Grandma's Bones by Nina Turner

Author:Nina Turner [Turner, Nina]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Nina Turner
Published: 2016-03-18T00:00:00+00:00

black woman determined to go against the grain and provide a lighted path for future generations—she was on a mission.

Originally assigned to the House Agricultural Committee, Chisholm was annoyed because she didn’t feel this benefited her urban constituents. Realizing she needed to do something for her district, using the surplus food for the poor and hungry, she worked with Robert Dole to develop the Food Stamp Program. She later played a pivotal role organizing the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC) program. Later on, she would become a founding member of the Congressional Black Caucus and the National Women's Political Caucus. She tried for years to expand federal funds for child care services to support single moms, and although her bill didn't pass, it was her tireless striving that led the male-centric government to eventually create support for single mothers of all ethnicities.

Congresswoman Chisholm didn't just speak out in her role as a member of Congress, she carried out her beliefs in all areas of her life. She was a visionary and she believed in equality. Her staff, from her first elected post, always consisted of women, and half of those were African American. She used her authority to model her beliefs.

Her biggest legacy to me was her unrelenting faith that things would get better for African Americans. She was not a dreamer but an optimist. However, she did not hold such optimism when it came to prejudice against women. She stated she had witnessed more discrimination during her New York legislative career because she was a woman, and not due to her race. "In the end, anti-black, anti-female, and all forms of discrimination are equivalent to the same thing: anti-humanism."

The simple truth I learned from Congresswoman Chisholm as an adult, and my grandma as a child, is that when you give voice to something, you give it life. The Good Book says “to call those things that are not as though they were.” It’s not what you see in the natural world but what you see in the Spirit.

Fannie Lou Hamer was another example of a woman determined to make a difference in the lives of others. A sharecropper from Mississippi who found her purpose and turned her community, state, nation, and Democratic Party upside-down for the righteous cause of the ballot box. She was instrumental in voter registration initiatives for African Americans.

During the 1950s, Hamer attended several annual conferences in Mississippi of the Regional Council of Negro Leadership (RCNL). For those who don't know, RCNL was a combination civil rights and self-help organization, led by Dr. T. R. M. Howard, a civil rights leader and wealthy black entrepreneur. The annual RCNL conferences featured popular entertainers, and

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