Women’s History Month: A Salute to Ella Baker

 Born in Norfolk, Virginia, on December 13, 1903, Ella Baker was one of the leading figures in the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s. She grew up in rural North Carolina. Baker was close to her grandmother, a former slave. Her grandmother told Baker many stories about her life, including a whipping she …

Women’s History Month: A Salute to Diane Nash

Diane Judith Nash was born on May 15, 1938 in Chicago, Illinois to Leon Nash and Dorothy Bolton Nash.  Nash grew up a Roman Catholic and attended parochial and public schools in Chicago.  In 1956, she graduated from Hyde Park High School in Chicago, Illinois and began her college career at Howard University in Washington, …

Black History Month: A Salute to Dorothy Height

Born on March 24, 1912, in Richmond, Virginia, African-American activist Dorothy Height spent her life fighting for civil rights and women's rights. The daughter of a building contractor and a nurse, Height moved with her family to Rankin, Pennsylvania, in her youth. There, she attended racially integrated schools. In high school, Height showed great talent …

Black History Month: A Salute to Lena Horne

  Actress, singer, dancer, pin-up, and Civil Rights activist Lena Mary Calhoun Horne was born on June 30, 1917, in Brooklyn, New York, the daughter of a banker and an actress. Her parents divorced when she was 3, and because her mother traveled as part of various theater troupes, Horne alternately accompanied her on the road …

Black History Month: A Salute to Septima Poinsette Clark

Septima Poinsette Clark (nicknamed the 'Mother of the Movement') was a teacher and civil rights activist whose citizenship schools helped enfranchise and empower African Americans. Born on May 3, 1898, in Charleston, South Carolina, Clark branched out into social action with the NAACP while working as a teacher. As part of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, …

Black History Month 2015: Salute to Coretta Scott King

Coretta Scott King,  most famously known as the wife of Martin Luther King, Jr., was born April 27, 1927 in Marion,  Alabama. King was an American author, activist and civil rights leader. She helped to lead the African-American Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s. King shared many ideals and goals with her husband and was …

The Confident Woman Devotional – Be Courageous (pt. 14)

Be Courageous Rosa Parks (1913-2005) was the unknown seamstress who started the modern American Civil Rights Movement. On December 1, 1955, in the city of Montgomery, Alabama, she refused to move to the back of the bus after a white man got on board and wanted to sit in a front seat. Rosa's mother believed …