QUEst for Blackness
(October 2010)
QUEst #1: My mother wanted me to become a schoolteacher when I graduated from a North Carolina university with honors. I had other dreams. I also refused to sing spirituals to entertain an all-white group that visited my campus. I became the first national director of an organization that helped people save by buying goods collectively. I co-founded a leading civil rights organization that gave young people a voice in the growing civil rights movement.
“Every time I see a young person who identifies with the struggle of BLACK people…I take new hope.” “The major job was getting people to understand that they had something within their power that they could use, and it could only be used if they understood what was happening and how group action could counter violence…”
=> If only Omega could come together and identify with the BLACK struggle. Who am I? ANS: Ella Jo Baker (Source: http://www.ellabakercenter.org/page.php?pageid=19&contentid=9)
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QUEst #2: The daughter of former slaves, I became a college president, founded a national organization for BLACK women, and developed into a prominent government official.
=> You’re an Omega Man, but are you courageous? Who am I?ANS: Mary McLeod Bethune (Source: http://www.africawithin.com/bios/mary_bethune.htm)
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QUEst #3: After graduating from college, I taught nursery school and earned a master’s degree in elementary education. I was “unbought and unbossed” and made history as the first BLACK person to run for President of the United States. => Who’s your master? Who am I? ANS: Shirley Chisholm (Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shirley_Chisholm)
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QUEst #4: I began my crusade for racial equality by helping the NAACP force a school system to pay BLACK and white teachers equally. After 40 years as a schoolteacher, I was fired for my NAACP membership. Not giving up, I started a school which taught adults reading and writing skills necessary to pass voter literacy tests. My schools spread across the South and enabled thousands of BLACK people to vote for the first time.
“The greatest evil in our country today is not racism, but ignorance… We need to be taught to study rather than to believe…”
=> What has your ignorance lead you to do? Who am I?
ANS: Septima Poinsette Clark (Source: http://www.safero.org/articles/septima.html)
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