March marks the beginning of almost Spring, the return of daylight and the return of Quantico! What’s not to love about the month of March? We get St. Patrick’s Day, Easter, spring break and slowly the snow starts to slack off – only to return in April, May, June… – I digress. March is also designated as Women’s History Month.
Since the 1987 passage of Public Law 100-9 which proclaims March as Women’s History Month, women have had the opportunity to celebrate and be celebrated for our contributions, accomplishments and triumphs as American Women.
From the Joint Resolution to designate the month of March as Women’s History Month:
Whereas American women of every race, class, and ethnic background have made historical contributions to the growth and strength of the Nation in countless recorded and unrecorded ways…
If you have ever gone on our About MMR! page or know me personally, then you know that my mission and reason for starting My Melanin Rocks! is to uplift and highlight Women of Color. I would be doing everyone reading a disservice if I acted as if the women’s movement or even the petition to designate a Women’s History Month was truly inclusive enough to include women like me. While white women fought for suffrage and equality, minorities were continually pushed aside. So, while we will certainly celebrate Women’s History Month at MMR!, we will not ignore the reality of our history. As it was so eloquently stated by Barbara Sostaita of HP,
I want a feminism and a women’s history that puts women of color at the center. At the heart and soul of the narrative. Because if anyone knows about heart and soul, it’s us.
This month, MMR! will highlight 31 Women of Color that have come before us to inspire, empower, uplift, fight, sacrifice and make a way for all of us. We will celebrate a different women each day that fought, accomplished, contributed and triumphed despite marginalization, racism, sexism, homophobia and every other -ism that has ever attempted to throw us off the path.
MMR! salutes the women that came before us, those that we are standing next to and those that will be coming after us. We thank you for pushing through, fighting back, speaking up and standing in the gap for us. We thank you for your fight, your blood, sweat, tears, words, thoughts, prayers, marches, tired hands, hoarse screams and dedication to ensuring that our world would be even just a little bit better in the future. You have contributed your inventions, your art, your mind, your body and your fight to each and every one of us that is coming after you. You are our ancestors, our grandmothers, mothers, sisters, friends, sheroes and superwomen. For every moment that you spent building, progressing, protesting and nurturing, we are ever grateful.
We promise to create a legacy that you will be proud of.
Written in Love,
M. Lauren, MMR! Editor in Chief
