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- In honor of this special month, Walker’s Legacy, a digital platform for the professional and entrepreneurial multicultural woman, has produced a #BEENBOSS series, showcasing groundbreaking African American women who were trailblazers of their time.
- In honor of this special month, Walker’s Legacy, a digital platform for the professional and entrepreneurial multicultural woman, has produced a #BEENBOSS series, showcasing groundbreaking African American women who were trailblazers of their time.
As 2018 Black History Month comes to a close, there is so much that can be learned from this poignant month. Looking at history, it’s clear that African Americans in this country have faced many obstacles, but at the same time our stories and determination have created hope and inspire those today who seek to become better people due to the perseverance of those that came before us.
The women featured in the videos were: Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm, Activist Dr. Joyce Ladner, Educator and Activist Mary Jane McLeod Bethune, Inventors Mary Beatrice Davidson Kenner and Madam C.J. Walker and Psychologist Mamie Phipps Clark.
I spoke to the Founder & CEO of Walker's Legacy Natalie Madeira Cofield about the #BEENBOSS series and why creating this was important. I also had the opportunity to speak with Brittany Packnett, Vice President of National Community Alliances at Teach For America & Co-Founder of Campaign Zero, and Alencia Johnson, Director of Constituency Communications at Planned Parenthood Federation of America, about their features in the #BEEENBOSS video series.
Lauren Wesley Wilson: For those who aren’t familiar with #BEENBOSS, explain what this means and how you came up with the video series.
Natalie Madeira Cofield: #BEENBOSS is a campaign that celebrates and reclaims the many contributions that multicultural women have made in business and entrepreneurship. Often, their legacy of firsts are lost among new conversations about women and leadership, leaving many women of color without the proper historical reference for the possibilities of their own achievements.
Wesley Wilson: How did you choose the trailblazing bosses of yesterday and today that are showcased in this series?
Madeira Cofield: We wanted to make sure that we were highlighting women from all ages who are doing amazing work in their respective fields, serving as CEOs, Founders and leaders. I thought about how important it would be for us to showcase their stories against the backdrop of women who came before them in those same industries.
We picked women in health, business, politics, and civic leadership and ensured that we found hidden gem stories of women that many people may have never heard of before.
Welsey Wilson: How many videos do you currently have, and how many more will you be producing?
Madeira Cofield: Walker's Legacy conducted six interviews with leading African American women in celebration of Black History Month. We will be releasing a new campaign featuring new women from a range of industries, backgrounds and geographies based on a specific theme for each month. Our next campaign will focus on the importance of mentorship in honor of Women's History Month.
Wesley Wilson: What do you foresee in the future of the #BEENBOSS series? What do you hope it evolves into?
Madeira Cofield: #BEENBOSS will be a monthly campaign by Walker's Legacy designed to highlight the important role that women of color have and continue to play in business and society. We will feature multicultural women in a variety of themes throughout the year. Our goal is simply to provide a space for women to see themselves bossing, and know that our achievement is not new, we've been boss.
I had the opportunity to sit down with Brittany Packnett and Alencia Johnson who are both featured in the #BEENBOSS video alongside trailblazers from the past. I asked them each a series of questions that provided more insight into the leaders that they were profiled alongside and I gained further knowledge of the work that each of them are doing during this critical time and continuous fight for civil rights.
Lauren Wesley Wilson: Shirley Anita Chisholm was an American politician, educator, and author. In 1968, she became the first black woman elected to the United States Congress. You mention in the video her hard work for people of color and immigrants. How important do you think her impact would be if she was alive now during the era we live in today?
Brittany Packnett: Shirley Chisolm laid the groundwork for so many of us-to be bold, unapologetic, and earnestly demand the rights every human being deserves. She pushed forward during a time when it was even more dangerous than it is now for a Black woman to be so outspoken. I don't think we need her to be alive today-she did a great deal while she was here. We simply need to be intentional about carrying on her legacy.
Wesley Wilson: Being an activist and seeing the state of the world, would you describe what’s happening now as a modern day civil rights movement?
Packnett: The fight for freedom and human rights has gone on for generations. This is the latest chapter in a long freedom struggle, and the efforts people are making every day make me excited to see what the world will look like as we turn the page together.
Lauren Wesley Wilson: Mary Kenner tried revolutionizing the way women were able to take care of themselves with the sanitary napkin, which she couldn’t even have patented due to her race until years later.
You are a part of an organization that advocates for women to have access to simple items such as sanitary pads to birth control. How important is it for women of all backgrounds to have something like Planned Parenthood on their side in a world where women are constantly told what to do with their bodies?
Lauren Wesley Wilson: Mary Kenner tried revolutionizing the way women were able to take care of themselves with the sanitary napkin, which she couldn’t even have patented due to her race until years later.
You are a part of an organization that advocates for women to have access to simple items such as sanitary pads to birth control. How important is it for women of all backgrounds to have something like Planned Parenthood on their side in a world where women are constantly told what to do with their bodies?
Alencia Johnson: Planned Parenthood believes that every person -- no matter gender, race, immigration status, class, religion -- deserves agency over their lives. And unfortunately, some of our institutions who shape and write policy disagree. I tell people all of the time that for Black women, agency is more than our health care, it's our ability to control our destiny through choices of education, safe communities, the ability to vote, and more.
While Planned Parenthood is a reproductive health care provider and advocate for reproductive rights, the organization is learning from the women of color led reproductive justice movement that a more inclusive framework addressing systemic and social issues facing marginalized women is imperative for every woman to achieve their greatest life of opportunity and freedom.
Wesley Wilson: How imperative is it for women to be activists and advocates for other women of color, especially during the times we live in now?
Johnson: History has shown us that the women's movement hasn't always been intersectional -- often forcing Black women to choose Civil Rights and the fight for racial justice over the women's movement because the framework did not include our liberation.
I believe what we're seeing now is an awakening to people's lived experiences, and more people understanding that for many, we can't separate our race and gender so therefore advocacy must include all forms of oppression that impact one's ability to live a life that is just and equitable.
