Black Women Who Made A Difference

By Dr. Minnie Ransom

This informative nonfiction book was written to inspire young women and girls. They will see the struggles and adversities in which the brave, intelligent, and motivated women including the author in this book endured to overcome to reach their goals. 

This nonfiction book is written to tell these women's stories with a little flair o

• Language: English
• Publisher: Step-It-Up
• Release date: Apr 1, 2024
• ISBN: 9798890216199

Dr. Minnie Ransom

Dr. Minnie Ransom holds a life California Standard Teaching Credential; A life California Adult Education Credential; A life Standard Teaching-Early Childhood Credential; is certified in the education of English Language Development (ELD); and Gifted and Talented (GATE) students.She knows struggles, discrimination, adversities, inequities, and the importance of education. Often she was the only Black student in classes throughout high school, college, and at her teaching sight.Dr. Ransom is a long- term private and public educator who has worked with all age groups including preschoolers through high school. She has successfully owned and operated a private school that served infants through third grade students for academics and daycare. She has been a long-term public educator of general education, GATE students, and English Learners in public schools including preschool, through high school, Juvenile facilities, and adult education.Dr. Ransom discovered as a young child that she wanted to pursue a career in education when she used to teach her younger cousins what she had learned in first grade. Now she is pursuing educating through the means of print.

Book preview

Black Women

Who Have Made

a Difference

Minnie L. Ransom, Ed.D.

Copyright © 2024 Minnie L. Ransom, Ed.D.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the copyright owner and the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

Published by Step-It-Up

iSBN: 979-8-89021-619-9 eBook

iSBN: 979-8-89021-620-5 Paperback

iSBN: 979-8-89021-621-2 Hardback

Printed in the United States of America

Dedicated to Sharonda, Kaliah, Siobhan, Kaliese, Mui, Chloe, and all girls and women in the world.

Introduction

Respect Yourself and Others

By: Dr. Minnie Ransom

Show respect for yourself, others, and their differences.

You never know the consequences.

Have hope for the future which is essential.

Always living up to your full potential.

Be a part of change for the better:

Many dreams potentially not to shatter.

Being true to yourself is what really matters.

Accept defeat with grace and know,

That everything presents a lesson to grow.

Never give up even when doors are closed.

Someday your blessings will overflow.

You may be treated wrong but stand for what is right.

In the end it will be worth the fight.

Slang, vulgar, and obscene language is not a part of your vocabulary.

You are smart and can use many other words from the dictionary.

Pull up those pants: Be proud, not shy.

Represent the proud people you are, holding your head high.

Walk tall as if your heads were being pulled to the sky.

Sit up in your chair.

There is no time to spare.

Head down, drifting off will not get you there.

Sit at the front of the class, sitting in the back has long passed.

Focus! Be in the present; One place and not head is in another.

Listen! Really listen; Take everything all in.

Participate. Not distracting or being distracted by others.

Learning is not a sin! Learning starts from within.

Learn all that is presented to you from class beginning to end.

Being called Nerd, Teacher’s Pet, Show-Off, or even a Geek.

Do not let those make you weak.

When they say words trying to make you turn within and hurt yourself,

Disregard those evil words spewed seeking to put themselves on a shelf.

Leave those fears and negativities behind you.

Of which I am sure there are a few.

Even when you are accused of trying to be more than who you are.

You will not let that stop you from being a star.

When asked if you think you are better than the rest,

You know for you what is best.

All of this is not a sheer coincidence.

Draw strength from God and from within to help you with endurance.

They will try to snuff out your light burning ever so bright.

May this possibly be the one way to show their might?

Could it be the only way to make their light begin to flicker?

They may think that they are slicker.

Being all that you can be is demonstrating your true presence!

To not show your brilliance is to be of non-existence!

Phillis Wheatley (1753-1784)

During 1761 in the Boston harbor,

A little slave girl was discovered buried in the body of a vessel.

She was likely 6 to 8 years old and a foreigner.

She was sold to a wealthy merchant tailor for his wife,

Who had compassion for her which would relieve the little girl’s strife.

She was treated as a daughter and assigned chores,

Relative to a position of any lady, mine, or yours’.

She was described as my Phillis.

Phillis was instructed to read and write.

By the Wheatley’s children of birth right.

Phillis was a quick study.

She learned the English language within eighteen months,

She had learned so well that she could read anything quite blunt.

It was clear that her intelligence had been seen rarely.

She even became proficient in Latin fearlessly.

At the age of 14 she began to write poetry.

Before long, the news of her gifts captured attraction,

Of distinguished Bostonians’ attention,

Some of which had human consideration.

In 1770 Phillis wrote her first published poem,

On the Death of the Rev. Mr. George Whitegield.

The poem came to the attention of the Countess of Huntington in England.

Three years later Phillis was sent to England for health reasons,

The Countess introduced her to the Lord Mayor and other members of nobility.

Phillis impressed them so much that before she left,

The Countess had arranged to have a volume of her poems published.

In 1773, the first book of poems of various subjects on religion and moral,

By an American Black woman off the press was relinquished.

A forward was signed by eighteen prominent Massachusetts men,

Including the wealthy merchant John Hancock and the governor of the colony.

Proving her authorship and talents that were indeed only hers awesomely.

That little girl, Phillis Wheatley who arrived in the belly of a ship,

Became a pioneer in literary history, a poetess of the American Revolution,

And the first Black female poetess in the United States

Her mistress died in 1774 and her master died in 1778 leaving