Honoring the Black Women Who Shape Our Past, Present, and Future
To launch Black History & Futures Month, GLIDE held She Carried Us Forward, a celebration honoring the brilliance, courage, creativity, and enduring leadership of Black women. Black women are too often unnamed background characters in history– even when their actions should earn them the spotlight!
Naeemah Charles welcomed the crowd by praising Michelle Browder’s landmark achievements in health equity. Minister Marvin K. White blessed the evening with a tribute to GLIDE’s co-founder, Janice Mirikitani, who would have been celebrating her 85th birthday on that day. Then Rabbi Michael Lezak discussed our collaboration with Michelle on the Alabama Pilgrimage, saying, “GLIDE dreams about healing hearts, and minds, and souls, but beyond that we dream about healing streets, neighborhoods and communities… Michelle is the fiercest truth-teller I’ve ever met.”
GLIDE will always be part of the fight for racial justice! To stand by our side during the struggle, consider joining our Justice Warriors:
Fighting for Health Equity and Black History in Alabama
Michelle Browder is an activist, artist, and historian whose work exposes how Black women were tortured for medical knowledge and erased from history.
She began by acknowledging Glide Memorial Church’s interfaith nature, and praising the diverse beliefs in the room. Then she admitted, “I’m bringing Jesus into the room with me tonight, because we need to change the narrative. The narrative around Jesus has been hijacked.” She spoke of the need to reclaim Christianity as a faith that fights for the marginalized and oppressed. Dr. Gina Fromer agreed: “If Jesus was in town, he’d be in the Tenderloin.”
Michelle then acknowledged the racial justice struggle in our country, warning: “Just remember: without dignity, empathy, and integrity, DEI is just an acronym.” Then we heard how her work began: as a 19-year old art student, when she became fascinated by Anarcha, Lucy, and Betsey, the enslaved experimental subjects of the so-called “father of gynecology,” J. Marion Sims.
“They were kidnapped, abused, and used for experiments, used as breeders– were basically tortured in the name of healthcare and science,” Michelle explained. A statue of J. Marion Sims, their torturer, stands at Alabama’s state capital– you can sign a petition here to have him be re-located to the museum Michelle founded and recontexualized for his infamy.
Medical racism in gynecology is far from over. Michelle recommends the book Medical Apartheid to learn more about how involuntary medical experimentation still happens on people of color today.
The Role of “Creative Extremism” in Creating Equitable Black Futures
Not only does Michelle Browder create spectacular art honoring the enslaved victims of medical torture, she leads The Mothers of Gynecology organization to provide anti-racist medical education and healthcare for low-income people centered on reproductive freedom.
Michelle calls her artistic and educational work, “creative extremism,” and praised GLIDE’s founders, Cecil Williams and Janice Mirikitani, for being likewise creative extremists, or “extremists for love,” in the tradition of Martin Luther King Jr.
After sharing her work, Michelle was joined in conversation by Dr. Gina Fromer, CEO of GLIDE and a lifelong champion for racial and economic justice. Dr. Gina discussed how her mom’s heroic work raising six kids in conditions of generational poverty made her determined to break the cycle of poverty.
They both discussed the importance of having Black role models when it comes to instilling hope in Black people. “When you start the discussion of Black history with slavery and end with slavery, you miss a lot,” said Michelle. “People who were enslaved kings, they were queens, they were innovators, they were astronomers– understand that.”
How Love Drives the Struggle
Since GLIDE and Michelle Browder initially connected on the Alabama Pilgrimage, Dr. Gina shared her own experiences with the pilgrimage. “At first, I didn’t want to go to Alabama, I was afraid… I felt like when I got off the plane, the KKK would be waiting for me. But eventually, I realized: Tenderloin or Alabama, the fight is the same everywhere.”
Dr. Gina then discussed GLIDE’s work transitioning people of color in crisis to employment and leadership, and how that work is impeded by the political currents in our country. “What’s happening right now, the dismantling of civil rights, human rights, the dignity of our Black and immigrant communities– we CANNOT let this happen,” she said.
Michelle was in agreement. “Hatred makes you sick,” she said, “And love is the cure. My Jesus says love those who hate you. That’s creative extremism.”
The evening closed with eager questions from the audience. And it was just the beginning of a whole month of celebrating Black History and Futures. If you missed this event, perhaps you can catch us for the next one: learn more about our line-up here.
