"Next to God we are indebted to women, first for life itself, and then for making it worth living."

"Next to God we are indebted to women, first for life itself, and then for making it worth living." These words of Mary McLeod Bethune resonate with truth yet today.

It is not that I am possessed of an anti-man sentiment; no, it is that I am possessed a driven to recover and reveal the many and mighty ways in which women have and continue to support and sustain our beloved community.

Women were active and activists in every historic event from the Maafa or Middle Passage to Slavery to Reconstruction to the Exoduster Movement to Jim Crow to the Harlem Renaissance to Civil Rights to present day. Unfortunately, the names and contributions of women are often not documented adequately.

History identifies one of the first African American females simply as 'Old Elizabeth'. It is important that we teach the history of our people fully. Women are vital in the survival and success of African Americans. The Women's Club movement included the National Association of Colored Women speaking on their theme Mary Church Terrell expressed purpose and hope for women collectively working for the uplift of our race.

"And so lifting as we climb, onward and upward we go, struggling and striving and hoping that the buds and blossoms of our desires will burst into glorious fruition ere long. With courage born of success achieved in the past, with a keen sense of the responsibility which we must continue to assume we look forward to the future, large with promise and hope. Seeking no favors because of our color or patronage because of our needs, we knock at the bar of justice and ask for an equal chance" (Mary Church Terrell).

African American women have approached societal proablems from different perspectives. There is dimension and depth to the intellectual contemplations of our women even when there is unity of purpose and commonality of crisis.

Upon the founding of the National Association of Colored Women's Clubs in 1896, Sarah Dudley Pettey lauded the organization's mission while deploring its use of the word "colored." She attributed its origin to the "softening" of the word "nigger" to "you colored people" in the antebellum South. All people are colored, she argued, "from the fairest blonde to the darkest hue of humanity." Far better to use the term "Afro-American ... as it designates both the races and countries from whence we, the amalgamated race, came." It was typical of her to speak forthrightly of racial mixing; on another occasion, she argued that the word "Negro" was useless because it denoted "one type of the African race without mixture." By clinging to "Afro," she showed her pride in her African heritage; by linking it with "American," she held whites accountable for both slavery and miscegenation. When an African American writer proposed "affirming we are `Americans, pure and simple,'" Dudley Pettey retorted that if "we [were] Americans, pure and simple," there "would be no class legislation against us; there would be no need of separate schools and churches." To Dudley Pettey, race prejudice worked like class prejudice: it created false divisions among worthy human beings (Glenda Elizabeth Gilmore, 1997)

African American women have been advocating and agitating for our beloved community since our arrival in America. Anna Julia Cooper, Ida B. Wells, Violette N. Anderson, Augusta Savage, Norma Sklarek, Leontine T. C. Kelly, and Hazel Winifred Johnson. It is important that as we move into the twenty first century that we embrace, uplift, and appreciate the African American women for their endeavors as leaders, supporters, sustainers, mentors, caretakers, and risk takers.

Today resolve to thank God for all He has done for you and through you. Thank God for the African American women in your life. Thank the African American women in your life. Learn more about African American women and share the knowledge...do your part to continue the role of strong, beautiful, gifted, and committed African American women in the generations to come!