FLOWERS IN SPRING

Queenie Birkett (1923-2023) Wife, Mother and Activist/USA

My mother grew up in poverty in rural Virginia during Jim Crow, one of eleven children of a widow. She was largely self-taught, a lifelong avid newspaper reader A single mother of two children when she met young machinist Earl Birkett in the 1950s, the couple built a life together and a family of four children on suburban Long Island, New York. While Earl revolutionized the field of automation, Queenie was a foot soldier in the local Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s and a tireless community activist who later started her own fashion business Few women of her day possessed her enormous strength, courage, generosity and vivacity I am largely the person that I am because of her. She passed away on Feb. 21, 2023, at almost 100, leaving a legacy for the ages. -

Earl A. Birkett

Bobbi Wilson (b. 2013) Child entomologist/USA

In October 2022, Wilson, age 9, was testing a homemade repellent to spray spotted lanternflies in her hometown of Caldwell, New Jersey State agricultural departments across the country urged Americans to kill the invasive insects, which pose a threat to native trees and plants A white neighbor called the police reporting “a little black woman walking, spraying stuff on the sidewalks and trees " That unfortunate incident of racial profiling had a happy ending: In February 2023, Yale University's School of Public Health held a rare public ceremony to honor the child entomologist for her heroic efforts

Ed Dwight (b. 1933)

Pioneering test pilot and first African American astronaut candidate/USA

Back when the Right Stuff only applied to white test pilots recruited into the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) at the dawn of the Space Age, Dwight knocked on the door of this exclusive club, and though he was eminently qualified, was denied admission Dwight, who grew in racially segregated Kansas City, Kansas, was a U.S. Air Force test pilot when he was recruited into the astronaut pre-training program by space pioneer Chuck Yeager in 1962, allegedly because "Bobby Kennedy wants a colored in space " Unfortunately, due to the racial politics of the era, Dwight was not selected by NASA to become an astronaut After he left the Air Force in 1966, he tried engineering, real estate, and a job with IBM before drifting into a distinguished second career in sculpting. Dwight is known for his innovative use of negative space Each of his pieces involves blacks and civil rights activists, with a focus on the themes of slavery, emancipation, and post-Reconstruction.

Percy Julian (1899-1975) Chemist extraordinaire/USA

Julian's contributions to the pharmaceutical industry are invaluable He was the first to synthesize the natural product physostigmine and was a pioneer in the industrial large-scale chemical synthesis of the human hormones progesterone and testosterone from plant sterols such as stigmasterol and sitosterol His work laid the foundation for the steroid drug industry's production of cortisone, other corticosteroids, and birth control pills. Due to racism in America, Julian was unable to obtain his PhD in chemistry stateside, so he traveled to Vienna, Austria, to do so. Afterward, the bulk of his career was spent in the U S at the chemical company Glidden before he launched his own chemical research firm, Julian Laboratories Julian held more than 130 chemical patents and was the first African American chemist - and the second black person in any fieldinducted into the National Academy of Sciences

Ralph Abernathy (1926-1990) Minister and civil rights activist/USA

Known as the man closest to Martin Luther King Jr , Abernathy had tall shoes to fill in carrying on King's legacy when the civil rights leader was shot to death in 1968. Born and educated in Alabama, he and King were fellow Baptist church pastors in Montgomery when they formed the first civil rights protest to successfully integrate buses in Montgomery, Alabama. He co-founded and served as president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) and inherited command of the Poor People's Campaign upon King's death His later years have not been without controversy, as he supported Republican President Ronald Reagan and brought up King's marital infidelities in an autobiography. Nevertheless, Abernathy's lifelong commitment to social justice and world peace is virtually without equal

Randall Robinson (1941-2023) Lawyer and Afrocentric activist/USA

Robinson was the founder of TransAfrica, a Washington, D C -based advocacy group that seeks to influence U.S. foreign policy toward African and Caribbean countries and all African diaspora groups Founded in 1977, it is the oldest and largest advocacy group for African and African diaspora causes As such, the group helped to sensitize Americans to the evils of apartheid in South Africa and mistreatment of Haitian immigrants, especially during the era of Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. The native Virginian and Harvard Law School graduate served as a civil rights attorney and congressional aide before launching TransAfrica He wrote several books, one of which advocated for reparations for African Americans for slavery and segregation Disillusioned with the treatment of blacks in America, he emigrated to St. Kitts in 2001 His bother was Max Robinson, the ABC News anchor who was the first black person to hold this position

Andrew Young (b. 1932) Politician, diplomat and activist/USA

As Martin Luther King's executive assistant, the New Orleans native and Baptist church pastor often served as a liaison to the white community during the Civil Rights Movement. He was with King the moment he was assassinated at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee, April 4, 1968 Young was also executive director of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) before entering politics beginning in the 1970s. He served as a U.S. representative from Georgia, U S ambassador to the United Nations in the Carter administration, and the 55th mayor of Atlanta, Georgia. He lost a close race in the Democratic primary for governor of Georgia in 1990 and has devoted himself to public policy and political lobbying ever since Young is a model for today's political and public leaders.

Hosea Williams (1926-2000) Civil rights leader and activist/USA

The third man in the triumvirate of Martin Luther King's civil rights inner circle, Williams was the original social justice warrior, leading King's army into the streets in countless protests for the poor and neglected. A wounded World War II veteran who was beaten back in America by racist whites, Williams harnessed that abuse to help his fellow black Americans by holding office in Georgia (state senator, Atlanta city councilman, DeKalb county commissioner) and running a major social services organization, Hosea Feed the Hungry and Homeless. The phrase "Unbought and Unbossed" originally referred to him An ordained minister, he was also a lifelong entrepreneur, having founded chemical cleaning and bail bonds companies and an international wrestling association