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Leading black women honored

• A dinner celebrates the lives of rural black women who became leaders in their Southwest Georgia communities.

Susan McCord

ALBANY – A lifetime of leadership, whether in or out of the limelight, will be celebrated when five Southwest Georgia women are inducted Friday into the Southern Rural Black Women's Hall of Fame.

Guest speaker at the second induction of Georgia women by the Southern Rural Black Women's Initiative for Economic and Social Justice is nine-term Congresswoman Maxine Water, D-Calif.

"She's really a leader; she is where we need to have our women strive to be, whether it's at the local, state or national level," said the three-state initiative's Georgia lead, Albany civil rights leader Shirley Sherrod.

"And she's someone who cares. She could have easily said, no, this is Georgia, this is not California, but she wanted to be there. She wanted to be a part of honoring women who, at their local levels, did what they could," Sherrod said.

Born in St. Louis, Mo., Waters was the fifth of 13 children raised by a single mother who began a career in public service as a teacher and Head Start volunteer. Her Congressional District includes a large South Central Los Angeles and the communities of Playa Del Rey and Inglewood, Calif.

The Friday dinner at Albany State University's H.P.E.R. Gymnasium will honor the late Carol King as a Head Start trailblazer, who founded the regions first Head Start kindergarten and was the program's longest-serving director.

Women like Leila Walker of Sylvester became leaders in their rural communities during efforts to integrate Worth County schools and register blacks to vote, Sherrod said.

Dorothy Young, the eldest child of the first black family to try to gain access to white Worth County schools, was jailed for a year in various locations. Sherrod, her husband Charles, Walker and others "marched at the Worth County Courthouse many times trying to get them to free Dorothy," Sherrod said.

Once reunited, the family found itself alienated and eventually moved out of the county.

"One of the things that happen to you when you stand up and take a stand is you sort of get blackballed in terms of jobs. Life is made difficult for you ... and sometimes in order to live, you can't stay where you are," Sherrod said.

Dorothy Young died in her 40s; "I feel like that affected her life forever," Sherrod said.

Walker, who died a few years ago, was a founding member of Worth's NAACP branch and organized the community's Martin Luther King Jr. celebration for many years. She was recognized Monday by the City of Sylvester with a proclamation.

The initiative, which has from 1,000 to 1,500 women participants from among 77 targeted counties, takes recommendations from members who know more about their own communities, Sherrod said.

"That's what this is all about too," she said. "We don't just look at the cream of the crop. We look at people who should be honored. But we'll eventually get around to all of them."

Many are aging or deceased. Two of five to be recognized Friday will be inducted in person. Family members of the others will accept the honors on their behalf. About 300 tickets, which are $25 and up, have been sold, Sherrod said.

Among the initiative's various efforts are to encourage members to become office-holders, Sherrod said.

Camilla Mayor Mary Jo Haywood, who this month became the city's first black and first woman mayor, will be inducted into the hall of fame.

Baker County was known to be especially tough for civil rights, but the murder of Sherrod's father started the movement there in 1965, she said.

A rural single mother of 10, Leola Williams "worked really hard for civil rights in Baker County," though she probably never expected any recognition for it, Sherwood said.

Williams will be inducted Friday, as will L. Patricia Johnson, who became in 1975 the first black female head of the Georgia Department of Family and Children Services. Johnson, who is not living, held the post for eight years.

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