Original Feature | March 2016

There are many instances in American culture where women have had monumental moments and no one, outside of herself and close loved ones cared enough to make loud exclamations of adoration, empowering support, and cheers of glee for her fellow woman’s successes, even in the face of adversity based mostly upon the fact that she was born a girl, who grew into a courageous woman. We are all familiar with names like Harriet Tubman, Amelia Earhart, Marie Curiae, Rosa Parks, Sojourner Truth, Oprah Winfrey, Sandra Day O’Connor, and the list could go on and on and on, but who talks about the women who are less known? Who gives recognition to the women who not only broke the legendary glass ceiling, boldly and courageously shattering it to pieces on their climb to the peak of their mountain, while pushing past all trials, tribulations, and deep-set pain.

Where is media coverage on those women? Women like Alice Coachman, who in 1984 became the first Black woman to win an Olympic gold medal and was the first American woman to secure the gold in track in field, during the London Olympics. Or women like Lucy Eldine Gonzalez Parsons, who may have been born a slave to parents of native American, African American, and Mexican ancestry in 1853; who is described to have been an anarchist communist, radical socialist, and an American laborer, accredited for participating in revolutionary activism on behalf of political prisoners, women, those who were homeless, and people of color

but more-so boldly and unapologetically shattered it; breaking molds to create new ones and not giving a hot damn about who objected.

Or even women like Mary Fields, better known as “Stagecoach Mary.” She was one of the toughest, personalities driving the Rocky Mountains of Montana on a U.S. mail route during the late 1800s; she drove U.S. mail routed from St. Peter’s Mission to the town of Cascade, Montana for 8 years, standing 6-foot-2-inches and 200 pounds. Everyone knew that “Stagecoach Mary” put the “wild” in the west as she strapped her .38 Smith & Wesson under her apron, dressed in a man’s hat and coat. Or better yet, women like Elizabeth Key the first woman and mixed-race slave to sue for the freedom of herself and her infant son – and she won! Using a complex legal argument, Elizabeth argued that after the death of her slave master the best legal classification for her and her son was an indentured servant and freeborn child. Imagine the type of courage a woman has to have in the 17thcentury, Virginia to even think she had the right to such claims.

These four examples are only a small glimpse of what type of history can be discovered about women in America. We were once before, treated and defined by law as property to men and were not permitted to own property, now women have property rights and are property owners and inheritors. We were once said to be best suited for home economics, you know the “barefoot and pregnant syndrome?!” now we run the home and shatter barriers in professional careers and entrepreneurialism, where women are increasingly surpassing male counterparts in business ownership.

***1960: Sirimavo R. D. Bandaranaike***

**became the world's first woman prime minister.**

#HERSTORY

***1967: Kathrine Switzer***

***was the first woman to run the Boston marathon.***

Take some time out of your day to define your legacy, your HERstory, your monumental moments in your HERstory and broadcast it to the world. Young girls will learn about the women we teach them about, it has to start with us. We can no longer sit on the sidelines, allowing men and sometimes women to diminish our earned and deserved shine. Start your HERstory legacy now!

We must use our adversity to propel us deeper into our destiny, only then can we see the HERstory we’re making with focus, love, motivation, and determination; creating our own legacy in the rich abundance of our own story-telling.

History Achieved, HERstory Left for Dead

#HERSTORY

B.A.C.Q. 2 HEaling Fund