Today is my mother’s birthday.
She’s not just the woman who raised me. She’s the woman who raised four college graduates, each of us with a degree from a historically Black college or university. That is not a coincidence. It’s the result of vision, grit, and a relentless belief in the power of education as liberation.
She didn’t just push her children. She built a pathway for hundreds of others through the HBCU initiative she started at Pike High School back in 2006. Because of her, students who never imagined college in their future now walk across stages with diplomas in hand.
We are not just her legacy. We are her proof of concept.
Happy birthday, Mom. You made belief into structure and structure into success.