African American women have overcome unprecedented adversity historically and have now arisen to a place of grand success and notoriety. Two of my personal favorites among African American women are Rosa Parks and Oprah Winfrey.
Rosa Parks was an African American seamstress and civil rights activist whom the U.S. Congress dubbed the "Mother of the Modern-Day Civil rights Movement". Parks is notable for her refusal on December 1, 1955 to obey bus driver James Blake's question that she relinquish her seat to a white passenger. Her subsequent arrest and trial for this act of civil disobedience triggered the Montgomery Bus Boycott, one of the largest and most flourishing mass movements against racial segregation in history, and launched Martin Luther King, Jr., one of the organizers of the boycott, to the forefront of the civil rights movement. Her role in American history earned her an iconic status in American culture, and her actions have left an enduring heritage for civil rights movements around the world.
Oprah Winfrey after her birth spent her first six years living in rural poverty with her Grandma Hattie Mae. Winfrey's grandmother taught her to read before the age of three and took her to the local church, where she was nicknamed "The Preacher" for her potential to characterize Bible verses. At age six Oprah moved to an inner city ghetto in Milwaukee, Wisconsin with her mother.
Winfrey was molested by her cousin, uncle, and a family friend. This traumatic sense deeply effected Oprah, but at the same time amazingly enabled her to feel for women, who would later become her major audience over the world. Turning her personal mess into a message, Oprah has mightily arisen as a global voice for women, an advocate for their rights, and a motherly figurehead who daily nurtures women throughout the world straight through her Tv broadcast.
Despite her dysfunctional home life, Winfrey skipped two of her earliest grades, became the teacher's pet, and by the time she was 13 received a scholarship to attend High School in the suburbs. Like many teenagers at the end of the 1960s, Winfrey rebelled, ran away from home and ran the streets. When she was 14, her frustrated mum sent her to live with her father in Nashville, Tennessee. Vernon was strict, but encouraging and made her instruction a priority. Winfrey became an honors pupil and was voted "Most favorite Girl."
Other aspects of Oprah's journey to success comprise her joining her high school speech team, and placing second in the nation in dramatic interpretation. She won an oratory contest, which secured her a full scholarship to Tennessee State University, where she studied communications. At age 18, Winfrey won the Miss Black Tennessee beauty pageant.
Oprah's true media career began at age 17, when Winfrey worked at a local radio center while attending Tsu. Working in local media, she was both the youngest news anchor and the first black female news anchor at Nashville's Wlac-Tv. She moved to Baltimore's Wjz-Tv in 1976 to co-anchor the six o'clock news. She was then recruited as co-host of Wjz's local talk show population Are Talking, which premiered on August 14, 1978.
In 1983, Winfrey relocated to Chicago to host Wls-Tv's low-rated half-hour morning talk-show, Am Chicago. The first episode aired on January 2, 1984. Within months after Winfrey took over, the show went from last place in the ratings to overtaking Donahue as the highest rated talk show in Chicago. It was renamed The Oprah Winfrey Show, extensive to a full hour, and broadcast nationally starting September 8, 1986.
Time magazine wrote, "Few population would have bet on Oprah Winfrey's swift rise to host of the most favorite talk show on Tv. In a field dominated by white males, she is a black female of ample bulk."
Oprah speedily silenced her critics by taking her show to the top. Her straightforward curiosity, delightful humor, and endearing empathy attracts viewers of all walks of life. making population feel safe in her presence, affirming their personhood, and encouraging their possible Oprah's show provides viewers throughout the world a group therapy and personal empowerment session.
What leadership lessons can we learn from Rosa Parks and Oprah Winfrey:
1. Stand up for yourself. Don't be afraid defy the status quo and say no!
2. Disobedience in the eyes of men is sometimes obedience in the eyes of God.
3. Be bold as a lion and rule the jungle.
4. Liberation for you means liberation for others.
5. Turn your mess into a message.
6. Your pain is the power of your purpose.
7. Your adversity is your testimony.
8. Pursue instruction and demonstration of your personhood.
9. Maximize the media to strengthen the message.
10. strengthen your heart and strengthen your world.
11. Empathize with others providing a sympathetic ear.
12. Love unconditionally and live wholeheartedly.
There is nothing new under the sun. Apply these ladies leadership secrets to your own life and live your dreams.
