Muncie Times, Muncie, Delaware County, 3 March 2005 — Page 19

The Muncie Times • March 3, 2005 • Page 19

Profiles of History Makers Who Made A Difference

Continued from Page 18 O'Connor was an Arizona assistant attorney general from 1965 to 1969, when she was appointed to a vacancy on the Arizona Senate. In 1974, she ran successfully for trial judge, a position she held until she was appointed to the Arizona Court of Appeals in 1979. Eighteen months later, on July 7, 1981, President Ronald Reagan nominated her to the Supreme Court. In September 1981, she joined the U.S. Supreme Court. Her votes are generally conservative, but she frequently surprises observers with her political independence. A quietly determined woman who has blazed new trails for her sex, Sandra Day O'Connor has become a role model for Americans of both sexes and all ages. During the final action of the Supreme Court to resolve the 2000 presidential election, O'Connor sided with the majority in blocking the hand recount of votes in the state of Florida.

Madam C.J. Walker (Portrayed By: Dilynn Phelps) (1867-1919) Orphaned at 7 and widowed at 20, Sarah Breedlove Walker turned hard times

into success. The first to create cosmetics specifically for blacks, she developed a hairstraightening comb and many types of popular haircare products. Her line of products created an employment opportunity for thousands of black women who sold them door to door and through beauty shops nation wide. The success of her products made her American first black woman millionaire. She used the name Madam C.J. Walker because it sounded classy. During her lifetime, she donated generously to educate black youths and to support a variety of civic causes. "I am a woman who came from the cotton fields of the South. I was promoted from there to the washtub. Then I was promoted to the cook kitchen, and from there I promoted myself into the business of manufacturing hair goods and preparations," she said of herself. She arrived in Indianapolis in 1910, liked the city's central location and transportation facilities and decided to make it her headquarters. In 1913 she moved to New York to establish an East Coast presence. By 1917, the Madame C. J. Walker Manufacturing Co., which produced and distributed a line of hair and beauty preparations for black women, including conditioners to ease styling, stimulate hair growth, and cure common scalp ailments, as well as an improved metal comb for straightening curly hair, was the largest black-owned company during its day with annual revenues of half a

million dollars. In her will. Walker bequeathed two-thirds of her estate to charitable and educational institutions, many of which she had supported during her lifetime. The remaining third was left to her daughter, now called A'Lelia, who succeeded her as company president. True to her beliefs, a provision in the will directed that the Madame C. J. Walker Manufacturing Co. always have a woman president.

Ella Fitzgerald (Portrayed By: Dea Moore)

(1917-1996) Often referred to as the „first lady of song,%c Ella Fitzgerald enjoyed a career that stretched over six decades. With her lucid intonation and a range of three octaves, she became the preeminent jazz singer of her generation, recording over 2,000 songs, selling over 40 million albums and winning 13 Grammy Awards, including one for Lifetime Achievement. She was also the first African American woman to win a Grammy, She was a legendary jazz singer who also notched the title the First Lady of Jazz. She was also known for her inimitable skat singing style. Fitzgerald got her start in 1934 when she won an ama-

teur contest at the fabled Harlem Apollo Theater in New York City. That opened the door for her to work with the William „Chick%o Webb Orchestra, which she eventually took over. Over the years, she had had opportunities to work with some of the greats in the business, including Louis „Satchmo%c Armstrong, Duke Ellington and Count Basie. She was born April 25, 1918, in Newport News, Va.

Rosa Parks (1913-) In 1955 in Montgomery, Ala., Rosa Parks refused to give up her bus seat to a white man. Her action led to the Montgomery bus boycott, which was the first largescale, organized protest against segregation using nonviolent tactics. Rosa Park,s personal act of defiance opened a decisive chapter in the civil rights movement in the United States and led to the emergence of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. as a leader of the Civil Rights Movement. She was born Rosa McCauley on Feb. 4, 1913, inTuskegee, Ala. Today, Rosa Parks is affectionately referred to

as the „mother%c of the Civil Rights Movement because of her actions on Dec. 1, 1955, when she defiantly refused to surrender her seat to a white patron on a Birmingham, Ala., public bus. What she was saying was that enough is enough and African Americans would no longer tolerate racial segregation or Jim Crow laws. That single action, and the subsequent bus boycott after her arrest, unleashed a civil rights backlash that eventually forced Birmingham officials to desegregate their buses to end a crippling black-initiated boycott. It was a turning point in Birmingham, initiated by a soft-spoken seamstress who had been into rigid segregation, including racially segregated housing and schools. When she was 20. she married Raymond Parks,a barber. The couple both held jobs and enjoyed a modest degree of prosperity. In her spare time, she became active in the NAACP and the Montgomery Voters League, a group that helped blacks to pass a special test so they could register to vote. Under Jim Crow rules, black customers on the Montgomery public bus system had to enter the bus at the front door, pay the fare, exit the front door and climb aboard again through the rear door. Even though the majority of bus passengers were black, the front four rows of seats were always reserved for white customers. Contiued on Page 20