In 1983, Dianne Durham became the first African American gymnast to win the title as the all-round champion in the U.S. National Championship. She also won the individual titles for bars, floor and vault, becoming the first American woman to execute a full-twisting layout Tsukahara on vault. Later that year she won the all-around title at the McDonalds International Gymnastics Championships, beating Mary Lou Retton. Ms. Durham said later that despite these historic achievements, she was most concerned with them as part of her road to the Olympics, her ultimate goal.
At the Olympic trials, Ms. Durham suffered a string of injuries, culminating with a torn ankle ligament when she landed a challenging vault. This caused her to withdraw from the trials, with the expectation that she would be petitioned onto the Olympic team. However, through what the Olympic Committee Association later described as a combination of “injuries and a Byzantine selection process,” she was not offered a spot on the 1984 team. Her coach, Bela Karolyi, objected to denying the prior year's national champion a slot on the team, stating, "She was the first Black kid to ever make it to a national title. This is a pretty big injustice to not have Durham on the Olympic team. The team needs her, the country needs her." He did not succeed in persuading the USA Gymnastics Federation. Ms. Durham retired from competition in 1985. She then took a job coaching in Houston before relocating to Chicago. There, she met her husband and became a national-level judge, coach and gym owner.
U.S. Olympic Champion Mary Lou Retton said of her, “Dianne was one of the greatest athletes and the best gymnast of our generation. She had it all: personality, strength, grace. When we trained together, seven or eight hours a day, we really became like sisters. She was always my best and fiercest competitor.”
Ms. Durham was quoted as saying, “I don’t feel sorry for myself,” reflecting on her missed Olympic opportunity. “Nobody is going to give you anything in this life. You have to work for anything and everything you get. And sometimes it doesn’t go the way you want it to go. You fall, but you have to get back up . . . I am happy.”
Ms. Durham is remembered for introducing “power” to American women’s gymnastics and for paving the way for countless gymnasts after her including Betty Okino, Dominique Dawes, Gabrielle Douglas and Simone Biles.
To read more about Ms. Durham’s life and enduring legacy, please visit:
Elizabeth “Bessie” Coleman, was the first woman and the first person of African American descent ever to have an international pilot’s license. Born to a family of sharecroppers in Atlanta, Texas on January 26, 1892, she was of African American and Cherokee descent. As one of the world’s premiere civil aviators, she thrilled audiences around the country for several years in airshows and was billed The World’s Greatest Woman Flier. Aviator Coleman attended one term of college at Langston University, but had to drop out because she could not afford the tuition. She developed an early interest in flying, but no flight schools would train African Americans, Native Americans, or women in the United States during that time, so she worked as a manicurist and as a manager at a Chili Parlor to save money to go to flight school abroad. Ultimately, between the funds she had saved and support from private sponsors, she was able to go to France for flight school. She earned her pilot’s license from the world-renowned Fédération Aéronautique Internationale on June 15, 1921. Aviator Coleman became a high-profile pilot in notoriously dangerous air shows in the United States. She drew multicultural crowds and was popularly known as Queen Bess and Brave Bessie. Ever aware of the hardships she had faced in endeavoring to earn her pilot’s license, she developed a plan to start a flight training school for African American students in the United States. She died in a plane crash in 1926. Her pioneering role was an inspiration to early pilots all over the world, including Amelia Earhart. To learn more about Bessie Coleman, please visit: https://www.si.edu/newsdesk/snapshot/bessie-coleman-first-african-american-licensed-pilot and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bessie_Coleman. To view footage of her incredible journey, visit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wckEiKzCBqc.
Hailed as the "Godmother of Rock and Roll," Sister Rosetta Tharpe, was an American singer, songwriter, guitarist, recording artist, and pioneer in her unique guitar technique. Born in Arkansas in 1915 to parents who made ends meet by picking cotton, she was one of the very first recording artists to use heavy distortion on her electric guitar, which gave rise to the electric blues. Tharpe heavily influenced early Rock and Roll musicians, including Johnny Cash, Elvis Presley, Little Richard, Carl Perkins, Chuck Berry, and Jerry Lee Lewis. She was a woman performing and recording in what was, and remains, a male-dominated music scene. An undeniable force, Tharpe broke down barriers of sexism and racism with her grace, charm, sharp wit, strong will, incredible work ethic, and supreme talent. The United States Postal Service issued a 32-cent commemorative stamp to honor Tharpe on July 15, 1998. In 2007, she was inducted posthumously into the Blues Hall of Fame. In 2008, a concert was held to raise funds for a marker for her grave, and January 11 was declared Sister Rosetta Tharpe Day in Pennsylvania. To experience one of Tharpe's electric performances, visit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y9a49oFalZE. To learn more about her life and legacy, please visit: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sister_Rosetta_Tharpe and https://unitedagainstracismnm.wordpress.com/2019/02/06/sister-rosetta-tharpe/.
