11 Reasons Candace Nelson Is My She-Ro

Do you remember the saying, “I love you like a fat kid loves cake”? Well I was that fat kid referenced and at 31 I am, unfortunately, still in love with cake. The irony is that I’m not crazy about cupcakes. They’re almost the same thing, but it’s that difference that makes me love cake more.

On Sunday I went to Sprinkles Cupcakes in Georgetown, out of a craving for sweets and out of curiosity over the cupcake craze. Since I don’t watch TV I haven’t been watching the cupcake bakery phenomenon unfold via the Cupcake Wars show. People here keep raving about Georgetown Cupcakes, but the line snaking up the block has always discouraged me from giving the bakery a try. So I was a bit surprised that there was another cupcake bakery right around the corner that also had a long line (less daunting) and that my friend raved about with as much enthusiasm. All in all I loved the cupcakes I bought (red velvet, key lime and vanilla hazelnut chocolate…key lime was my favorite, vanilla hazelnut chocolate could have had a stronger flavor).

Munching on all that sugar got me to thinking – who is the founder of Sprinkles? If they’re “the original cupcake bakery” (note: I found references to Manhattan’s Magnolia Bakery, often credited for starting the so-called “cupcake craze” in the 1990s), how’d the owner get started? So today I present my newest She-ro, Candace Nelson.

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16 Reasons Madam CJ Walker Is My She-Ro

I have been remiss in my duties as Motivation Maven – how could I have neglected to feature Madam CJ Walker??

She serves as a fountain of inspiration for countless African American female entrepreneurs, myself included. If you have not encountered her inspiring story, let me introduce her to you.

1. Madam C.J. Walker was born Sarah Breedlove on December 23, 1867 in Delta, Louisiana. Her parents Owen and Minerva Breedlove, both ex-slaves, were sharecroppers who lived on the Burney plantation. She had 5 siblings. Her mother died first, possibly due to a cholera outbreak in 1872 (when she was 5). Her father remarried and died shortly afterward when she was 7.



2. Sarah moved in with her older sister, Louvenia, and brother-in-law, Willie Powell. She later said she married Moses McWilliams when she was 14 years old to escape Powell’s abuse. Three years later her daughter, Lelia (called A’Leila) McWilliams, was born.



3. When Sarah was 20, her husband was murdered by a white lynch mob. Shortly afterward she moved to St. Louis where three of her brothers were barbers. For 20 years she did backbreaking work as a washerwoman in Vicksburg and St. Louis. While working as a laundry woman, she was able to save money, educate A’Lelia, and join the National Association of Colored Women in the 1880s. In 1894 Sarah married a man named John Davis. That marriage ended around 1903. In January 1906 she married a newspaper sales agent, Charles Joseph Walker. After her marriage she began using the name Madam CJ Walker. They divorced in 1910.


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10 Reasons Lisa Price Is My She-Ro

If you’re not familiar with Lisa Price, let me introduce you to her. She is the founder of Carol’s Daughter, a line of ‘highly natural’ (I’m quite sure what that means…) hair and skin care products. Carol’s Daughter is so popular that Halle Berry and Jada Pinkett Smith are fans. This line paved the way for targeted, quality products for African American women, at a time when we were still being ignored by the mainstream beauty industry.

1. Lisa price began making hair and skin care products in her kitchen as a hobby. While she worked as a writing assistant for The Cosby Show, she made her own scents and lotions, and began giving them as gifts to her friends and the cast of the show. Through her experimentation, she created a line of hair and skin care products. When the show ended in 1992, Lisa grew her business, starting out selling her products in flea markets. Carol’s Daughter became an official business in 1994.


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10 Reasons My Grandad Is My Hero

My grandfather, William Gaitor, passed away on Wednesday, June 9, 2010. He was 86. My mom is an only child and so am I (well I’m her only child…). My maternal grandmother passed in 1996 so its just me and Mama against the world now. Its so weird, my grandad has always been there. Even when Granny passed, we always had him so this is almost surreal sometimes. Its like, how can a world exist and he not be in it? Unfortunately I’ll come to grips with his absence and miss him terribly, like I miss my grandma and my Dad. He always told me how proud he was of me… I just wish I had told him that he was one of my heroes. During our last conversation he spontaneously said he loved me. I’m glad I got to tell him one last time.

1. William Gaitor was born on March 7, 1924 in Miami. He was affectionately called Bill or Gaitor by his friends and family. He married my grandmother, Muriel Vera Rolle in 1955. Grandaddy liked giving nicknames (a habit I just realized I picked up) – my grandmother’s nickname was ‘My Muriel’ and my nickname was Pumpkin Poo.



2. Grandaddy was a proud Veteran of World War II. My childhood is filled with his stories of his European travel while a soldier, and he loved teaching me the few words he remembered from different languages. Examples are greetings in French, German numbers, and words that I’ve figured out later a child probably shouldn’t be taught… He also told stories of imminent danger, such as the time where his bad habit of being late caused him to be the only survivor when his entire unit was killed. This sparked my early desires to learn different languages and see the places that he’d been, like Berlin or the Eiffel Tower.


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10 Reasons Dorothy Height Is My She-Ro

Today many are mourning the passing of Dr. Dorothy Height, one of the trailblazers of the Civil Rights Movement. She had a long and active life, and we have all benefited from being in her era.

1. Dorothy Irene Height was born on March 24, 1912 in Richmond, Virginia and was raised in Rankin, Pennsylvania. Height was admitted to Barnard College in 1929, but was denied entrance because the school had an unwritten policy of admitting only two black students. Instead, she attended at New York University. Height earned a bachelor’s degree in 1932 and a master’s degree in educational psychology in 1933.



2. Height started working as a caseworker with the New York City Welfare Department and, and in 1944 she joined the national staff of the YWCA.



3. When she was 25 she began a career as a civil rights activist when she joined the National Council of Negro Women. She fought for equal rights for both African Americans and women. In 1957, when she was 45, Height was named president of the National Council of Negro Women, a position she held until 1997. During the height of the civil rights movement of the 1960s, Height organized “Wednesdays in Mississippi”, which brought together black and white women from the North and South to create a dialogue of understanding.



4. She also served as National President of Delta Sigma Theta, Sorority Incorporated from 1946-1957. While there she developed leadership training programs and interracial and ecumenical education programs. Height remained active with Delta Sigma Theta Sorority thoughtout her life.


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10 Reasons Marian Wright Edelman Is My She-Ro

 

1. Marian Wright Edelman was the daughter of a Baptist minister and raised in South Carolina. He died when she was 14, and his last words to her were “don’t let anything get in the way of your education.” She went on to earn her undergraduate degree from Spelman College. While in undergrad, she traveled the world on a Merrill Scholarship and studied in the Soviet Union as a Lisle Fellow. She was active in the Civil Rights Movement and went on to earn her law degree from Yale.

 

2. Edelman became the first black person to be admitted to the Mississippi Bar. She represented activists during the Mississippi Freedom Summer in 1964. Then she joined the NAACP’s Legal Defense Fund in 1968 and moved to DC. While in DC, she also contributed to Martin Luther King’s Poor People Campaign and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.

 

3. Edelman founded the Washington Research Project, a public interest law firm and also became interested in issues related to childhood development and poverty-stricken children.
4. As a result of that interest, in 1973 Edelman founded the Children’s Defense Fund as a voice for poor, minority and disabled children.

 

5. Edelman served on the Board of Trustees of Spelman College, which she chaired from 1976 to 1987. She was the first woman elected by alumni as a member of the Yale University Corporation. She she served in that position from 1971 to 1977.

 

6. She has received over a hundred honorary degrees and many awards including the Albert Schweitzer Humanitarian Prize, the Heinz Award, and a MacArthur Foundation Prize Fellowship. In 2000, she received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian award, and the Robert F. Kennedy Lifetime Achievement Award.

 



 

7. If all those accomplishments weren’t enough, Edelman is an accomplished author. Her books include:
   
   • Portrait of Inequality, published in 1980
   • American Children and Families, 1981
   • Families in Peril: An Agenda for Social Change, 1987
   • The Measure of Our Success: A Letter To My Children And Yours, 1992
   • Kids and Guns: A National Disgrace, 1993
   • Guide My Feet, 1995
   • Stand for Children, 1998
   • Lanterns: A Memoir of Mentors, 1999
   • The State of America’s Children, 2000
   • I’m Your Child, God, 2002
   • I Can Make a Difference: A Treasury to Inspire Our Children, 2005
   • The Sea Is So Wide and My Boat Is So Small: Charting a Course for the Next Generation, 2008

    

8. She is a board member of the Robin Hood Foundation (funds and supports innovative poverty-fighting organizations in New York City), the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities (non-partisan research and policy institute working on federal and state fiscal policies and public programs affecting low- and moderate-income Americans), and the Association to Benefit Children (children’s advocacy group with an array of programs that provide services in education, health, housing, mental health and employment), and is a member of the Selection Committee of the Profiles in Courage Award of the John F. Kennedy Library, the Council on Foreign Relations, the American Philosophical Society, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences.

 

9. She is married to Peter Edelman, a Professor at Georgetown Law School. They have three sons, Joshua, Jonah, and Ezra, two granddaughters, Ellika and Zoe, and two grandsons, Elijah and Levi (her husband is Jewish).

 

10. Marian Wright Edelman is my she-ro because she used her father’s lesson that Christianity obligates one to service and works to serve children living in poverty and improve civil rights. But at the same time, she did not sacrifice her own happiness in life – she married and raised a family. She comes from a generation where injustice was all around her, and she raised herself up from her poor, Southern roots to accomplish so much. Now us 20- and 30-somethings should use Edelman as an example of a life where one can advocate for others, build up our communities, without being a martyr to the cause or sacrificing our happiness in the process.

9 Reasons Coco Chanel Is My She-Ro

 

1. Coco was a poor, skinny woman who was not considered beautiful. But she used what she had to become one of the most recognized names in the world. And, for the most part, she did it her way.

 

2. Gabrielle Bonheur “Coco” Chanel was born in 1883 in a peasant village in France. It is notable that Chanel’s parents were not married and she was thus considered illegitimate. Her mother died when she was 12, leaving her father, a traveling salesman, to care for 5 children. Coco lived in an orphanage for 6 years while her father worked, and this is where she learned to be a seamstress.

 

3. When Chanel turned 18 she struck out on her own. She tried to make it as a cabaret singer and worked in a tailor shop while awaiting her big break. She became the mistress of textile heir heir Étienne Balsan, who showered her with expensive gifts.

 

4. At first Chanel designed hats as a hobby, eventually moving into Balsan’s apartment in Paris and opening her first shop in 1908. The Balsan home was a meeting place of the hunting elite of France and the gentlemen brought their fashionable mistresses along, giving Coco the opportunity to sell the women decorated hats. She sold fashionable raincoats and jackets but was not successful.

 

5. In 1910, Coco got the backing of her next lover, Arthur “Boy” Capel, to try again and open another shop. This one was more successful; Coco then opened another shop in Brittany. Her third shop was in Deauville, in 1913.

 



 

6. Celebrated French actresses began wearing Chanel’s hats, and she used her social connections to aristocratic families to propel her reputation higher. Women during the World War I era came to accept her view that women were supposed to dress for themselves and not their men. Chanel’s couture house opened in 1919. Chanel No. 5 was created in 1921.

 

7. During World War II, Chanel closed her shops, stating that war was not a time for fashion. From 1945 to 1954 Coco lived in Switzerland. Her first collection after the war was not a big success in Paris because she had been a Nazi sympathizer. She had had an affair with a German officer in 1941.

 

8. Chanel had affairs with some of the most influential men of her era yet she never got married. When asked why she did not marry the Duke of Westminster, she replied, “There have been several Duchesses of Westminster. There is only one Chanel.”

 

9. The Chanel house received the Neiman Marcus Oscar for fashion in 1957. She revolutionized the fashion industry by going “back to basics”, incorporating elegance, class, and originality in her designs. For example, she introduced the “little black dress” to the fashion world in 1926, the “Chanel suit”, and her signature leather bag with a chain handle.

 

Quotes by Coco Chanel:

 

• “In order to be irreplaceable one must always be different.”
• “A girl should be two things: classy and fabulous.”
• “How many cares one loses when one decides not to be something but to be someone.”
• “The best color in the whole world, is the one that looks good, on you!”
• “I don’t understand how a woman can leave the house without fixing herself up a little – if only out of politeness. And then, you never know, maybe that’s the day she has a date with destiny. And it’s best to be as pretty as possible for destiny.”

 

10 Reasons Why Oprah Is My SHe-Ro

 

1. Oprah Gail Winfrey was born in Kosciusko, Mississippi. She lived with her grandmother and then with her mother. At 14, she gave birth to a premature baby, who died shortly after birth. At 19, Winfrey landed her first job as a reporter at WVOL radio station in Nashville. Shortly afterward, she enrolled at Tennessee State University in Nashville. During her freshman year, Winfrey won several pageants, including “Miss Black Nashville ” and “Miss Tennessee” in 1971. She was offered a job by the local CBS television station but declined the position. After graduating in 1976, she accepted a job offer from WJZ-TV, the ABC affiliate in Baltimore, Maryland. In January 1984, Winfrey moved to Chicago to host “A.M. Chicago” for WLS-TV. Later, the show was renamed to The Oprah Winfrey Show.



2. The Oprah Winfrey Show has been the No. 1 talk show for 23 consecutive seasons, seen by an estimated 42 million viewers a week in the United States and broadcast internationally in 134 countries.


more reasons Oprah’s my she-ro

50 Black SheRoes: Part 5, Historical Firsts

Part 5: Historical Firsts   This list is a celebration of the black women who have blazed trails and paved the way for us to continue on to further success. My hat goes off to these ladies who boldly went where other black women had not gone before.

 

Madame C.J. Walker	Althea Gibson
Bessie Coleman	Florence Griffith-Joyner

 

• Madame C.J. Walker – businesswoman, hair care entrepreneur, tycoon and philanthropist. She was the first woman to become a self-made millionare. Her empire began with her first business, the Madam C.J. Walker Manufacturing Company, that produced and sold a line of beauty and hair care products for black women.
• Cathay Williams – the first black woman to enlist in the US Army. She served as a Buffalo soldier after the Civil War under the pseudonym William Cathay.
• Dr. Mae Jemison – physician and astronaut. Jemison became the first black woman in space when she went into orbit aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavour on September 12, 1992.
• Bessie Coleman – pilot. Coleman became the first black woman to earn a pilot’s license and first American of any race or gender to earn an international pilot license. She could not gain admission to American flight schools because she was black and a woman. No black U.S. aviator would train her either. So Coleman studied for and received her licenses in France in 1921. In order to support herself as a professional pilot, she became an exhibition flyer, where she was dubbed “Queen Bess”. In 1989, First Flight Society inducted Coleman into their shrine that honors those individuals and groups that have achieved significant “firsts” in aviation’s development.
• Dr. Sadie T.M. Alexander – became one of the first black women to earn a Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania in 1921. During that same year, Georgiana Simpson at the University of Chicago and Eva Dykes at Radcliffe also earned Ph.Ds. Alexander was also the first black woman to earn a law degree from the University of Pennsylvania Law School and the first black woman to be admitted to the Pennsylvania bar in 1927.
• Althea Gibson – tennis champion. Gibson achieved many black woman firsts: Grand Slam champion in 1959; played in American Lawn Tennis Association championship; to play and win at Wimbledon; to play in the Ladies Professional Golf Association. Gibson was ranked in the world top ten from 1956 through 1958, reaching a career high of World No. 1 in those rankings in 1957 and 1958. In 1971 Gibson was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame.
• Florence Griffith-Joyner – track athlete. In 1988 she became the first American woman to win four medals in one Olympics. She holds the world records in the 100 and 200 meter races.
• Rebecca Lee Crumpler – physician. She was the first black woman to become a physician, when she graduated from the New England Female Medical College (now part of Boston University) in 1864.
• Sheila Johnson – team president, managing partner, and governor of the WNBA’s Washington Mystics. She is the first black woman to be an owner or partner in three professional sports franchises: the Washington Capitals (NHL), the Washington Wizards (NBA), and the Washington Mystics (WNBA). She was married to Robert Johnson for 33 years. Together they founded BET which they later sold to Viacom. After her divorce, her net worth was $670 million. Johnson sits on the boards of VH1’s Save the Music Foundation, Americans for the Arts, the Curry School of Education Foundation at the University of Virginia, and the University of Illinois Foundation.
• Sarah Jane Woodson Early – educator. Early was the 1st black woman to become a college instructor. She graduated from Oberlin College in 1856, as one of the first African-American women college graduates. In 1858 she joined the faculty of Wilberforce University.

 

Who are your she-roes? I couldn’t fit everyone onto this list. Who are the notable black woman who should be mentioned?

50 Black SheRoes: Part 4, Civil Rights Leaders

Part 4: Civil Rights Leaders   The pioneers featured for today are not just limited to the Civil Rights Era of the 1950s. During and after slavery, black women were visible advocates for our equal rights. Hopefully this list will inspire you to take part in the ongoing fight that exists today in your local communities.  

 

Mary Church Terrell	Constance Baker Motley
The Little Rock Nine with their advisor, Daisy Bates

 

• Sojourner Truth – abolitionist, women’s rights proponent, minister, lecturer. Her most famous speech, Ain’t I a Woman?, was delivered in 1851 at the Ohio Women’s Rights Convention in Akron, Ohio.
• Harriet Tubman – abolitionist, humanitarian, and Union spy during the Civil War. After escaping to freedom, Tubman made 13 rescue missions and helped 70 other slaves to escape along the Underground Railroad.
• Mary McLeod Bethune – educator and civil rights leader. Bethune started the Literary and Industrial Training School for Negro Girls in Daytona Beach, Florida in 1904. This school merged with the Cookman Institute for Men, and is now known as Bethune-Cookman University. Next, Bethune founded the National Council of Negro Women in 1935. She also served as an advisor to President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
• Mary Church Terrell – one of the first black women to earn a college degree. She graduated from Oberlin College in 1884, and went on to earn a Master’s degree from Oberlin in 1888. Terrell worked closely with Frederick Douglass on civil rights campaigns, and was also an active member of the National American Woman Suffrage Association. In 1896, Terrell became the founder and first president of the National Association of Colored Women. And in 1909 she was a founding member of the NAACP.
• Constance Baker Motley – civil rights activist, lawyer, judge, and state senator for . During her legal career she worked as the lead trial attorney for the NAACP’s Legal Defense Fund. Motley wrote the original complaint for the Brown v. Board of Education case, and was the first black woman to argue a case before the Supreme Court. She was a key legal strategist in the civil rights movement, helping to desegregate Southern schools, buses, and lunch counters. She was the first black woman elected to New York State Senate in 1964. In 1966 Motley became the first black woman to serve as a federal judge.
• Women of the Little Rock Nine -Elizabeth Eckford, Carlotta Walls LaNier, Minnijean Brown, Gloria Ray Karlmark, Thelma Mothershed, and Melba Beals integrated Little Rock High School in 1957. Segregationists protested and Governor Orval Faubus ordered the Arkansas National Guard to form a blockade and prevent the black students from entering the school. The group was later awarded the Spingarn Medal and Congressional Gold Medal for their courage.
• Daisy Bates – civil rights leader, journalist, publisher, and author. In 1941 she and her husband started their own newspaper, the Arkansas State Press, which became a voice for civil rights issues before a formal movement began. In 1952, Bates was elected president of the Arkansas State Conference of NAACP branches. She advised the Little Rock Nine during their desegregation of Little Rock High School. The Bates’ involvement in the Little Rock Crisis resulted in the loss of much advertising revenue to their newspaper and it was forced to close in 1959. She continued to work in her community. The state of Arkansas honored her by declaring the third Monday in February “George Washington’s Birthday and Daisy Gatson Bates Day” an official state holiday.
• Fannie Lou Hamer – outspoken voting rights activist and civil rights leader. She organized voter registration drives throughout the South and was Vice-Chair of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party. She also organized the Freedom Summer of 1963. Hamer attended the Democratic National Covention in 1964 as a delegate. Two of her famous slogans are “Nobody’s free until everybody’s free” and “I’m sick and tired of being sick and tired”.

 

Tommorrow is the final segment, Part 5: Historical Firsts.

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