Those who have met you personally recall your stature and brilliance. You were a fierce man, with the mind of a worldly scholar. You were brought up in Massachusetts in a mostly white community in a haze of never feeling other than. It was not until you left to go live in Tennesee that you were met with the blunt experience of being black under Jim Crow Laws. It was then that you began to analyze the deep rootedness of American racism. Your eyes were open and they were never left apathetic again.
Today, this is how much of the United States is operating. It is why so many people claim that racism does not even exist. It is why it is able to operate more successfully than ever before. It's coded presence in our society today makes fighting it much more difficult. It was not until the killing of George Floyd in broad daylight gave us a direct unquestionable act of black hatred festering undealt with that we began to fight the system head-on.
You continued your studies, after having lived in Tenessee, at Harvard University where you became the first African American to earn a P.h.D. in 1895. Your ambition always seemed to surpass your hindrances. You changed the limited mindset that came with having skin the color of bronze. You then went on to co-found a civil right organization that is still prominent today; the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. This organization has helped to secure us our constitutional rights and had a major part in ending segregation. The magic that has come from your creations and achievements is beyond inspiring. You lived your life immersed in black consciousness and what it means to be a black man, however, you went out into the world working for achievements that black men were never normally accredited. You worked your entire life in an effort to educate black and brown peoples of the powers that were in place and how we can break the chains we are still placed in. You preached calling for full equality and equal rights to education.
Your activism reached beyond the United States and went into Africa. You organized to help Pan-African Congresses in an effort to free African Colonies from European Powers. You fought for every black person's right to fulfillment under their respective governments.
From your life efforts, I have come to an understanding of how I can surpass limits placed on me from birth. I have come to understand that I too can be a transcendental black woman in today's socio-cultural environment. Thank you for showing that it only takes one person to show what is possible.
Sincerely,
Kayla Mary Jane