Judge Jane Bolin – The New Black Magazine

In a speech from 1958, Jane Bolin, the first black women to graduate from Yale Law school in 1931, discussed women’s struggle for equal rights:

“Those gains we have made were never graciously and generously granted,” she said. “We had to fight every inch of the way, in the face of sometimes insufferable humiliations.”

She was born, Jane Matilda Bolin on April 11, 1908 in Poughkeepsie, New York. She was the youngest of four children. Her father, Gaius C. Bolin, was a lawyer, practiced law in Dutchess County for fifty years and was the first black president of the Dutchess County Bar Association.

In 1939, she became our nation’s first Black woman judge having been appointed by Mayor Fiorello La Guardia at 31 years old. According to the New York Times, Bolin ruled on important family court cases throughout her career and worked with former first lady Eleanor Roosevelt to support a program that aimed to root out crime among young boys. She remained a judge of the court, renamed the Family Court in 1962, for 40 years, with her appointment being renewed three times, until she was required to retire aged 70.

After a life of groundbreaking achievements, Jane Bolin died on Monday, January 8, 2007 at the age of 98 in Long Island City, Queens, New York.  Bolin was an activist on the bench, a staunch Republican, severed on the board of the NAACP, the National Urban League, and the Child Welfare League. She received honorary degrees from Tuskegee, Williams College, Hampton University, Western College for Woman and Morgan State University.

Judge Bolin’s obituary http://www.thenewblackmagazine.com/view.aspx?index=637

Ebony Magazine with Judge Bolin on the cover August 1947 https://www.ebony.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/0847_EBCOV-296×400.jpg

Leontyne Price -Wikipedia

Leontyne Price, who will be 94 on February 10, 2021, is one of America’s most beloved opera divas. She was the first African American soprano to have a major career at the Metropolitan Opera with 21 seasons at the Met, 201 performances, 16 roles in house and on tour. She has given master classes at Juilliard and other renowned schools.

In 1997 she wrote the children’s book version of Aida which became the basis for the Broadway musical by Elton John and Time Rice in 2000. Born Mary Violet Leontyne Price in Mississippi, by three she began piano lessons and by five, she became a regular at her church and other events. By the early 1950s she was touring the world and was often on television and during the mid-50s she toured Europe under the auspices of the U.S. State Department and on May 3, 1957, she sang her first public performance of Aida at a May Festival program in Ann Arbor Michigan in of what became her signature role.

She has been the performer for presidents, singing for Presidents Lyndon B Johnson’s funeral, President Jimmy Carter’s visit with Pope John Paul II, and at events for Presidents Reagan, George H Bush and Clinton.

Personal note from Linda: She was the first opera singer I heard live in the late 1960s when she was on tour in Detroit. I went backstage and got her signature on the playbill.

Enjoy the YouTube link of her singing Verdi from the Bell Telephone Hour circa 1960s.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qAKXNtEeOis

Dr Shirley Ann Jackson, President Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

 In honor of Black History Month, meet Dr. Shirley Ann Jackson. Her breakthroughs in telecommunications lead to inventions of the portable fax, touch tone phones, fiber optic cables, solar cells and the technology behind caller ID – thank you, Dr Jackson. She is the first African-American woman to get a PhD from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
and the first African-American woman to lead a top-ranked research university –

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

.

https://www.black-inventor.com/dr-shirley-jackson

Karen Collins – AARP Magazine

Today’s featured Black Woman is alive and active in California. She was a school teacher, but when her teenage son was incarcerator, she went into a depression and to rise up she choose to help other black children understand the strengths of their ancestors. She started creating intricate dioramas of Black History. Over the course of 24 years, Karen Collins has created a view of Black History in shadowboxes from the beginning of the dark journey in 1619 through the generations. Her project is a mobile tour to schools, libraries, churches and community centers.

The African American Miniature Museum

Facebook page has pictures and I highly recommend the YouTube video. 

Thank you Karen for creating such a wonderful way to learn history – your teaching skills shine on!

https://www.africanamericanminiaturemuseum.com/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fBzSkhiA8is…

https://cshockart.com/2020/02/01/artist-a-day-karen-collins/

https://www.aarp.org/…/fri…/info-2020/karen-collins.html

Ella Nora Phillips
BGSU University Library

Today, we raise are glass of praise and thanks to Ella P. Stewart of Toledo OH

Ella Nora Phillips was born in Springtown, West Virginia in 1893. She was the nation’s first female African American Pharmacist earning her degree and licensing in 1916. Her motto was “fight for human dignity and world peace.” She and her husband, also a pharmacist, ran Stewart Pharmacy 1922-1945 in Toledo Ohio. They lived above the shop at 566 Indiana in Toledo, now the location of Warren A.M.E.

Since they had a “comfortable 8 rooms”, Ella and William became early B&B operators as blacks were not allowed to stay in Toledo hotels. They hosted Mary McLoed Bethune, W.E.B Dubois, Marian Anderson and Carter Woodson along with practically all the great entertainers not allowed to stay in Toledo hotels. She was a LEGEND in her outreach and support of women and blacks in Toledo with a school bearing her name: Ella P. Stewart Academy for Girls.

She was known for her work with the following organizations:

• League of women voters
• Red Cross
• Toledo Board of Community Relations,
• YWCA
• NAACP
• NACW (National Association of colored Women) leadership where she received international attention
• Women’ Advisory Committee of Defense Manpower of the US Department of Labor
• Delegate to the International Conference of Women of the World
• International Education Exchange Service
• United Nations Educational Social and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ella_P._Stewart

https://lib.bgsu.edu/finding_aids/items/show/795

http://www.spiritofjefferson.com/article_3d62b626-c8b2…

Maggie Lena Walker Image from National Museum of American History

Maggie Lena Walker, the daughter of a former slave and cook, was the first woman to charter a bank in the United States in 1902. The bank offered loans and mortgages to black residents of Richmond, Virginia who were otherwise denied service by white-owned banks.

A year later she started a department store allowing black customers to shop with dignity: To enter through the main doors instead of a side entrance, to try on clothing before buying, and to eat at lunch counters. Her store displayed clothing on brown-skinned mannequins and hired exclusively black women to work as clerks.

Later the same year, Walker utilized her newspaper to urge Richmond residents to boycott the city’s segregated streetcar system. The boycott was so effective the company operating the street cars declared bankruptcy two months later.

I have chosen to honor Black American Women that are often overlooked. Some I find a connection to my life and others are just plain amazing. Enjoy.