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She has a way with words — and especially numbers, for she’s
a genius. She will unearth her roots by any means necessary.
She has been acting up for years. She tells our stories. She
is fast. She is formidable.
She is fierce!
She is among the exceptional women selected for the third
annual listing of the
15 Fiercest Sisters by the readers and staff of
FierceforBlackWomen.com. These 15
women epitomize the Fierce
manifesto, says editor-in-chief Sheree Crute, who
co-founded the digital health and fitness magazine with
publisher Yanick Rice Lamb.
“To be fierce is to embrace all that’s wonderful about being
a black woman,” the
manifesto states in part. “To live your dreams,
celebrate your strengths and appreciate your true beauty. It
means being confident and unapologetically you!”
She is also one of our own – a Toledoan. Indeed this year,
listed among the 15 Fiercest Sisters is Laneta Goings who
has been a force of nature here in the Glass City for
decades. A 2013 Jefferson Award winner, Goings has been
involved a number significant activities over the years:
president of the TWCA board of directors when that
organization started its Milestones: A Tribute To Women
Awards; centennial chairman for the Toledo Zoological
Society; founding member of the Northwest Ohio Black Media
Association among her many activities.
In 2012, Goings launched Books 4 Buddies, a group that
collects new and gently used books to be distributed to
youngsters in the area. She immediately enlisted groups and
companies such as the Toledo Lucas County Public Library,
The Blade, Cedar Creek Church, Taylor Auto to assist – that
list has grown over the years. Books 4 Buddies has now
collected thousands of books in the effort to improve
literacy rates among the area’s youngsters
Here are 15 women who fit this description and will continue
to inspire others in the new year and beyond. Click the link
to read their profiles:
http://bit.ly/15Fiercestof2015
1.
The founders of the #BlackLivesMatter movement —
Melina Abdullah, Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors and Opal
Tometi
— are
fighting to raise our collective voice until each of us, our
children and our families are free to walk, live and work
safely and peacefully in every community in America.
2.
Thousands of people in Detroit and Baltimore can be thankful
that Tiffani Ashley Bell has a very big heart. She’s
helping to pay their water bills.
3.
Michelle Ferrier is creating a safe
cyberspace for women through Trollbusters, “pest control”
against harassment and threats on the Internet.
4.
LaToya Ruby Frazier, a 2015 winner of
the prestigious MacArthur Fellowship, is a master
storyteller and activist, but she communicates through
powerful images, rather than words.
5.
Laneta Goings has helped Books 4
Buddies collect more than 30,000 books to enhance literacy
among boys and young men.
6.
Literary activist and acclaimed author Marita Golden
is celebrating the 25th anniversary of the
Hurston/Wright Foundation, which mentors and honors writers.
7.
President Obama awarded astrophysicist and mathematician
Katherine Johnson, 97, a Medal of Freedom for her
contributions to nearly every space program — from computing
the trajectory for Alan Shepard’s flight when he became the
first American in space to working on Apollo 11’s mission to
the moon.
8.
Loretta Lynch is the first
African-American woman to become U.S. Attorney General, but
she has been a force to be reckoned with for decades.
9.
Regina King is having a good year,
starring in two series, directing everything from “Scandal”
to “Being Mary Jane” and winning an Emmy Award for
Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Limited Series as Aliyah
Shadeed on “American Crime.”
10.
Renaissance woman Paula Madison is inspiring people
around the world in searching for her roots in Harlem,
Jamaica — and China.
11.
Dee Rees’
unique take in writing and directing HBO’s Bessie,
starring Queen Latifah, drew two of the film’s
12
Emmy nominations. She’s also working with Shonda
Rhimes to adapt The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story
of America’s Great Migration by Pulitzer Prize winner
Isabel Wilkerson.
12.
81-year-old poet Sonia Sanchez is a “word sorcerer”
who’s always “BaddDDD” — the name of new documentary
chronicling her life with a title based on her legendary
collection We a BaddDDD People.
13.
Rev. Martha Simmons created the Women
of Color in Ministry Project to give women ministers “the
opportunity to live out their call, as God so desires.”
14.
Carla Walker-Miller is known as a
survivor with solid business skills, energy-efficient ways
and a commitment to the community. In spring, the U.S. Small
Business Administration honored her Detroit-based company,
Walker-Miller Energy Services LLC, as the Woman-Owned Small
Business of the Year in Michigan.
15.
Serena Williams has broken all sorts of
records and made all sorts of history. She the first woman
to make our 15 Fiercest Sisters list more than once. And
she’s the first woman in three decades to grace Sports
Illustrated’s cover as Sportsperson of the Year.
Fierce
is a new digital network designed to captivate busy, dynamic
black women in the prime of their lives.
Fierce
celebrates the joys of life as a black woman in ways that
acknowledge our unique culture, while offering the latest
advice on staying healthy, fit and fabulous. As the only
site with a commitment to investigative reporting, hard
news, fact-based consumer reporting and fascinating features
on the health needs and interests of black women,
Fierce fills a major void in
the women’s media landscape.
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