It’s 1913 in Oakland, California, and eight-year-old Ellen Jackson has white classmates who bully her and a teacher who believes Black children can’t learn. Ellen’s mother decides to move the family to Allensworth, the only town in California where Blacks own their own property and govern themselves.
Oakland is a bustling city with in-door plumbing and gas while in rural Allensworth, Ellen has to lug water from a community well and use the backyard outhouse. But the community members are so helpful and friendly that nobody locks their doors. Ellen’s new teacher, Professor William Payne, holds high expectations for his students, and when Ellen falls behind in reading, her tutor is none other than the esteemed Colonel Allensworth.
Ellen comes to love Allensworth so much that she wants to make it her forever home, but trouble is brewing in the little town, and its courageous citizens are uncertain they can hold on to their dream come true.
A little girl from Oklahoma dared to dream big. Young Betsy Herring was an energetic tomboy and such a whizz in school, her second-grade teacher looked her in the eyes and said, “When you grow up, if you really want to, you can do something.”Elizabeth Warren won a debate scholarship to Georgetown University, became a professor at Harvard Law School, and worked to reform Wall Street to save middle class families from bankruptcy. She went on to became the first female senator from Massachusetts and a presidential candidate with a plan for everything. What does it take to run for president? Fame, money, hard work, but most of all, a willingness to fight for what you believe in.
Florence Price's was the first African American female composer to have a symphony performed by a major orchestra in the US. In fact, she composed over 300 compositions. Born in Little Rock in 1887, Florence was only three when she began piano lessons with her mother. By age 18, she had earned two degrees from the New England Conservatory of Music. To pursue her career as a composer, Florence faced a daunting battle on three fronts: she was an American, she was a woman, and she was Black. By combining elements of Classical music with African American folk songs, dance rhythms, spirituals, and jazz, Florence Price’s music bursts onto the concert stage as truly American and uniquely her own.
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