LIFT EVERY VOICE
WHEN I WAS in my 20s, I was blessed to meet the woman I would end up calling my mentor and my mother-sister-friend: Dr. Maya Angelou. I loved sitting at her feet, in my pajamas, listening to her share stories of the past. We often talked about the need to know where we come from in order to build on where we need to go. “You know nothing about your life if you don’t know your history,” Maya would say to me.
So when we first started talking about Lift Every Voice, which was created by Hearst Magazines and Oprah Daily, I couldn’t help but think of Maya and our many conversations. Named for the Black national anthem, “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” this undertaking pairs 15 young reporters—almost all from historically Black colleges and universities—with more than two dozen up-and-coming Black photographers. Together, they have documented the lives of members of our oldest generation of Black Americans so that we may learn from, and celebrate, our elders’ life experiences.
Through more than 50 interviews, these journalists and photographers have recorded the words and captured the images of civil rights pioneers and celebrities, teachers and guidance counselors, artists and writers, doctors, football coaches, homemakers, lawyers—even a horticulturist—from across the country. Remarkable women and men who are septuagenarians, octogenarians, nonagenarians, and—God bless them—centenarians. All are essential life stories that might have otherwise slipped into the white noise of history.
I am proud to give a home to each one of these stories on Oprah Daily, and to share 12 of them here in this issue with you. Because this I know for sure: When we lift every voice, we forge a deep and enduring connection to the past—and carve a tunnel of hope to a brighter future for us all.
Women’s Health Pioneer
FAYE WATTLETON, 77, New York City
The first African American and youngest president of Planned Parenthood, Wattleton spent decades advocating for women’s health and reproductive rights.
RW: Did growing up in a strict religious household affect your views around sex and sex education?
FW: The Bible says to be fruitful and multiply, so there was really no sex education within my family, and at school, it focused on menstruation, not sexual development or healthy sexuality. Sex outside of marriage was viewed as sinful and condemned. But all of that did inform how I work to oppose the people who want to overturn reproductive rights—I understand their vernacular and way of thinking.
RW: Religion can be a factor for many people in the reproductive rights discussion. What’s your point of view on that?
FW: What I think is worth highlighting is that my pastor mother’s teaching wasn’t that the government should impose its will. I never once heard her suggest that there should be laws to enforce religious tenets. But religion is still being used to circumscribe women’s behavior. As a nurse and midwife in the 1960s, I was exposed to low-income women at a time when they were injured and killed in an effort to control fertility—something to which it seems politicians today want to see us return. There is no question that as we go backward, those who will be most harmed are the people who don’t have the resources to overcome these obstacles, particularly women of color.
RW: What message do you have for the women continuing the fight?
FW: Recognize the long, difficult, and dangerous journey so far, and that there’s a great debt to pay. People have died defending, advancing, and working to protect women’s right to control our fertility. You can march, write to politicians, or give a few dollars—each of us has the responsibility to take it up in whatever way we can.
Rachel Williams, WRITER
Williams is a 2021 graduate of Alabama State University with a major in political science and a minor in communications. As a youth political organizer, she has been a liaison between Democratic political figures and students, bringing understanding to cultural and political issues. She is chapter founder of a women’s empowerment organization, the Curve ASU, and serves as chair of the College Democrats of America Black Caucus National Council. While pursuing her JD, Williams continues to expand her women’s outreach program to other universities and works as a freelance journalist with the intention of one day working as a television host.
Tiffany L. Clark , PHOTOGRAPHER
Clark is a freelance photographer and producer in New York City who specializes in documentary, lifestyle, and portraiture. Her work has appeared in the Washington Post, T: The New York Times Style Magazine, the Chicago Tribune, Palm Springs Life, and more. Originally from St. Paul, Minnesota, she has a passion for the arts, fitness, traveling, and the great outdoors.
Civil Rights Legend
FRED DAVID GRAY, 89, Tuskegee, Alabama
A preacher turned lawyer, Gray litigated major civil rights cases, including defending Rosa Parks after she refused to sit in the rear of a segregated bus and representing plaintiffs victimized by the federal Tuskegee Syphilis Study.
SOMEBODY HAD TO be the spokesman for the group, to tell the people and tell the press what we were doing and why we were doing it. It needed to be a person who could speak, and someone said to me, “Well, I’ll tell you, Fred, the person who can do that the best of anybody I know is my pastor, and that’s Martin Luther King.” He hadn’t been in town long, and hadn’t been involved in any civil rights activity. But he could move people. I said, “If he can do that, that’s the kind of person that we need.”
It didn’t take long to try Mrs. Parks’ case, because I knew they were going to find her guilty and I was gonna have to appeal it. So I simply raised the constitutional issues. The trial took less than an hour.
She was convicted; we posted the appeal, and they had a mass meeting that night at the Holt Street Baptist Church. When Dr. King spoke, everybody knew. And that is how the bus boycott started. The people stayed off the buses for 382 days.
Hali Cameron , WRITER
Cameron is a graduate of Alabama State University, where she received a BA in journalism.
Andi Rice, PHOTOGRAPHER
Rice’s mother introduced him to photography to fight off childhood boredom. “She taught me the basics on an old Canon film camera,” he says. Photography tells the stories of the characters and places that intersect his life.
Master Bodybuilder
ROBBY ROBINSON, 75, Venice Beach, California
When Robinson started bodybuilding at Gold’s Gym in Venice Beach in 1975, he remembers being told “Blacks don’t get contracts” to compete. He was harassed at competitions and struggled with steroids and sickle cell anemia. After moving overseas to compete without fear of racism, he eventually returned to the U.S. in 1994 and won the first-ever Mr. Olympia Masters, for athletes over 50—and then won it twice more.
I WENT TO what was basically an all-Black high school in Tallahassee, Florida, so I really didn’t encounter that much racism. Because everybody was poor, Blacks and whites, it didn’t look like I was any better than you—we ate the same food, cooked in the same pots. So I didn’t really get the blunt force of it, I guess, until I left the swamps. I never heard the word n----- until I came to California in ’75. When I left the swamps, I thought, Wow, life is gonna be hard out there. That’s how I dealt with it.
You have your wishes and dreams, like to go to Hollywood and be let into that world, like Arnold with Conan and Lou, the Hulk. I thought it would be a great thing to do. But naaah, they weren’t ready for that. You know, in that world at that point at that time, those doors were just not open. Today I’m in the process of doing a documentary on my life. I don’t really have the desire to be a movie star now. But if someone came along and said, “Hey, listen, run over there and jump over that wall and fire your machine gun,” I’d give it a try.
Kris Rhim, WRITER
Rhim is a recent graduate of Springfield College. He interned at USA Today and is an alum of the New York Times Student Journalism Institute. He was a fellow at Philadelphia magazine, and his reporting has also appeared on ESPN’s The Undefeated and in Men’s Health magazine. Rhim is a member of the National Association of Black Journalists.
Erik Carter, PHOTOGRAPHER
Originally from Texas, Carter began his career in New York City and now lives in Los Angeles. While his images have a delicate touch, he also imbues subtle moments with a rich tone and compassionate gaze. He strives to highlight the stories surrounding the Black and LGBTQIA+ communities, championing and celebrating the nuances of their voices.
A Life in the Arts
PAULA WHALEY, 77, Baltimore
In 1987, Whaley felt called to work with clay as a way of healing after the death of her older brother, writer and activist James Baldwin. Whaley was extremely close to “Jimmy,” who encouraged her early on to make art and whose influence continues to shape her work and life. Today, she is best known for her mixed-media doll sculptures—no two are exactly alike.
CO: Has this year of working from home helped you remain connected to where you want to be?
PW: Definitely. It’s interesting about this pandemic. It’s all terrible and horrible, but I think it’s also a wake-up call. I think that for some of us, and I’m probably one of them, you’re getting another chance to work on getting where you may want to be. I’m really working toward my transition. I’m working on that. I’m trying to get right for that.
CO: When you say transition, are you talking about death? How do you prepare? What do you want to leave behind?
PW: Uh-huh! Just a couple of weeks ago I started labeling certain things that people have given to me and certain things that I want buried with me. But what I want to leave behind, and what I am leaving behind, is mainly the work that I’ve done. I hope that I will continue to inspire and give people a certain kind of peace. For me, it’s about energy. And I want to have inspired the young people that I have been involved with.
CO: What do you enjoy about your age?
PW: I breathe differently. It’s a kind of freedom—even sometimes feeling carefree. Sometimes a childlike feeling or spirit comes back. It’s like I’m able to look or see or feel the child in me. I feel lighter.
Carly Olson, WRITER
Olson is a journalist and editor based in Northern California, where she was born and raised. She is a contributing editor at House Beautiful and was previously an editor at Architectural Digest. Her writing on architecture and design has also appeared in Surface and Business of Home. She is a graduate of Tufts University and is currently working toward her master’s in journalism at UC Berkeley.
Nate Palmer, PHOTOGRAPHER
Palmer is a documentary portrait photographer living and working in his hometown of Washington, D.C. His work focuses on love, tenderness, and care, primarily within Black American communities. He received a BFA in photography and imaging from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts and is now a regular contributor to the New York Times, National Geographic, Rolling Stone, and others.
Groundbreaking Journalist
DOROTHY BUTLER GILLIAM, 83, Washington D.C.
In 1961, Gilliam became the first Black female reporter at theWashington Post, where she went on to become a legendary writer, editor, and columnist.
KM: What would you tell a new journalist who’s trying to break in?
DG: It’s important to bring all the skills, and it’s important to bring a level of courage in terms of writing about subjects that may not feel so comfortable in the newsroom. You’ve got to understand how to do your work, how to do it well, how to do it quickly—but you also have to be willing to take chances and push to do articles that may not be popular.
I remember when I was writing columns, it got very uncomfortable because I was saying things that they didn’t want to hear or didn’t want to print, but they did print them. I’m currently compiling a book of columns that I wrote in the ’80s and ’90s, and part of my wish is to show their relevance to today.
When I was president of the National Association of Black Journalists, I interviewed a lot of the journalists to see how they were feeling, and they were saying that white editors were very resistant to a lot of their story ideas. I’ve seen the same thing on college campuses. When I was working at George Washington University, the GW students would come to me and they’d say, “I don’t want to work on the college newspaper because these white editors continue to say, ‘That’s not a good story. Nobody cares about that.’”
I think the media failed terribly during the Trump era when they gave so much attention to him when there were so many other stories that needed to be written, and I hope that there will be a more open-minded attitude on the part of media. People are going to have to change their way of thinking.
Kenia Mazariegos , WRITER
Mazariegos is a graduate student at Columbia University’s School of Professional Studies. A native of Washington, D.C., she plans to pursue a career in broadcast journalism.
Michael A. McCoy, PHOTOGRAPHER
My work has been featured in Time, the New York Times, and the Washington Post, among many other outlets.
As a Baltimore native and disabled veteran who served two tours in Iraq, I have found photography to be a critical therapeutic outlet. It enables me to navigate life’s journey by capturing others’ joy. I respect my subjects, because not only are they allowing me and my lens into their lives, but they are also—sometimes without realizing it—providing incredible healing for me. I take great pride in my work and connecting with my subjects on a personal level, which allows my clients to feel comfortable enough to return.
Air-Traffic Recruiter
GEORGE BURNETTE III, 87, Atlanta
Burnette served two tours of duty in Vietnam and retired from the U.S. Army as a colonel. As a human resources specialist at the Federal Aviation Administration, he recruited and hired many Black and minority candidates.
Why did you think it was important to bring young Black people into the aviation field?
Well, there weren’t that many who were qualified. We signed an agreement with the historically Black colleges. That point on, we began to bring Blacks into the FAA. I’m proud knowing how many folks I’ve put to work at FAA, and they’re happy, too. As a matter of fact, they had a dinner once a year, a big dinner, and they named that dinner in my honor.
Is there a defining experience that you had that was a struggle?
Yes, I had a struggle in life. I was born on a slave plantation. In sixth grade, I had to plow a mule, every day, six straight weeks. That’s why I wrote this book. I want my kids to see that wherever you come from in this world, if you give folks a vision, you can get somewhere with your life. The title of my book is It’s Not Where You’re From But Where You Wish to Go.
Lynsey Weatherspoon
Weatherspoon’s work has appeared in the New York Times, USA Today, Time, NPR, and ESPN, among other outlets. The fingerprint of heritage can be found on her assignments and projects featuring Black Lives Matter, Gullah Geechee culture, and the Negro Leagues. She has been exhibited at the African American Museum in Philadelphia and at Photoville NYC. Affiliations include Diversify Photo, Authority Collective, and Women Photograph.
Rodeo Champion
MYRTIS DIGHTMAN, 86, Houston
Nicknamed the Jackie Robinson of Rodeo in 1967 when he earned top ranking in the sport, Dightman was the first Black bull rider with a shot at the world championship buckle.
KR: You were 11 when Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier. What did seeing a Black man play Major League Baseball mean to you?
MD: It meant a whole lot. A lot of time, you know, they said, “The Blacks can’t do that.” Like me riding bulls. Back in that day there was no Blacks riding bulls. They thought all you could do was pick cotton and stuff like that, but I didn’t want to be no cotton picker. I wanted to prove to the world that Blacks could ride bulls, and that’s what I did.
KR: Bull riding isn’t a sport that you often hear encouraged in the Black community. How were you introduced to it?
MD: I worked on a ranch, and I used to go up to the rodeos and watch. When I started out, I was a rodeo clown, and I got to know a lot about bulls, you know, how to handle them. One day I said [to myself], Can I ride bulls? So I got on two or three, a couple of folks helped me out, and I got to riding pretty good.
KR: Did you ever feel isolated as a Black man in the sport?
MD: No, all the white guys I rode with, they took a liking to me. They took me home with them, and people tried to help me. I wasn’t worried about what nobody had to say to me about nothing, anyway—I worried about the bull.
Greg Noire, PHOTOGRAPHER
Noire is a Houston-based live music and portrait photographer. He has worked with artists such as Childish Gambino, Demi Lovato, Drake, Teyana Taylor, and Travis Scott. He has also served as a staff photographer for various music festivals, including Lollapalooza, Austin City Limits, Coachella, Astroworld Festival, Governors Ball, iHeartRadio Music Festival, and many other events throughout the country.
Everyone’s Guidance Counselor
PEARLIE NEWTON, 76, Bearden, Arkansas
Newton worked as an English teacher and counselor in the Bearden public school system for 35 years.
LOOKING BACK, I’M not really sure how I managed to go back to school for my master’s after I had kids. But in order to be a counselor, I needed a master’s, so I thought, Okay. I’ll go back to school!
I didn’t hire a babysitter. I just took the two kids with me during the summer, which is funny now. My youngest was probably 5, and I would just get them up in the morning, dress them, and we would drive to Arkadelphia, which is about a 55-minute drive. They had a nice student union, and my children were pretty well-behaved, so they would sit in the student union while I went to class, and they would have puzzles, coloring books, and stuff like that.
After school, we still had family time, but usually I would study at night, in bed, and my husband would help me review and help me pass my tests. I would just give him the questions and say, “Okay, ask me these and see if I know the answers.” That was my way of learning and remembering while keeping him engaged as well, so he wouldn’t feel he was just left out there by himself.
I can’t even imagine how I did it, but I did.
Aaron Turner, PHOTOGRAPHER
Turner is a photographer and educator based in Arkansas. He received his MA from Ohio University and an MFA from Rutgers University’s Mason Gross School of the Arts. He was a 2018 Light Work Artist in Residence at Syracuse University, a 2019 EnFoco Photography Fellow, a 2020 Visual Studies Workshop Project Space Artist in Residence, and a 2020 Artist 360 Mid-American Arts Alliance Grant recipient.
Song & Dance Man
ANDRÉ DE SHIELDS, 75, New York City
De Shields, who won the 2019 Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Musical for his performance as Hermes in Hadestown, recently launched a podcast called Live from Mount Olympus, which uses Greek mythology to teach life lessons for young people.
FROM MY VERY first conscious thought, I knew I wanted to be an entertainer. That came from my parents. My mother wanted to dance, but that was not considered a career for a young colored woman born at the turn of the 20th century. Similarly, my father, he wanted to sing, but his parents said, “That’s not a responsible way to be a breadwinner.” So my parents deferred their dreams. I’m ninth of 11 children, so I consider myself lucky number nine, because the dreams my parents deferred came true through me.
I was the first person in my family to go to college. When I arrived at Wilmington College, a drama teacher said, “Are you an actor?” I said, “That’s what I want to be.” He said, “Good, because I want to direct A Raisin in the Sun on campus, but there aren’t enough Black actors.” Long story short, I’m 19, and he cast me as Walter Lee Younger. My parents got on a bus in Baltimore and came to Ohio to see me perform for the first time, finally understanding I did have talent and there was reason to encourage me, as opposed to caution me.
There are two venues where people come together for purposes of worship and communion, of having questions answered, crises resolved, burdens lifted. One is church; the other is theater.
Flo Ngala
Born to a West African family in Harlem, Ngala spent her teenage years as a competitive figure skater, which led to her first New York Times assignment and cover, “When I Skate It Just Feels Free” in 2019, which portrayed the next generation of Black female figure skaters.
From campaigns for Nike to Facebook to self-portraits, Ngala maintains the integrity and humanity of her subjects while creating “powerful moments with people.”
The Flower Child
FLORA WHARTON, 75, Cleveland Heights, Ohio
In 1976, Wharton broke unofficial racial barriers when she opened successful floral design business Herbs & Plants in the Cleveland suburb of Shaker Heights.
Was it difficult as a Black woman to build a business in what was then a wealthy, predominantly white area of Cleveland?
A Black woman opening a plant shop in Shaker Heights was huge news. When I went to elementary school, it was Black and white kids together. When I went to junior high school, it all changed. All my [white] friends went to Cleveland Heights, and we went to Glenville. I lived through that racial divide of the city. I never let that hold me back. I believe people are people. My husband was an artist and had a studio in Shaker Square, and he told me there were store spaces, so I decided to open Herbs & Plants. Every major newspaper and local magazine came out and took my picture. After the articles came out, an executive from Cleveland Hopkins Airport came to the store and offered me the contract to provide and take care of all of the plants at the airport. So from the beginning, I had great press. That helped get the shop off the ground, and nothing was going to stop me. Looking back, it might have been more difficult than I allowed myself to realize at the time, but I stayed focused on my goal.
Do you have advice for young women who dream of opening their own business?
First, you have to have courage, because it is scary out here, especially for a Black American woman, because we’re still disenfranchised in 2021. And people will try to take your joy, which is scary. Get rid of all the joy robbers, and keep looking up, even when you want to look down.
Sara Bey, WRITER
Bey is a freelance writer from the Chicago area. A senior at Miami University (Ohio), she has published work in the Miami Student newspaper, as well as Men’s Health. She is studying psychology and family science with a minor in art therapy.
Cydni Elledge
PHOTOGRAPHER
Elledge is a Detroit native whose work has been published in the New York Times, Vanity Fair, Man Repeller, and MFON Women Photographe s of the African Diaspora, among other outlets. She was a 2016 Documenting Detroit Fellow and holds a BFA in photography from the College for Creative Studies in Detroit.
Vegas Pioneer
ANNA BAILEY, 94, Las Vegas
In the early 1960s, Bailey became the first Black woman to work as a dancer on the Las Vegas Strip, at the Flamingo hotel and casino. She and her husband, Bob, also an entertainer as well as a businessman and activist, went on to open successful clubs.
RW: What was life like for African Americans in Las Vegas at the time?
AB: Oh, girl. That’s a good question. Very hostile. But they could tell by the way we walked, the way we carried ourselves, the way we were dressed when we would go downtown, that we didn’t have any problems. We had little problems with the dress shops and things like that—naturally, shops and theaters were segregated there. Like Woolworth, places like that, eating at the counter. The environment was very hostile, but there were some very nice people, too. There’s good and bad no matter where you go.
RW: Did you face any specific hardships being in the entertainment business in Las Vegas at the time as a Black couple?
AB: Yes. We did go to the Sands hotel one time, and we were really looking good. We were young and really dressed, and the security guard took it on himself to stop us at the door. And this is really the truth: Frank Sinatra did come and get us, and took us over to Sammy Davis Jr.’s table, and he was just beating on the table because he was just so embarrassed for us. But we were young, and we wasn’t embarrassed at all. We just laughed it off—we were just so happy to be with Sammy.
Da’Shaunae Marisa
Marisa is a freelance documentary, editorial, and commercial photographer from the Midwest based in Los Angeles.
I spend my time as a photographer documenting the world around me. I am interested in the unique e xperience of the individual. My personal projects inspire those who seek connection. My documentary work inspires peaks of curiosity in the mundane. My editorial portraits inspire the girls with brown skin searching for the beauty that is within them.
Community Cornerstone
DR. MELISSA FREEMAN, 95, New York City
Dr. Freeman has practiced medicine for more than 60 years, specializing in narcotics addiction treatment.
I OPENED AN office in Harlem in 1981 and treated people there. Opportunities in the neighborhood were not as widespread as one would hope. It was challenging to work in the Harlem area with people of color, Black people, trying to help them to defeat what has taken a lot of us, unfortunately, out of life, away from life: hypertension and diabetes, kidney disease, pain, joint pain. I began later on to work in the field of drug addiction, treating young people. All these areas I find very challenging, and, for me, something that I wanted to do.
I have not thought about retiring, no. I’m not of a young age, of course, but I still have energy, and I am still able to open the doors of my practice and take in people as they come. If they’re interested in me helping them attack a particular problem, I’m more than willing to try to do it, and I plan to continue as long as I have the energy.
Allana Haynes, WRITER
Haynes is a community news reporter for the Baltimore Sun Media Group. She previously worked as an editorial assistant, where she managed the weekly events calendar and contributed stories to various sections of the paper. In 2017, she graduated with an MS from the Graduate School of Journalism at Columbia University in New York City.
Vonecia Carswell, PHOTOGRAPHER
Carswell is a New York City–based portrait and editorial photographer with roots in journalism and education. She’s on a mission to document the joy and in-between moments that inspire us to live life more fully. Her affiliations include the National Association of Black Journalists, Diversify Photo, and Black Women Photographers.
You can see the full-length versions of these interviews—plus dozens more remarkable life stories of Black Americans—at OprahDaily.com/LiftEveryVoice. How can you help bring attention to important Black stories? Consider supporting the National Association of Black Journalists (nabjonline.org) or the National Caucus and Center on Black Aging (ncba-aging.org).
CONTRIBUTOR PHOTOS COURTESY OF SUBJECTS. CLARK: MARZIA GAMBA. PALMER: NEVILLE PALMER. WEATHERSPOON: MELISSA ALEXANDER. TURNER: GUS ARONSON. NGALA: ERIK CARTER. ELLEDGE: MONICA MORGAN PHOTOGRAPHY.
