Tag Archives: Rise Up for Students

Black History Today: Omari Salisbury, Uplifting and Empowering His Community by Sharing the Truth at Any Cost

February 9, 2022 Editor

by Marcus Harrison Green

Image depicting white text on a black background that reads "Black History Today." The word today is accented with a red and green line.

Black History Today, created by Marcus Harden in celebration of Black History Month, pays tribute to the living legacy of Black history in our community and beyond and recognizes the people shaping the future.

Presented in collaboration with Rise Up for Students.

“We all have dreams. In order to make dreams come into reality, it takes an awful lot of determination, dedication, self-discipline, and effort.”
—Jesse Owens

What best reveals someone’s true character is the moment their life is ambushed by a heap of public awareness. In this moment, all of their work, exploits, and ambitions — once largely unknown to larger pop culture — become unhidden. With this fresh (and in some cases renewed) notoriety, discarding your community, your friends, your promises that initially set you up for recognition is an enticing option. One chosen so often that the tale of someone reaching the pinnacle of their profession only to leave us mere mortals behind as they fly “too close to the sun” before their inevitable crash landing is a well-recited cliché.

Less evoked are the stories of those who skyrocket and grab hold of their community to take them along on their journey.

I think of this every time I reflect on Omari Salisbury.

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Black History Today: Dr. Thelma Jackson, Planting and Nurturing the Seeds of Change

February 4, 2022 Editor

by Marcus Harden

Presented in collaboration with Rise Up for Students.

“I tell my students, ‘When you get these jobs that you have been so brilliantly trained for, just remember that your real job is that if you are free, you need to free somebody else. If you have some power, then your job is to empower somebody else. This is not just a grab-bag candy game.”
—Toni Morrison

Black History is rooted deeply in the traditions of the African Diaspora, and those roots branch into so much of our collective resilience, creativity, and strength. The nourishment to those roots flows through the honoring and respecting of children and elders, those who offer hope for a new day, and those who’ve tilled the soil to make the day possible.

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Black History Today: Eddie Francis, Humbly Chasing His Dreams to New Heights

February 3, 2022 Editor

by Marcus Harden

Presented in collaboration with Rise Up for Students.

“I don’t like to gamble, but if there’s one thing I’m willing to bet on, it’s myself.”
—Beyoncé Knowles-Carter

Many of today’s most successful people opine about hard work, grinding, or as the kids say nowadays, “getting it out da mud!”

Some of the most successful of all will tell you that they are humble at their heights because they know what it means to truly climb the ladder — that the years of hard work and faith have helped them to more fully know themselves.

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Black History Today: In Community, the Power of ‘I AM’ Becomes ‘WE ARE’

February 1, 2022 Editor

by Marcus Harden

Presented in collaboration with Rise Up for Students.

The power of “I AM” is indeed amazing. I often wonder why that isn’t one of the first principles we teach, as knowledge of self is probably the greatest and longest lesson we will ever embark upon. One of my greatest joys is surprising people each year, penning the Black History Today series and continuing to recognize everyday heroes and historymakers who shape our communities.

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Black History Today: Roxanne Christian-Dancer — a Brilliant Reminder of What’s Possible

February 28, 2021 Editor Leave a comment

by Marcus Harden

(Black History Today is published in collaboration with Rise Up for Students.)

“Mama exhorted her children at every opportunity to ‘Jump at de sun.’ We might not land on the sun, but at least we would get off the ground.” — Zora Neale Hurston (Dust Tracks on a Road, 1942)

I’ve heard it said that we aren’t humans on a spiritual journey, but we are spirits having a human experience. In life you encounter people who seem like they’ve “been here before” because of their vast knowledge and understanding of the world — who are well traveled in the physical, mental and spiritual spaces.

Roxanne Christian-Dancer is one of those people who has been here before. Born in Columbus, Georgia, and raised by her angelic and equally ambitious mother, Ms. Rolaina, who embedded the spirit of discovery in her, Roxanne is truly a renaissance woman. Her latter formative years were spent in Seattle, where she graduated from Ingraham High School and later the University of Washington.

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Black History Today: Gary Ladd II — Lifting a Powerful Legacy to New Heights

February 27, 2021 Editor Leave a comment

by Marcus Harden

(Black History Today is published in collaboration with Rise Up for Students.)

“Commitment is a big part of what I am and what I believe. How committed are you to winning? How committed are you to being a good friend? To being trustworthy? To being successful? How committed are you to being a good father, a good teammate, a good role model? There’s that moment every morning when you look in the mirror: Are you committed, or are you not?”

— LeBron James

Legacy is typically defined in the human construct as being what we leave behind for those who come after us — and what we inherit from the ones who came before us. It can be a gift but also, at times, a heavy load to bear.

For some, carrying on a legacy happens in name only. For others, it happens through our life’s purpose. For a few, like Gary Ladd II, it happens in both, and they find their legacy intertwined like links on a chain with the generations on either side of them.

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Black History Today: Trent and Ericka Pollard, Leading With Love

February 26, 2021 Editor Leave a comment

by Marcus Harden

(Black History Today is published in collaboration with Rise up for Students.)

“Like sweet morning dew

I took one look at you

And it was plain to see

You were my destiny

With you I’ll spend my time

I’ll dedicate my life

I’ll sacrifice for you

Dedicate my life for you”

— From the song “All I Need,” by Mary J. Blige and Method Man

I love “love.” I don’t know how else to say it. I truly believe that love is where “God” resides, in the spiritual realm and inside of all of us.

Healthy love, positive love — love that is dedicated to a purpose, a profession or a person — to me is truly the greatest love of all.

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Black History Today: Sue Beyers, Dedicated to Service Through Education

February 25, 2021 Editor Leave a comment

by Marcus Harden

(Black History Today is published in collaboration with Rise up for Students.)

“It’s not about supplication, it’s about power. It’s not about asking, it’s about demanding. It’s not about convincing those who are currently in power, it’s about changing the very face of power itself.”
—Kimberle Williams Crenshaw

The fictional character of Clair Huxtable broke through color lines as “America’s Mom.” If you grew up in the ‘80s and early ‘90s, you saw in Phylicia Rashad a brilliant, strong, caring, graceful, and beautiful mother. It went beyond just the aesthetic because of what she represented for the Black community and Black women in general. She was the Black mother and professional that many of us knew existed but so many failed to see.

Upon first meeting Sue Beyers as a young professional, I thought she was fiction come to life. Sue is a Seattle native with deep roots in the Central District and the South End (a rare feat). She is a graduate of Garfield High School and followed that up by deepening her education at Evergreen State College and gaining her master’s from Pacific Oaks College.

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