Betty Reid Soskin who currently heads up community outreach projects for the Rosie the Riveter World War II Home Front National Historic Park in Richmond is one of ten women nationwide being honored in 2006 by Lifetime Television and The National Women”s History Project in a special National Women”s History Month Celebration Wednesday, March 22, 2006, at the Hay Adams Hotel in Washington DC.
The honorees can be seen at http://www.nwhp.org/whm/2006/honorees.html. This year’s theme, Women: Builders of Communities and Dreams, honors the spirit of possibility and hope set in motion by generations of women in their creation of communities and their encouragement of dreams. The theme honors women for bringing communities together and restoring hope in the face of impossible odds. Community comes in many forms, and dreams change, expand, and are sometimes fulfilled. The 2006 Honorees represent women creating community and sustaining dreams in countless ways and in myriad venues.
If you want to browse a really fascinating BLOG, visit Betty”s site at http://cbreaux.blogspot.com.
Betty Reid Soskin (b. 1921) Cultural Anthropologist and Writer Betty Reid Soskin”s deep, ingrained sense of culture, place, and purpose are obvious in the way she lives her life. Helping to make our history authentic, she persuaded the Rosie the Riveter/ World War II Home Front National Historical Park to acknowledge the role of Black neighborhoods surrounding the Richmond, California site, which had been bulldozed after the war.
Following is a story from the Richmond Globe:
Betty Reid Soskin: 2006 Women”s History Month honoree
Reprint from the National Women”s Project
Betty Reid Soskin”s deep, ingrained sense of culture, place and purpose are obvious in the way she lives her life. Raised in a Creole-African American family, her life changed dramatically when in 1927 at the age of six, a horrendous hurricane in New Orleans destroyed her family”s home and business. With her mother, two sisters and one shared suitcase, the family took refuge in California. Her dad was not able to join them until several months later. Facing adversity from childhood, Betty Reid Soskin”s life experiences encouraged her to develop a vision of community in many diverse forms.
The rich diversity of her ancestry encouraged her to become a bridge between cultures and races. Yet, she was unprepared for the hostility and danger she and her family faced when in the early 1950s they moved to a northern California suburb. Against this milieu of brutal racism, she found support from people who were part of the Unitarian- Universalism community. Over the next 20 years, this community, beginning with 25 families meeting in living rooms and then growing to a congregation of over 300, encouraged, sustained and supported her values and beliefs.
The recognition of the extraordinary poverty and evergrowing sense of hopelessness in a neighboring community caused Soskin to decide to leave the safety of her world to work in another. She embraced the role of black social activist and became a small merchant in South Berkeley. With her strong commitment to community she helped create a housing development corporation that brought change to a high crime, drug infested neighborhood. The final result was the construction of 41 units of market rate and subsidized housing. In recognition of this accomplishment, Soskin was named a 1995 “Woman of the Year” by the California State Legislature.
Today, she has chosen to face the hopelessness and fear that surrounds her in the Richmond community where she now lives. She persuaded the Rosie the Riveter/World War II Home Front National Historical Park to acknowledge the role of black neighborhoods surrounding the site, which had been bulldozed after the war.
Her diverse talents as a mother, researcher, academic, merchant, writer, dancer, artist and activist testify to her ability to find and follow her own dreams as well as to respect and nurture the dreams of others.