Maria P. Williams (1866-1932) Thanks to the early accomplishments of Williams, who has been called the first woman of color producer, we have female directors and producers like Oprah, Ava DuVernay, and Shonda Rhimes. Williams’s 1923 film The Flames of Wrath had a team of all people of color, and beyond that, the former Kansas City teacher was...
It is time to fix things that have been broken and ignored. You have procrastinated with the hope that it would just go away or fix itself, but neither of those options have been fulfilled. You must take the necessary steps in order to bring resolution, says the Lord (Burns). Philippians 4:13 I can do all...
He calmed the storm to a whisper and stilled the waves. What a blessing was that stillness as he brought them safely into harbor! Ps 107:29-30, NLT Peace be with you!
The next day the great crowd that had come for the Feast heard that Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem. 13 They took palm branches and went out to meet him, shouting, “Hosanna!” “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!” “Blessed is the King of Israel!” John 12:12-13 NIV
Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me. 7 If you had really known me, you would know who my Father is. From now on, you do know him and have seen him!” John 14:6-7, NLT Live like you love Him!
Annie Lee Cooper (1910-2010) The Selma, Alabama, native played a crucial part in the 1965 Selma Voting Rights Movement. But it wasn’t until Oprah played her in the 2014 Oscar-nominated film Selma that people really took notice of Cooper’s activism. She is lauded for punching Alabama Sheriff Jim Clark in the face, but she really...
Gordon Parks (1912-2006) Parks was the first African American photographer on the staff of Life magazine, and later helped found Essence. He also was the first Black writer and director of a studio film, and his second movie, Shaft, helping to shape the blaxploitation era in the ’70s. Parks famously told Life in 1999: “I saw that the camera could be a...
Bessie Coleman (1892-1926) Despite being the first licensed Black pilot in the world, Coleman wasn’t recognized as a pioneer in aviation until after her death. Though history has favored Amelia Earhart or the Wright brothers, Coleman—who went to flight school in France in 1920—paved the way for a new generation of diverse fliers like the Tuskegee Airmen,...
Before flat screens and high-definition LCD monitors were the norm, PC displays were limited to screens with no color that was tethered to computers with limited processing power. That all changed thanks to Black inventor and engineer Mark Dean. Dean began working for IBM as a chief engineer in the early 1980s, making up a team...
