Black History Month serves as a reminder to stay connected to our roots and study the past for insights to help shape our present and future perspectives.
I am fascinated and in awe of my great-great-grandmother Judith Ann Carter Horton (May 17, 1866 – February 16, 1948).
A Life of Impact
During her long and beautiful life, she overcame loss and adversity to succeed against all odds. Her parents had been enslaved and her mother passed away after her birth. At the age of 13, she left home and secured a job as a family servant for the privilege of walking six miles to go to school. By 1884, she had earned enough money and respect from her employers and educators that she was accepted into Oberlin Academy College. She worked with determination to pay for her studies and ultimately graduated with a degree in Classical Studies, delivering the graduation address on June 3, 1891.
Judith Ann Carter Horton was a teacher, principal, and librarian. She founded and secured the resources to open the first library for Blacks in Oklahoma – The Excelsior Library. She was also a wife, mother, and deeply involved community leader. She helped to found the Oklahoma State Federation of Colored Women’s Clubs and she served as president for five years.
A Legacy for Generations
Judith Ann Carter Horton said: “When we become a reading people, we will become a thinking people.” She was challenging Blacks to reclaim the time to think critically and intentionally so that they could direct their own lives with excellence and authenticity.
She also believed in promoting overall wellness and supporting the next generation. In reference to reading rooms and libraries, she said: “The opening of these channels of instruction and activity will be fraught with inestimable good to our race, by keeping our boys and girls off the streets, away from the haunts of idleness and vice, to say nothing of Its economic value in teaching principles of industry and thrift.”
Judith Ann Carter Horton counsels us to keep our minds elevated and to occupy ourselves with learning. She was an original lifelong earner. She acquired support and financial resources to improve not only her own life and circumstances, but to ultimately positively impact her community.
Judith Ann Carter Horton. My great-great-grandmother. A Black History legend for us all. My aspiration is to pay respect to her life and carry on her mission to teach, empower, and embolden thinkers for change.
How will you recognize her declaration of education as a tool for liberation and honor Black History ancestors today?
Sources:
https://ojs.library.okstate.edu/osu/index.php/OKPolitics/article/download/1051/948
https://www.guthriefriendsofexcelsiorlibraryfoundation.com/#our-purpose-section
https://www.okhistory.org/publications/enc/entry.php?entry=HO035