Guest Post by Shanelle Matthews “Are you in college?” The doctor could tell from my face I wasn’t at all interested in having a conversation. “You speak well. I mean, you’re articulate.” The wrinkles in my forehead deepened. I wrung my fingers tightly around the scratchy, blue exam gown and briefly thought about the woman who wore it before me; what was she like? I looked at him, desperately wanting to not have to actually speak, wishing he could just read my mind. “Yes. I’m in college,” I responded shortly. I was really thinking, “That’s none of your business and …Read more »

On this inauguration morning and MLK day, I woke up with Anna Arnold Hedgeman on my mind. You may not know her but you should.    Anna Arnold Hedgeman was the only woman to serve on the 1963 March on Washington planning committee. She was the first Black woman to serve in a New York Mayoral Cabinet, under the leadership Mayor Robert Wagner (1954-1958). She is an exemplar of Jacqueline Dowd Hall’s concept of “the long civil rights movement,” since she was one of the organizers for the first March on Washington Movement alongside A. Philip Randolph in 1941. The result …Read more »