***** His Truth Is Marching On: John Lewis and the Power of Hope
I consider John Lewis one of my heroes, and had looked forward to this book even before he passed away. I had a Netgalley arc and everything when we lost him July 2020. However, it took me far too long to finish reading this, for many reasons, the year 2020 being just one of them. (Also, I had already started his own memoir Walking With the Wind which is also recommended:)
After seeing updates on Selma and so many horrible recent struggles for current civil rights, though, I returned to it, now with a hardcover, and returned to the 'simpler' times of the 1960s Civil Rights Movement. I love the way Meacham tells the story of the movement along with Representative Lewis' own growth as an activist and politician. He was fortunate as a writer to have had many conversations with Lewis over the years, so a lot of the facts were backed up with personal reflection. As with many aspects of the battle for civil rights in the United States, and with Rep. Lewis' life, there is an acknowledged religious tone to the telling, but I believe it is inspiring, even for secular readers, not overwhelming. We also hear from other members of the movement and Meacham's factual research, giving fuller perspective.
I learned new things about Lewis and SNCC, as well as other people and aspects of the era. And I felt like I was honestly brought to the moment on the bridge when he faced that sea of blue. It is often a sad, violent story, of course, but as he did in life, John Lewis' calm, determined voice rings through, bolstering the message of non-violence and democracy. I highly recommend reading this book, sharing the story of John Lewis, and passing on this message as much as possible to the young generations too.
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Happy International Women’s Day to women who prioritize women, especially today.
This site gives the deeper dive about the Trans Identified Male who transitioned after his career in the military was over instead of a woman in medicine or a woman in science on International Women’s Day off all days? Fuck that.
Selma Fraiberg (March 8, 1918–1981) was an American child psychoanalyst, author and social worker. She studied infants with congenital blindness in the 1970s. She found that blind babies had three problems to overcome: learning to recognize parents from sound alone, learning about permanence of objects, acquiring a typical or healthy self-image. She also found that vision acts as a way of pulling other sensory modalities together and without sight babies are delayed. In addition to her work with blind babies, she also was one of the founders of the field of infant mental health and developed mental health treatment approaches for infants, toddlers and their families. Her work on intergenerational transmission of trauma such as described in her landmark paper entitled "Ghosts in the Nursery"[1] has had an important influence on the work of living psychoanalysts and clinical researchers such as Alicia Lieberman and Daniel Schechter Her seminal contribution to childhood development, "The Magic Years", is still in use by students of childhood development and early childhood education throughout the United States. The Magic Years, which deals with early childhood and has been translated into 11 languages, was written when she was teaching at the Tulane Medical School in New Orleans.
At the time of her death, Selma Fraiberg was a professor of child psychoanalysis at the University of California, San Francisco and a clinician who devoted her career to helping troubled children. She was also professor emeritus of child psychoanalysis at the University of Michigan Medical School, where she had taught from 1963 to 1979, and had also been director of the Child Developmental Project in Washtenaw County, Mich., for children with emotional problems.
Fraiberg's work is said to have paralleled that of Anna Freud, a pioneer in child psychoanalysis. Both were keenly interested in young blind people. For 15 years Professor Fraiberg studied the development of children who were blind from birth, and this led to her writing Insights From the Blind: Comparative Studies of Blind and Sighted Infants, published in 1977. In the same year, she wrote Every Child's Birthright: In Defense of Mothering, a study of the early mother-child relationship in which she argued that all subsequent development is based on the quality of the child's first attachments.
Lilia Ann Abron (born March 8, 1945[1]) is an entrepreneur and chemical engineer. In 1972, Abron became the first African American woman to earn a PhD in chemical engineering.
Abron was born in Memphis, Tennessee,was the second of four daughters.[5]She was born prematurely, at home, and had to be rushed to the hospital by her aunt in a cab, as ambulances were not available for African Americans at the time.[5]
Her parents were both educators who had attended LeMoyne College (now LeMoyne-Owen College). Her father, Ernest Buford Abron, had sustained an injury playing football in college, and was thus unable to serve during World War II. He worked as a Pullman porter and later was a teacher. Abron's mother, Bernice Wise Abron, was a typist from Arkansas. She typed briefs for Wiley Branton, the Little Rock Nine's defense attorney.
Abron's parents were Baptists and she was baptized at the age of 9. She participated in Girl Scouts and in the junior choir at her church.
Abron attended a public school and was placed in the school's math and science track. After graduating from Memphis High School, she decided to study medicine.
Abron was assistant professor of civil engineering at Tennessee State University from 1971. She was also an assistant professor of environmental engineering Vanderbilt University from 1973. In 1975, she moved Howard University as assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering, simultaneously working at Washington Technical Institute (now part of the University of the District of Columbia).[8][5]
Dr. Abron is a registered professional engineer, and a member of the Water Environmental Federation, the American Society of Civil Engineers, the American Water Works Association, the Society of Sigma Xi, and the American Association of University Women.[5][9] She also serves on the Engineering Advisory Board for the National Sciences Foundation.[5]
In 2004, she was elected fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.[10] She was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 2020, for "leadership in providing technology-driven sustainable housing and environmental engineering solutions in the United States and South Africa".[11] She was inducted into Tau Beta Pi, DC Alpha Chapter as an Eminent Engineer, and she is a History Maker®.
She has been bestowed the highest honor - Distinguished Member, Class of 2021 - of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE). As of January 2021, she became President of The American Academy of Environmental Engineers and Scientists (AAEES).
PEER Consultants, P.C.[edit]
In 1978, Abron founded and became President and CEO of PEER Consultants, P.C. [3][5][12][13] She was the first African-American to start an engineering consulting firm focused on environmental issues and concerns relating to the physical and human environments. [14] PEER offers engineering and construction management services, environmental management and sustainability services, and advisory/consulting services.[15] With headquarters in Washington, DC and additional offices in Baltimore, MD, Burlington, MA, and Clearwater, FL, PEER is strategically located to serve its clients throughout the U.S. Since 1978, the firm is focused on providing transformative, appropriate, and sustainable solutions for its clients’ challenging environmental problems.
With this consulting firm, Abron succeeded in proving that by enacting sustainable practices in poverty-stricken parts of the world, living conditions there can drastically improve.[16] In 1995, Abron co-founded PEER Africa Pty. (Ltd.), with the mission of building energy-efficient homes in post-apartheid South Africa.[8] Abron was presented with a United Nations award for her work in developing low-cost energy-efficient housing.[5] The company carried out projects all over Africa, including in Mali, Uganda and Nigeria.
Personal life
Abron is a member of Delta Sigma Theta sorority.[9] She gives talks and presentations related to energy and the environment.[17][18] She is particularly active in promoting science education, and through her company, offers financial support to science fair participants. PEER staff are encouraged to work with students in their neighborhood schools, and Abron herself mentors students.[5]
She cites the book Silent Spring by Rachel Carson as an inspiration for entering the environmental movement.[2]
Abron is a Christian who began her three-year term serving as deacon at The First Baptist Church of the City of Washington, D.C. on June 17, 2018.[6] She previously served as president of the Washington D.C. chapter of Jack and Jill for America.[5] She also plays the hand bells in the Angelus church choir.[
Honors
William W. Grimes Award for Excellence in Chemical Engineering from the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, 1993[5]
Admission to the Engineering Distinguished Alumni Academy at the University of Iowa, 1996[5]
Hancher-Finkbine Alumni Medallion from the Finkbine Society of the University of Iowa, awarded for learning, leadership and loyalty to the university, 1999[5][8]
Induction into the National Black College Alumni Hall of Fame, 1999[5]
Magic Hands Award by LeMoyne-Owen College, May 2001[8]
Alumni Achievement Award, Washington University School of Engineering and Applied Science, 2001[5]
American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 2004[8][19]
Superior Achievement from American Academy of Environmental Engineers & Scientists, 2012[20]
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