By Ashton Edmunds & Ariyana Griffin
Toni Morrison
Toni Morrison attended Howard University and graduated in 1953 with a Bachelor's Degree in English. Following her education, Morrison served as a writer, poet, feminist/womanist activist and professor. Ms. Morrison is widely known for her literary work. Some of her most notable workds include, The Bluest Eye, Song of Solomon, Jazz and A Mercy and Beloved. She has won a plethora of awards for her writings including a Nobel Peace Prize. She transitioned in 2019, but her writings will live on forever.
Evelynn H. Hammonds
Evelynn H. Hammonds graduated from Spelman College in 1976. She majored in both physics and electrical engineering. She is widely known as being the first Black woman to be the Dean of the Ivy League, Harvard College. Before her, no other woman or African-American was in this position.
Barbara Charline Jordan
Barbara Charline Jordan is a graduate of Texas Southern University. She majored in political science and history and she graduated in 1956. She became a lawyer and is known for being a great leader in the Civil Rights Movement. In addition to this, Jordan became the first black person to be elected to the Texas Senate, the first Southern black woman to be elected in the U.S. House of Representatives and the first “woman to deliver a keynote address at a Democratic National Convention.
Renee Powell
Golf has been dominated by white players for years. Rarely do we see African American women playing this sport professionally, but Renee Powell changed that narrative by being one of the greatest to ever play this game. Born in Canton, Ohio, golf was introduced to Powell at the age of 3. Her dad, Bill Powell, was the first African American to create and build his own golf course in the United States. Entering her first amateur tournament at the age of 12, she easily took home the victory and three years later, had 30 tournament trophies at the age of 15. Powell knew she was destined for greatness early in her career as she continued to prevail over her foes. As she matured in her career, she had won the Columbiana County Open, Clearview Golf Club Junior and even the Great Lakes Bantam Golf Tournament, which later gave her the nickname “Queen of the Bantam Golf Show.” Powell’s most profound moment in her career is that she later joined the British PGA and was the first woman to compete in a British men’s tournament when she played in the 1977 Surrey PGA Championship. She was the only African American female professional golfer in the tournament and even designed her own clothing for the event. Powell graduated from Ohio State University, where she was the first African American female captain to lead a major university golf team. In 2017, she was inducted in the PGA of America Hall of Fame. Renee Powell was an emblem that showed everybody women could break barriers in a so-called man’s game.
Claire Smith
The rise in women’s sports journalism has skyrocketed over the years, and there has been much talk about whether they are cut out for the profession. Claire Smith took a different approach to prove that she is in fact one of the best in the sports industry. Smith was born in Langhorne, Bucks County, Pennsylvania, and she graduated from Temple University with a journalism degree, landing her first professional job at the Bucks County Courier. Smith then landed a job covering the New York Yankees from 1983 to 1987 as the first woman Major League Baseball beat writer. Smith faced many challenges not only as a woman in sports but being an African American alone. In 1984, the San Diego Padres prohibited any women from being in the locker room. However, Padres first basemen Steve Garvey left the clubhouse, told Smith “you still have a job to do” and allowed himself to be interviewed by her. The very next day, Baseball Commissioner Peter Ueberroth announced the requirement for equal access in all Major League Baseball locker rooms. Smith’s journalistic achievements earned her the J. G. Taylor Spink Award being the first woman and fourth African American to receive this honor. Her legacy as a sports journalist helped rewrite history as we know it today.
Stacey Abrams
Seeing how Abrams, a Spelman College graduate, boosted voter turnout to help make Georgia a blue state for the first time since 1992, showed me what resiliency looks like. Abrams founded the New Georgia Project, which submitted more than 200,000 registrations for voters of color between 2014 and 2016. She has helped create and retain jobs in Georgia. Through her various business ventures, Abrams has helped employ even more Georgians, including hundreds of young people starting out. In 2010, Abrams became the first woman to lead either party in the Georgia General Assembly and the first African American to lead in the House of Representatives. Most recently, she passed legislation to improve the welfare of grandparents and other kin raising children and secured increased funding to support these families. In 2021, Abrams was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize for her efforts in the 2020 election.
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