"The way to right wrongs is to turn the light of truth upon them."
We are a group of people working to resist change, create change, or undo change. We have organized and strived for common goals of justice. Our outcomes have been re-intrenchments and victories. Social change for justice issues is a continuous, and dynamic process. It starts with the individual choices to not say, “I cannot do anything about _______________. Individuals make a personal and action to address the challenge. The individual action inspires the neighborhood, community, city, state, and nation. One action can spark the creation of collective action. The power of the individuals within the collective changes society and creates policy. We live in a global village; our actions can inspire people and nations beyond our borders.
What is the mindset for the power of the individuals within a collective with a justice objective. According to Ida B. Wells, the way to right wrongs is to turn the light of truth upon them. The light of truth brings transparency and revealing truth would shed the light and rectify injustices (Ida B. Wells Quotes, Historical Newspapers)
Henrietta Lacks
Ms. Lack was born Loretta Pleasant was born in 1920. She transitioned in 1951 by tumors of cervical cancer. Her cells became the first immortalized human cell and the source of HeLa cancer line. Her cells are used for medical research. (Steve Silverman, 2010
Ella Baker
Ella Baker was born December 13, 1903, in Norfolk, Virginia. She graduated from Shaw University, Raleigh, North Carolina in 1927 Her life experience includes editor assistant to Negro National News, 1930. Ms. Baker interacted with Pauli Murray and John Henrik Clark, highest ranking woman in the NAACP and New York City, NAACP Branch Manager. She established the top priorities of local school desegregation and police brutality for the New York Branch, NAACP in the 1940’s. The 2025 fact is New York City is still one of the most segregated educational systems in the country and wrestles with police brutality. It is a paradox that New York City is one of the most culturally diverse cities in the world. (The forgotten: NYC and School Segregation).
Her role in the Civil Rights movement was the co-founder of Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) and Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. “Ella Baker was one who sat down with Baynard Rustin and Stanley Levinson to discuss how to create a continuing movement out of the Montgomery Bus Boycott. (Children’s Defense organization) She cast aspersions against professional charismatic leadership, she promoted the leaderful or grass roots organizing. Leaderful is the concept of creating and developing leaders within the movement to address the various aspects under the unifying umbrella of Civil Rights. The leaderful model created “the ability of the oppressed to understand their world and advocate for themselves. (Ella Baker, Wikipedia)
Her legacy extended to the concept of think globally, and act globally. She provided mentorship to the Third World Coordinating Committee and Puerto Rican Solidarity Committee. The Ella Baker Center for Human Rights was formed in 1996 with the social justice focus of mass incarceration, housing, accountability and spaces for restorative justice and economics. (Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, Ella Baker, Wikipedia)
“You do not see me on television, you do not see news stories about me. The kind of role that I tried to play was to pick up the pieces or put together pieces out of which I hoped organization might come. My theory is strong people do not need strong leaders” stated Ella Baker (Ella Baker, Wikipedia)
Ella Baker had a Swahili identity, Fundi. Fundi is the Swahili word for a “person that passes skills from one generation to another. Fundi: The Story of Ella Baker (48’) from Icarus Films is available for viewing online at vimeo>Ascanio Piomelli and trailer on You Tube.
Pauli Murray
Pauli Murray was born in Baltimore, Maryland on November 20, 1910. Fast forward to March 1940, she was arrested and imprisoned for refusing to sit in the back of the bus in Virginia. She became a Civil Rights lawyer and joined George Houser, James Farmer, and Bayard Rustin to form the non-violent organization of Congress of Racial Equality. She authored he essays in 1943, Negroes Are Fed Up. Her master’s thesis was The Right to Equal Opportunity in Employment for the University of California Boalt School of Law. The guideline for civil rights litigation was her research State Laws on Race and Color. (Who is Pauli Murray, Pauli Murray Center)
Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune Dr. Dorothy Height, Shamarria Foy-Morrison
The National Council of Negro Women
The National Council of Negro Women (NCNW) is an organization of organizations comprised of 330 campus and community-based sections and 33 national women’s groups that enlightens, inspires, and connects more than 2,000,000 women and men. (National Council of Negro Women)
Mary McLeod Bethune was born during Reconstruction era of the United States. She was an educator, philanthropist, and Civil Rights activist. She established the National Council of Negro Women in 1935. Her accomplishments are inclusive of the creation of AfraAmerican Women’s Journal. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Mary Bethune instituted the Federal Council of Colored Affairs (McCLuskey: Smith, 2001, pxii). Mary McLeod Bethune founded Bethune-Cookman University, Daytona Beach, Florida in 1904. (Mary McLeod Bethune, Wikipedia) The First Ladies by Marie Benedict highlights the allyship and relationship of Mary McLeod Bethune and Eleanor Roosevelt.
Dr. Dorothy Height
Dorothy Height was born in Richmond, Virginia. She attended New York University and earned a bachelor’s in education (1930) and master’s in psychology (1932)”. She started her career as a case worker with the New York City Welfare Department. She served as a social worker in Harlem. (Social Workers.Org) She also worked at the Harlem YWCA. She became acquainted with Mary McLeod Bethune and Eleanor Roosevelt during her tenure at the YMCA. Ms. Height established the Center for Racial Justice in 1965. She served as the fourth national president of the National Council of Women in 1957. The National Council of Women were instrumental to the March on Washington in 1963. “Dorothy Height was extremely active organizing Wednesdays in Mississippi, as well as assisting with the organization and execution of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. Height worked closely with Bayard Rustin on the complex logistics surrounding the March, used her networks of contacts to raise funds and offered the NCNW headquarters in Washington as a meeting place. She helped mediate and resolve differences of the March as ideas and egos clashed throughout planning process. While not allowed to give one of the keynote speeches that day, Height was seated as the only woman on the platform behind the speakers, after she convinced the organizers to let Martin Luther King Jr, speak towards the end of the program” (The Legacy of Dorothy Height). The Dorothy I. Height Global Leadership Academy (DIHGLA) is the next level of social movements. The DIHGLA mission is “preparing to ready the next generation of global leaders and advocate their deployment in non-traditional spaces (International Black Women Public Policy, Dorothy I Height Global Leadership Academy)
Health Equity is one of the focuses of the National Council of Negro Women. “Health Equity is the idea that everyone should have a fair chance to reach their full health potential, regardless of social position or health disparities. Health Equity in a community, state, requires a shared vision of increasing not only access to quality health care, but also addressing the unique needs of populations and eliminating barriers of cost or other financial hardship. Health Equity is both a moral and economic issue” (Health Equity, Catawba Valley Healthcare, 2022)
Shamarria Foy-Morrison, Health Equity Chair, Fayetteville, North Carolina Section of National Council of Negro Women is sponsoring Healthy Hearts and Healing Hands Community Health Fair, at North Regional Library, 855 Mc Arthur Road, Fayetteville, North Carolina. Healthy Hearts and Healing Hands will take place on February 15, 2025, during the hours of 11am-2pm. Allied health issues, insurances, women’s health, blood pressure, cholesterol, sickle cell, Zumba, Line-Dancing, Dental, and many more screening are available free to the public.
Shamarria Foy Morrison is one of the legacy leaders of the National Council of Negro Women.
