Mother Ruby Muhammad (born 1897)and Suzanne Brooks/The Jazz Generation, entertained and delighted the audience at  the annual Sacramento Community Women of Color Day/Diversity Awards Event on Sunday's event  "I Believe I Can Fly: Memories of Music And Stories."

The 2010 Sacramento event, "Symbols in Silver," honored 8 outstanding individuals:  Deloris Ashley, Karen Bass, Speaker, California Assembly; Roxana Borrego, Director, Sacramento Cultural Center; Aurora Grajeda, San Francisco Bay Area Journalist; Britta Guererro, Director, Sacramento Native American Health Center; Teresa Pulido, Grandmother, West Sacramento; Oprah Winfrey, actress/talk show host; and Rev. Ashiya Odeye, Director, Sacramento Justice Reform Coalition.

Ruby Muhammad, 113, was born in Sandersville, Georgia, but grew up in Americus, Georgia. She was raised by a woman she used to think was her aunt, because her mother died when Muhammad was young, and her father was unknown to her until she was a teenager.

Muhammad joined the Nation in 1946 and was named Mother of the Nation of Islam in 1986 by Minister Louis Farrakhan, and has an international following of admiration by those in the Nation of Islam.

In March 2007, she ostensibly turned 110, though this has not been documented. Despite her age, she is still in excellent health, still exercising and taking care of herself. She credits joining the Nation of Islam for her longevity. From community records in Sandersville, she also believes her father lived to 107 and her great grandfather lived to 110.

Muhammad is not the widow of Elijah Muhammad, founder of the Nation of Islam. She has had two husbands, neither being Elijah Muhammad.

Iola Imogene Scott was born May 31, 1905 in Madisonville Kentucky.  After losing her mother at age 12 she moved to Indianapolis, Indiana and was raised by her Aunt and Uncle.  At a very young age, Iola fell in love with “doing hair” and studied with Madam C.J. Walker, afterward opening her own beauty salon and school.

She mentored many  young women of color the cosmetology trade.  She developed a line of beauty products uniquely for black women and was instrumental in the development of the curling iron.  As a young woman, she was very active in her church as the organist for the Youth Choir. Decades  before “Black became Beautiful,” she sponsored beauty shows, pageants and cultural events.  In 1955, she relocated to California where she owned and operated her own beauty salon, Kosmetique, until she retired at the age of 93. 

Today, at 104, and an award winning artist, Iola Scott is most proud of being a mother to girls who were motherless and a mentor to many young women of color. her. Her grandfather, a water boy in the Civil War, lived to be a lively 116 years of age, telling her to “keep your head up and walk tall”.  She has taken his advice.

Roxana Reyes Borrego, shown with her son, began studying Folklorico at the age of five and began teaching at 19.  She has dedicated herself to enriching the Sacramento community with the art for the past 20 years. Ms. Borrego has worked with several groups: Danzantes del Alma de UC Davis, Ballet Folklorico de CSU Chico, Nube de Oro and Sol De Mexico. 

In 1997, she founded the group Flor del Corazon at Sacramento High School,serving as its instructor for 6 years and establishing it as the first college preparatory Folklorico class recognized by the Regents of the University of California.  She is one of the founders of Grupo Folklorico Raices de Mi Tierra (raicesdemitierra.com) and is Artistic    Director (15 years) .  She is also Artistic Director of Danzantes del Alma at UC Davis and adjunct faculty at CSU Sacramento in Theatre & Dance. 

Ms. Borrego is the owner and director of the Sacramento Cultural Arts Center—Non-Profit of the year by the Sacramento Hispanic Chamber.

Delores Wall Ashley, born in Wilson, NC,  attended Darden High School.  She and her four sisters and brothers grew up in a loving home with parents who were fine role models for their lives. Ms. Ashley became a great mother and wife, as well as a career woman, entrepreneur, foster mom and community activist.

Her pursuit of  further education and better jobs led her to Newark, NJ and New York City where she met and married her husband, Thurman Wall. With her husband and children, Malcolm, Samantha, Charles and Torledo,   she became active in Ambysian Baptist Church and began volunteer work in the community, including Boys and Girls Clubs, 4-H Programs, The Center for Children, The New Ark Program. Later, she re-married James Ashley and moved to California where they operated several businesses., including a day care,  credit repair, pre-paid legal and retail fashions.

They also adopted and raised 4 foster children: William, Caroline, Kenny & Tavon. Her other contributions are too numerous to list. Her admirers span the continent.
 

Britta Guerrero is Executive Director of the Sacramento Native American Health Center, Inc. (SNAHC), a community-owned and operated non-profit urban Indian health center providing programs, groups and services from a Native perspective. The health center plays a major role as part of the heath care “safety net” in the Sacramento area.

For significant portions of the population with little or no access to mainstream health care, SNAHC has emerged as a leader in the provision of quality health care delivered through a culturally competent, family-centered and wrap around delivery system. A humble as well as caring administrator, Ms. Guerrero is respected for her dedication to the task of providing health care for the Native American community. She works hard to keep abreast of cultural concerns and current health issues. For example, she has noted that Type 2 diabetes has skyrocketed among Indian children in the last decade.

She is active in many   Indian organizations such as the National Council of Urban Indian Health and the National Institutes of Alcohol and  Alcoholism. Ms. Guerrero takes the responsibility of representing an Indian organization very seriously, and has made it her personal/professional mission to insure that Native Americans have access to healthcare in urban areas such as Sacramento.

This population is often over looked, is tremendously underserved and is still suffering from disproportionate health disparities. Ms. Guerrero is an enrolled member of the San Carlos Apache Tribe and a member of Kayhatin (Willow) Clan.

Aurora Grajeda, an almost 63 year old Mexican-born transgender woman, migrated to the US 41 years ago to San Francisco's Mission District, where she has resided ever since .

A community activist, she addresses issues of LGBT rights and concerns, Immigration Reform, Universal Health Care, and Democratic Representation in all branches of government, from Local to State and Federal Levels. She is especially concerned with violence against women, girls and minorities.

Ms. Grajeda responds to the public’s need for accurate information by writing, especially facts from research. An outstanding journalist,  she writes editorials, reports and commentary via email, blog posts, websites and discussion groups on the Internet. Also a theater artist, she is proud of her participation in the all-transgender cast in the 2003 production of "Living it up and Holding it Down", and her 2009 performance in the first San Francisco Production in  Spanish of 'The Vagina Monologues. She has been cast in the May 8, 2010  V-Day production in San Jose.Dr. Shelly Goldsby, PhD, M.S.W., was
born in Oak Ridge, Louisiana, Dr. Goldsby is a long time CA resident who works for children and families. She has a BA, CSU San Bernardino; MS, School of Social Work,-CSU, Sacramento, and  Doctorate in Clinical Psychology, UCLA.

She agrees that family foster care provides safety for children, but also sees that children  experience emotional/psychological distress when separated from families, thus advocates“family  preservation.” She works to reunite abused or neglected children with parents. As a foster/adoptive parent, she supports open adoptions. She advocates legislation to extend foster youth benefits to the age of 21, has provided expert testimony on foster youth concerns and services.

She currently works with high-risk placements, open adoptions and pregnant foster youth. She  has trained psychologists, teachers,   social workers,  students, birth/foster parents.. She has developed programs for alternative foster youth housing, published articles on an array of topics. and served as a speaker in the US and Bermuda.

Karen Bass (no photo), is a former Speaker, California State Assembly. She has represented the 47th district since first elected in 2004. She is the second woman and third African American to serve as Speaker.

Raised in the Venice/Fairfax neighborhood, she went to Hamilton High School; graduated from CSU, Dominguez Hills (1990, B.S. Health Sciences) USC Medical School – Physician Assistant Certificate. She has been a faculty member for more than a decade and worked as a Physician Assistant in the nation’s largest trauma center, Los Angeles County/USC Medical Center. She founded the Community Coalition, an organization in South Los Angeles.

She has also served as Majority Floor Leader for the California State Assembly. She has served in other legislative leadership roles. She serves as chair of the Select Committee on Foster Care and as vice chair of the Legislative Black Caucus. She is a member of  Barack Obama's national African American Leadership Council and served as a California Co-chair of Obama's 2008 presidential campaign.

Teresa Pulido, (no photo) is a great example of the truly special love that only a grandmother can give. She has lived a quiet life, caring for all in her family and in the communities where she has lived. Like many remarkable women, especially women of color, she is more intelligent, more educated than is generally given recognition. She is insightful and deeply spiritual in the ways that have been passed down from ancestors to beloved women who carry and teach  our cultures. "It is important that we honor Teresa Pulido because without her and others like her, many would be homeless and lost, not knowing our histories and roots, not seeing our own worth, and not understanding our own capacity to stand up in the face of injustice for ourselves and for others."

More personal details are not needed here. We know her in our hearts. In pain from a serious medical condition, Teresa Pulido could not be here today in person, but she is here in spirit. She is precisely the type of woman whose greatness deserves honor today and every day. Her award will be delivered to her with our expression of admiration.

A special honoree, The Reverend Ashiya Odeye, was born in Philadelphia, PA into a family with a long history in the civil rights struggle in America. From the underground railroad, suffragette movement, Marcus Garvey and the back to Africa movement, through the black power movement to today, his family was there making and a part of history.

The family has an equally long history with African American arts and artists, educators and education, politicians and politics, religious leaders, and standing connections to Africa, which led his proud inquisitive mind , as a young man to become the dedicated adult activist of today. In his family tradition of community service  and spiritual awareness, he founded the first Rastafarian organization west of the Mississippi—the Order of Olufunmi.

He works to push forward the mantle of freedom and justice. As Director of the Justice Reform Coalition he works with other advocates and organizations bring about the community control over and accountability of our legal, justice, political, educational and corporate systems.

For further information about Mother Ruby and Suzanne Brook s/Women of Color, please see Jonathan Mendick's article:

http://www.sacramentopress.com/headline/19768/The_Mother_of_Sacramento

The biographical information of the honorees is from the "I Believe I can Fly" program.

SacPress Photos | Kati Garner