay writer and editor. Currently the Vice President of the NY Audubon Society, he is also a producer and host of a National Geographic program called, “Extraordinary Birder.” While Christian has been an activist for the LGBTQ+ community for quite a well, even being co-chair of GLAAD in the 1980s, in recent years, you might know him as the birder who was harassed in the Central Park incident in 2020.  Since then, he has expanded and continued into anti-racism activism and created an initiative called “Black Birders Week.”  He has written a book called Better Living Through Birding: Notes from a Black Man in a Natural World and created an online comic, “It’s a Bird.”  If you want to check out the tons of resources put out by the Audubon Society about Black Birders Week, resources on groups, education and activities, check out their website, https://www.audubon.org/black-birders-week.  

Action Step: Part of Black History is remembering Black joy and continuing to expand and support new ways for the next generation to connect to nature, recreation and health. Take a moment to watch the youtube video and identify a few birds you see. 

An extra step: Watch coverage around the incident in Central Park with Christian Cooper and the white lady’s phone call to the police when he was birding in the park.  Talk about your thoughts with a friend.  How can we make the natural world more accessible, safe and welcoming for everyone?

In 2010, Ron Finley, a fashion designer for athletes and self-proclaimed “Gangsta Gardener,” decided to change his California neighborhood by taking neglected dirt patches and planting food gardens to make healthy choices accessible to his community.  The City of Los Angeles took him to court for using “their” land, and that response started a horticulture revolution for Ron and people like him.  He is the founder of the Ron Finley Project, an initiative to help spread local urban food gardening to everyone, especially areas affected by food apartheid (minority communities where groceries are spread too thinly and those without means cannot access healthy affordable options easily). If you want to check out his organization, give it a look here, https://ronfinley.com/. You can also find him teaching classes on Masterclass about urban gardening and revolution.

Action Step: “Growing your own food is like planting your own money,” Ron likes to remind us.  Watch one or both of these videos talking about the part gardening plays in changing our communities.  

An extra step: Plant something, or better yet, find your nearest community garden and ask how you can support its work. Here is a link to a local organization working on this: https://www.facebook.com/ProjectGrowcery. Another local organization working on fighting food insecurity is the Gathering of the Queens.  Every week, they serve hundreds of people with their Mobile Markets, pantries at The impact Center, and other programs.  If you want to donate or volunteer time with the Queens, check out more information here: https://www.facebook.com/meetmeonthecorner/.

Rue Mapp grew up in a farming family who loved the outdoors. As she kept a journal about her recreational outdoor life, it bothered her that she didn’t find many other Black people enjoying the nature she loved so much.  She started a blog in 2009 that has grown into a movement, called OutdoorAfro, https://outdoorafro.org/ , currently in 32 states and D.C. OutdoorAfro works to reclaim nature and encourage Black joy that can be cultivated there.  Rue is also the writer of “Nature Swagger”, a feature on Netflix’s MeatEater show, a National Geographic Fellow, National Wildlife Federation Communication Award Recipient, and contributor to former first lady Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move! initiative.

Action Step: Rue Mapp likes to remind everyone, “Nature is never closed to anyone based on the color of their skin.”  If you are Black, just get outside and enjoy yourself! Think about your connection to the natural world.  If you are white, look around on Rue’s blog and learn!  Feel free to go outside to celebrate Black history as well because nature is for everyone!

It has been joked that Amanda Gorman, activist, poet and performer since a very young age, is such a powerhouse that her bio goes out of date every two weeks.  You might have seen her perform her piece as the youngest Inaugural Poet, “The Hill We Climb” at Biden’s Inauguration or “The Chorus of Captains” at the 2021 SuperBowl.  She has written several books and performed in many venues.  While many might have thought her speech impediment and sensitive hearing was a handicap, she has proclaimed it as a strength, giving her an edge on her practice and fine-tuning her performance craft.  She has received many accolades and awards, as well as being featured on the Top 100 Bestsellers list.  She is planning to run for the Presidency in 2036, but until then, she writes and speaks out for causes that inspire her.  

Action Step: In an interview, Amanda Gorman said, "One of the preparations that I always do whenever I perform is saying a mantra to myself, which is, 'I'm the daughter of black writers. We're descended from freedom fighters who broke through chains and changed the world. They call me.' And that is the way in which I prepare myself for the duty that needs to get done."  

Each of us has a story to share; take time to write a few words down about a story you have or a cause that inspires you. SURE is partnering with Community Lens of Anderson and the Impact Center to collect and share stories of Black excellence in our community.  If you are interested in supporting or sharing stories with us, please reach out to Maria Egnatz Alexander at maria@madisoncountysure.org.

Morgan Harper Nichols is an artist, creative media specialist, poet, podcaster, app creator and writer.  She has such a vision to use words, art and color to encourage and inspire people towards self acceptance and positive change.  At the age of 30, she received a diagnosis of Autism and has since incorporated that difference into her work so she may encourage others.  Her inspiring work can be found in many places: a podcast called “The Morgan Harper Nichols Show,” a daily app for artistic encouragement called “The StoryTeller App,” several books, art available for purchase at many locations and regular posts on social media.  

Action Step: Get out some colors (pens, pencils, crayons, markers, paints) and splash some on a page.  If you are Black, add a few words of your own story about how you fit into Black history or someone else who was integral to your Black identity.  If you are white, add a few words about what you are learning or wondering about race identity and your place in it.  

If you are feeling brave, share your piece with someone else.

Activist, writer of 7 books, slam poet and founder of the Body is Not an Apology Movement, Sonja Renee Taylor reminds us that “our bodies are political and accepting it as it is is an act of political resistance.” Through her books, speeches and social media presence, she reminds us that we are destined for “radical self-love” and that our work towards that is an act of resistance against a culture that asks us to fit into a particular impossible box before we can be significant. You can listen and see more of her work here, https://www.sonyareneetaylor.com/home. 

Action Step: Please listen to one or both of her TED talks listed on her website.  Think about what role self acceptance plays in breaking oppression, forming community and political activism.

If you got the Moderna vaccine to help protect you against Covid-19, you can thank Dr. Kizzmekia Corbett for her work.  Since high school, Corbett has known she wanted to work on developing vaccines to protect people.  She started interning with an initiative called Project Seed where she could intern at labs. After finishing college, she became a biological sciences trainer at the National Institutes of Health where she focused on respiratory diseases.  From 2009 to 2014, Corbett studied human antibody responses to dengue virus in Sri Lanka and then moved on to uncovering mechanisms of vira. When Coronavirus came to the States, Corbett's team utilized previous knowledge of optimal coronavirus proteins to tackle COVID-19  pathogenesis and host immunity and ultimately created the Moderna vaccine.  

Action Step: Look into information about viruses and vaccines, specifically the m-RNA vaccine that Dr. Corbett developed.  If that feels intimidating, listen to an interview with her.  The Covid-19 virus had a much harsher impact on the Black community than the white community. Another step you could take is to dig deeper on that devastating impact and how we can positively support the Black community to prevent a similar struggle in the future.  For further information on the data and support for STEM fields and BIPOC communities, check out this website, https://bootcamp.cvn.columbia.edu/blog/free-stem-resources-and-opportunities-for-bipoc-aapis-and-allies/#:~:text=Organizations%20Supporting%20Black%20People%20in%20STEM&text=Black%20Girls%20Do%20STEM%20%E2%80%94%20Black,Black%20technologists%20with%20great%20companies.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vRrgMJtxXvg

Action Step:  Reach out to the Black Nurses Association of Anderson, Inc. to learn about their work.  

Out of 2,003 United States Senators, only 12 have been Black.  In order to have a government that truly represents the problems and solutions available to Black citizens, we need to get a more diverse group of legislators.  Raphael Warnock started his career as a pastor and a political activist around the same time.  He learned under the mentorship of Civil Rights leader, John Thomas Porter.  In 2005, he was installed as the Senior Pastor at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, Georgia, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s former church. Since then, he has continued to pastor as well as lead political charges towards more equitable health care, better lower-income communities, reproductive rights,  and better gun legislation. From 2017-2020, he was the chair of the New Georgia Project, https://newgeorgiaproject.org/, an initiative to help expand voting rights and registration in Georgia for the next generations of voters, especially in marginalized communities.  In 2020, he presided over the funeral for Civil Rights giant, John Lewis. Warnock ran for Georgia’s Senate seat in 2020 and ended up defeating his opponent. Loeffler. with 51.04% of the vote in a heated 2021 runoff election.  With this victory, he became the first Black American to represent Georgia in the Senate, the first Black Democratic U.S. senator elected in the South, and the first Black Democrat elected to the Senate by a former Confederate State. He continues to work hard for equitable legislation, including the John Lewis Voting Rights Act, which would more firmly protect voting rights across our country.  

Action Step:  Look into what local group, Community Lens of Anderson, https://communitylensanderson.org/  is doing locally to encourage voting registration and civic education and engagement.  Their group’s aim is to better inform how we engage with our local, state and national politics.  For the past two years, they released a bipartisan Voting Guide to better inform citizens about who is running,especially locally. This year, they will be hosting some more educational events on how local government is set up, as well as how to get more involved.  

Action Step:  Contact the League of Women Voters of Anderson and Madison County, webmaster@lwv-amc.org to find out more about their work on voting. 

Ruby Bridges is a civil rights leader that many of you probably heard about in school.  When she was a 6 year old in Louisiana, her parents made the brave decision to send her to an integrated school.  After being escorted by Federal Marshals to her school, many people left her class.  While that was only 1960 and things have changed, Ruby Bridges reminds us that “racism is a grown-up disease that we need to stop spreading with our children.” She has written several books and continues to speak out about racial inequity, especially focusing on engagements with school age children.   Her foundation, the Ruby Bridges Foundation, was set up in 1999 to help stop racism and bullying.  Information can be found here, https://rubybridges.foundation/. 

Action Steps: Listen to some of the narratives from the 1960s about school integration.  

Do some reading and asking questions about the disparity in our community between school demographics and teacher/staff demographics.  

Learn about ways our local school boards have worked on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion and consider what more they could do to make our schools more equitable. 

 If you feel so led, show up at school board meetings. The Anderson Community School Board meetings are generally the second Monday of every month at 6; South Madison Community School Corporation the first Thursdays at 7:00; Frankton-Lapel on second Thursdays at 6:00 p.m.; Alexandria Public School Corporation at 6:30 on the second Monday; and Elwood Community Schools on the 4th Thursday at 7:00.  

For a long time in the publishing industry, Black writers had a harder time getting their stories published. Specifically in the science fiction and fantasy genre, there have not been many Black writers who have gotten national acclaim.  N.K. Jemison has busted open a stereotype in this genre, bringing in award after award for her novels, which often have feminist, anti-racist and cultural conflicts as their themes. After becoming the first African-American to win the Hugo Award for Science Fiction, she became the first to bring it in three years in a row and the first to win awards for each book in a trilogy.  Since then, she has continued to bring in awards, and in 2021, she became one of Time’s Top 100 Most Influential People in the World. If you want to keep an eye on more of her projects or read her blog, you can find them at https://nkjemisin.com/. 

Action Step: A lot of science fiction and fantasy writing is about the author’s view of what our world could or should be like, or what they see our world turning into without intervention.  What does your dystopian future feel like?  What does your utopia look like? How could we work towards a better future? Part of changing our community is to vision cast what we do want, not just what we don’t like. Share your vision with neighbors, family, and community leaders around you.  

Stacey Abrams is a name I wasn’t sure I needed to include, because I hope you have heard her name several times before and followed her work. The founder of Fair Fight Action, https://fairfight.com/, Stacey Abrams started her work as a tax attorney and entrepreneur.  She then turned her sights on the Georgia Legislature, where she served for eleven years, until making a run for the Georgia governor seat in 2018.  This is when her story joined the national stage.  Her opponent, Brian Kemp, happened to be in charge of running the Georgia election.  In what is described as the worst case of voting suppression in recent history, Stacey Abrams lost the race for governor.  But instead of letting that stop her, she focused harder and determined that this would not be repeated. She formed Fair Fight Action, as well as a few other non-profits, concentrated on educating about voter rights and voter suppression tactics.  Many analysts say she was the reason the Presidential 2020 election ended up like it did.  She also has written several books, both fiction and nonfiction, and continues to advocate for fair elections.  If you want to follow more of her personal work, you can check out more, here, https://staceyabramscreates.com/

Action Step: Stacey Abrams reminds us, “We will all, at some point, encounter hurdles to gaining access and entry, moving up and conquering self-doubt; but on the other side is the capacity to own opportunity and tell our own story.” What stories are you not telling? Who around you has stories that haven’t been told and need to be? How can you be a part of that process?” A step further, if you haven’t registered to vote-REGISTER TO VOTE here, https://indianavoters.in.gov/. .  You could also find out who your state representatives are here, https://www.270towin.com/elected-officials/.

After overcoming hurdles to launch her own business as a young college student, Arian Simone realized she wanted to become successful enough to help other Black women start businesses.  Following 17 years as an entrepreneur and fostering relationships with wealthy entertainment moguls, Arian Simone co-founded the Fearless Fund, https://www.fearless.fund/, an organization to address the gap that exists in venture capital funding for Women of color-led businesses. Even though research suggests that companies founded with women perform well or better than companies with no female founders, only a little over 1% of Venture Capital was awarded to Black female founders in 2018, and not much more than that for women as a whole.  The Fearless Fund aims to put money into businesses with Black female founders and help them launch stronger.  Since its start, Fearless has awarded $20,000 in grants and digital tools to help Black women-owned businesses grow their firms and mentorship opportunities. Just this year, Simone launched a podcast, “Fearlessly Living with Arian Simone.” You can listen to her podcast or follow her at https://www.ariansimone.media/. 

Action Step:  Ask around about Black businesses in the area and support them with your money!  If you need a jumping off place, information about local businesses, events and opportunities are often spotlighted on the Anderson Madison County Black Chamber of Commerce Facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100064870023533. 

Since an early age, Bryant Terry was interested in the food of his heritage.  He grew up believing he would become a professor of some sort, but took an unconventional route to get there.  In college, after listening to a hip-hop song about factory farming and food injustice, he became a vegan.  From there, he learned more about how much food plays a role in the racial inequity he was observing. In 2001, inspired by the Black Panther food program, he started a “b-healthy” 5-year initiative to transform schools to make healthier food options available.  His vision was to pair teachers to teach students to cook and choose healthier options.  Believing that education is empowerment, especially when it comes to the fuel your body uses, Bryant Terry has written four cookbooks, focusing on vegan soul food and African American food history.  Interestingly, all his cookbooks have music playlists to accompany the menus.  He currently serves as the chef-in-residence at the Museum for the African Diaspora in San Francisco.  

Action Step:  Find out more about delicious and healthy food options.  Learn about how food inequity, environmental issues and race are intertwined.  There are so many great cookbooks that focus on healthy eating, many of them from Black chefs.  It really only takes a google search.  If you have Netflix, the docuseries “High on the Hog: How African American Cuisine Transformed America” does an excellent, entertaining and joyful job educating on food injustice and how it plays a role throughout our country’s history.  Bryant Terry is even one of the guests interviewed in one of the episodes. 

Charlene Carruthers is a Black queer activist, filmmaker and author, set on “telling more complete stories about the Black Radical Tradition.”  She was inspired by her work in South Africa during college to come back to the States and fight for political change.  She is one of the founders for the Black Youth Project 100 (BYP100), whose mission is to invest heavily in the training of leaders and the teaching of reformers, empowering a generation of black activism. She speaks out often against police brutality, the prison-industrial complex, oppression of the Queer community, school-to-prison pipeline and the Palestine conflicts. Her work spans more than 15 years of community organizing across racial, gender and economic justice movements. Charlene wrote and directed “The Funnel,” a short film, which received the Queer Black Voices Award at the 35th Annual aGLIFF Prism Film Festival. Charlene is also the author of the bestselling book, Unapologetic: A Black, Queer and Feminist Mandate for Radical Movements.  She continues to do public speaking and educating on activism. If you want to learn more about her work, you can visit, https://www.charlenecarruthers.com/. 

Action Step:  One of our group’s projects in 2024 is to provide a way for young people in Madison County to collect and preserve stories of local Black Excellence from the Black elders who have made our community’s history.  We would love for you to participate in this yearlong project, either by supporting us monetarily, spreading the word about the interviews and showing up for our premiere in the fall.  If you are a young Black person or a Black elder who wants to share your own stories, please contact us and we will do our best to connect you to our project.  If you have a nomination for someone you think should be interviewed, we would love to hear from you as well! Please contact, maria@madisoncountysure.org.

After earning several business degrees in 2019, Precious Price embarked on her journey towards real estate.  Her work led her to producing a docuseries called “Going Tiny” about designing, building and renting a small home on her property. Inspired by working with AirBnB, she started to wonder what would happen if more people created small dwellings that could be rented for lower-income housing or if people would consider taking their rentals and using them for housing options instead.  Precious Price has spent her time since working on spreading a message of rethinking housing solutions. You can find out more about her and the projects she has founded here: https://preciouscprice.com/. 

Action Step: Our community is having a housing crisis.  You can view a particularly difficult December meeting on Rebecca Crumes, Facebook page here: https://www.facebook.com/100002134395636/videos/1030064284959027/)  , Here you will listen to testimony after testimony of people who are being charged huge rents in Anderson for dwellings that have been stripped down to wires, have unsafe water and aren’t very habitable.  Our city just conducted our annual PIT count which tries to count the homeless citizens in our area.  One thing many citizens are calling for is the mayor and city council to put out a better and thorough plan to prevent homelessness in our area.  Our community needs to continue its efforts towards the city council and safety board to not only ensure the enforcement of unsafe structures but to work on strengthening and enforcing local ordinances.  We need to deter out of town/state landlords from buying dilapidated properties and renting them “as is” and any landlord from renting unsafe and dilapidated properties at exorbitant prices.  Another action step is just to know your rights as a tenant or join the Tenant’s Union.  Check out the Anderson Housing Authority, if you would like more information, https://www.ahain.org/

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A further step: Contact the mayor or your city council members to see what they are doing to help with affordable housing and homelessness. 

While many might know Taraji Henson as an actress from her award-winning or nominated roles in television, movie and stage, what I want to spotlight is the Foundation she started to help increase access to mental health and therapy for the Black community.  Taraji was frustrated finding a therapist to help her son. She also was grieving the loss of her dad, Boris Lawrence Henson, who struggled with mental health after his time in the Vietnam War. With a friend, she named the foundation for her dad, with the express aim of providing affordable quality therapy with the Black community who need it.  You can discover more about the Boris Lawrence Henson Foundation (BLHF) here: https://borislhensonfoundation.org/. There are many ways to give back to what they are doing or do some of the therapy work for yourself.  

Action Step: Sharing your story, especially when there are elements of trauma and injustice, can be very difficult.  Look into mental health and its role in the Black community.  Support Black therapy initiatives.  And even though this is technically just a post spotlighting Taraji Henson and her foundation, we couldn’t help but include this extra article sharing about some more Black therapist advocates doing excellent work. 

https://chicagocrusader.com/black-activists-who-changed-the-mental-health-industry/

A director, producer, stand-up comedian and writer, W. Kamau Bell has been instrumental at using comedy to shine a light on difficult and sensitive issues.  He hosted and served as the executive director for the Emmy award-winning show, United Shades of America for seven years. He also won a Peabody for his docuseries, We Need to Talk about Cosby.  He has written several books and starred in a few comedy specials as well, one of them you can stream on Netflix, Private School Negro. Bell also serves on the Board of Directors of DonorsChoose, https://www.donorschoose.org/ which provides support to local classrooms nationwide and Live Free, https://livefreeusa.org/ which focuses on ending gun violence and mass incarceration.  

If you want to know more about W. Kamau Bell personally, you can find his website here, http://www.wkamaubell.com/about.

Action Step: Watch an episode of United Shades of America, on either Max or Amazon Prime. You could also watch his Netflix comedy special or read one of his books.  Remember that even though stories have hard parts to them, we can still find humor and joy in order to keep fighting towards a better future.  For a further step, go to DonorsChoose and donate to a classroom, https://www.donorschoose.org/. 

Lonnie Johnson grew up in Alabama in a time and place where STEM fields were not encouraged if you were Black.  He started off by entering a Science Fair, building a robot. The passion stuck, and he ended up working at NASA from 1979-1991 in their Jet Propulsion lab.  In 1990, Lonnie developed a toy that would capture childhood summers by the storm, the SuperSoaker water gun, generating $200 million in its first year.  In 1991, he founded his own research company.  He holds more than 250 patents for his inventions and is part of the group of Black Americans who hold 6% of all US patent applications. Since the SuperSoaker, he runs three technology-development companies, with a focus on finding and honing clean environmentally friendly technologies.   

Action Step: Learn about other Black scientists doing amazing work, donate to programs that help mentor and support young Black people in STEM or learn about unique hurdles they have. Anderson Community Schools is starting the long process of becoming STEM certified by the state of Indiana, which includes a commitment to providing high-quality STEM education to all prepare all students for the work needs of tomorrow." andjones@acsc.net.  If this is a process you would like to support, let the schools know.  They especially want anyone who has a career in the STEAM fields to come talk to students about their jobs.  If this is something you can do, contact Andrew Jones, STEM Coordinator, at andjones@acsc.net. 

This website has lots of resources and information on STEM and all minorities, as well as organizations to support. https://bootcamp.cvn.columbia.edu/blog/free-stem-resources-and-opportunities-for-bipoc-aapis-and-allies/#:~:text=Organizations%20Supporting%20Black%20People%20in%20STEM&text=Black%20Girls%20Do%20STEM%20%E2%80%94%20Black,Black%20technologists%20with%20great%20companies.

In an attempt to more broadly familiarize people with Black stories, books and writers, Glory Edim started “Well-Read Black Girl,” a podcast and digital literacy platform that celebrates the uniqueness of Black literature and sisterhood.  From 2017-2022, “Well-Read Black Girl” hosted a sold-out festival celebrating books by Black authors.  In 2023, Glory collaborated with Livewright, to form a new publishing house branch, WRBG X Liveright, to amplify and support debut stories from marginalized communities. In 2017, she was the recipient of the Innovator's Award from the Los Angeles Times Book Prizes. You can get connected to her podcast and learn about Book Club writing courses for Black writers, books and other projects here: https://gloryedim.com/. 

Action Step: Check out the “Well-Read Black Girl” website, podcasts, and read a suggested book.  If you feel so inclined, donate a few of the titles for one of the schools, classrooms or free libraries in town. Finally, check out what the Anderson Public Library is doing in collaboration with Cultured Urban Winery to have a Nonfiction Book club.  Many of the titles that have been read center on Black stories or issues.  

Luvvie Ajayi Jones calls herself a “Professional Troublemaker.” She even wrote the book on it, literally the title of one of her books.  Using her social media platforms, podcasts, books and speaking events to speak out on topics of truth-telling, story-crafting and owning your own narrative, Luvvie shares her message in the funniest way possible - everyone has a story worth hearing.  After writing four bestselling books, she founded The Book Academy, an online course and coaching community to help other authors get their stories out into the world.  You can find more about what Luvvie is doing here: https://luvvie.org/.

Action Step: Listen to one of Luvvie’s TED talks or listen to a podcast with her in it.  What parts of your story do you want to tell?  What is the hardest part of sharing your story?

In 1920, 14 percent of all growers in 1920 were Black farmers. Today there are less than 2 percent, with a corresponding loss of over 14 million acres of land to Black farms due to discrimination and violence over the decades.  

Food justice and community gardening advocate, Leah Penniman, created Soul Fire Farm, an Afro-Indigenous centered community farm committed to ending food apartheid, serving over 50,000 people.  Their website, https://www.soulfirefarm.org/ has many resources on it for creating local support for food equity.  Leah also wrote the book, Farming While Black to act as the first comprehensive manual for Black farmers just getting started.  Through innovative programs such as the Black-Latinx Farmers Immersion, a sliding-scale farmshare CSA, and Youth Food Justice leadership training, she continues to spread her knowledge and support the Black community in reclaiming farming practice roots.  

Action Step: If you are passionate about supporting an up and coming local Black farmer, reach out to Darlisha Averitte at daveritte@bigharvestllc.com. She sells some of her local offerings at the City Market under the business name, Jane’s Jams and Jellies. 

Kwame Alexander is a poet, author, Emmy award-winning producer and educator who is trying to train students to share their stories and own their experiences. After writing 39 books for all ages, many of them winning awards like the Coretta Scott King and the Newberry Award, Kwame became an executive producer, showrunner, and writer of the Emmy-award winning series, The Crossover, based on his own novel.  While he often has multiple projects going, including a podcast called Why Fathers Cry, it is his self-proclaimed mission to change the world, one word at a time. If you want to keep an eye on more of what Kwame Alexander is doing, you can find him here: https://kwamealexander.com/. If you are an educator, he also has great books available to teach poetry and fiction writing and how to read books more deeply.

Action Step:  Read something Kwame has written.  Better yet, buy a few of his books for a local classroom or free library!

Judith McCray is a multiple Emmy award-winning broadcast journalist, documentary filmmaker and media activist with over 30 years in television and media production. Twenty-seven years ago, Judith founded Juneteenth Productions, https://juneteenthproductions.com/,  in order to center social justice issues through media stories.  The company umbrella has created award-winning documentaries and podcasts to further awareness around issues that shape and change social justice issues.  Judith has won awards for her activism, including the “Leaders for a New Chicago” award and grant last year.  With those winnings, she started a podcast called “Change Agents,”  https://changeagentsthepodcast.com/ to highlight local changemakers’ stories.  Juneteenth Productions also does media consulting and educational workshops on better storytelling to further social justice in our world.  

Action Step:  We have spent the entire month of February highlighting people who are still alive and still making Black history in our country.  In our other action steps, we have done our best to show you ways to educate and involve yourself in our community.  There is much work to do towards creating a more equitable and welcoming community for everyone in Madison County. We hope you choose to partner with us at SURE and our other partners in the community, many of whom are referenced in the other daily posts.  We need people like you showing up at city council meetings, writing letters to the mayor, donating to youth programs, volunteering in our community and vision casting new solutions for Madison County.  We can’t wait to know what your stories are and how you will make a difference. Thank you for supporting our community and our work. We hope to see you at some of our events and projects this year as we gather more stories of Black Excellence and celebrate the ongoing work for Equity in our community. 

In my painting, I’ve chosen Bob Marley as the figure who inspires me regularly. Since 5th grade, he’s been a significant presence in my life. I vividly recall hearing his song “Three Little Birds” during my favorite move, Shark Tale. At the age of 10, I was drawn to his profound words that addressed political issues, race, pride in being black, positive energy, and living in the moment.

Bob’s music has helped me grasp the true meaning of “One Love”- the togetherness of humanity, emphasizing that everyone is equal. This realization prompted me, as a young black boy, to strive for academic excellence and community participation. Bob’s message about community and doing what’s right resonated strongly with me, as he drew inspiration from witnessing crime and injustice in Jamaica.

Understanding my value as an artist and recognizing how my art can impact not only myself but also those around me has been inspired by Bob’s creativity and commitment to change.