Honoring My Grandmother on #WomensEqualityDay
How My Grandmother Influenced My Life
How My Grandmother Influenced My Life
As a #LinkedInCreator, I recently published an article for #WomensEqualityDay, August 26.
It was hard for me to choose just ONE woman who influenced my life. There have been so many…but today I decided to honor my maternal grandmother, Gussie Adelle Smith Russell, affectionally known as “Dell” by her family.
She was born in 1897 in Eufaula, Alabama, the youngest of four sisters. She grew up picking cotton and having crosses burned on her front lawn by the KKK.
She graduated from Tuskegee Institute (now Tuskegee University), the only one in her immediate family to graduate from college.
She was active in the women’s suffrage and local civil rights movements, marching and working for women’s rights in general and the rights of Black people in general, starting in the early 20th century and continuing throughout her life.
She married my grandfather, Genise Russell, and moved with him to East Chicago, Indiana, where he found work in the nearby steel mills. They bought a home in a primarily Polish neighborhood. She was a reporter and columnist for the local weekly colored newspaper. Most of her family also moved to Chicago and the surrounding areas during the Great Migration.
She was also an entrepreneur, selling women’s clothing from her home because Black women were not allowed to try on clothes and/or shoes in the stores in East Chicago.
Gussie and Genise had three daughters: Eleanor, Gwendolyn, and Aileen. In 1934, right after Easter, Eleanor suffered a mild concussion after being accidentally hit in the head by a basketball in gym class. My grandparents rushed Eleanor to the only hospital in East Chicago, but the hospital refused her admission because it only served white people. By the time they put Eleanor in their car and tried to drive her to a Black hospital in Chicago, she had died. She was 14 years old, and my mother Gwendolyn was 10 years old. My Aunt Aileen was 6 years old. Of course, the family dynamics immediately changed.
A few years after my grandfather died of black lung disease that he contracted from working in the steel mills, my grandmother moved to Detroit to help my mother take care of our growing family. My grandfather was only 56 years old when he died; I was a year old. He met me only one time before his untimely death.
In addition to helping to care for us, Gussie was quite active in local politics, and for a time worked in the downtown office of Congressman John Conyers. After school, my grandmother dragged me with her block after block after block, registering people to vote. After we finally got back to her house and I had my toasted cheese sandwich and glass of Faygo™️ Red Pop, Grandmother sat next to her black rotary-dial phone and called name after name after name to encourage people to fight for their rights and especially to vote. Her phone book was so big and stuffed with additional papers that she had to keep it closed with a rubber band.
Wherever we went with our grandmother, we either walked or took the bus as Gussie never learned how to drive. She was also very active in the nearby A.M.E. church that was walking distance from the two-family flat where she lived and that she eventually purchased. She strongly believed in Black people owning their own property.
Even though Gussie was married and had three children, she strongly believed in women being strong, independent, well-educated, and having their own careers. Even as she had a good marriage, she believed that women should and could “have it all”: husband, marriage, education, career, and social justice work.
My beloved grandmother contracted breast cancer around 1964 and spent many months in the hospital before my parents brought her to our home, where she died in August 1965. She was only 67 years old.
What My Grandmother Taught Me
My grandmother was a beautiful, strong, independent, and accomplished woman, far ahead of her time. She successfully navigated and overcame many incidences of racism and sexism throughout her life, as well as personal tragedies. She believed strongly in the institution of marriage and the importance of family unity and generational wealth. She was very religious.
My grandmother taught me African American history and about successful Black Americans in the 19th and 20th centuries. She taught me that Black people and women were much more than just chattel to be used and abused for the enjoyment or enhancement of the lives of others.
My grandmother taught me to always be involved in politics and civil and women’s rights issues and to always fight for the betterment of everyone.
My grandmother taught me to always present myself with class, style, and fortitude, and that I could and should be whatever I wanted to be. She taught me that coming from humble beginnings was not an excuse to not strive to achieve at the highest personal and professional levels.
My grandmother taught me to be a strong, independent, accomplished, and educated Black woman because she was the epitome of all of those excellent qualities.
Although she died way too soon, my grandmother, Mrs. Gussie Adelle Smith Russell positively influenced my life more than she will ever know.
What are some women’s equality changes I would like to see?
Equal pay for equal work. We’ve been asking for this for…decades.
Equal recognition for equal accomplishments.
Safety from sexual harassment and/or racial inequality.
Agency over their own bodies and decisions for their health and well-being.
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Originally published at https://www.linkedin.com.