Kerry Washington has been celebrating Black Historical past Month in the easiest way.
All through the month of February, the Scandal star has been making good use of her wigs, make-up and props groups by channelling among the most groundbreaking Black girls in American historical past in a collection she’s referred to as “Black HERstory.”
A number of the girls she’s embodied up to now embrace supermodel Beverly Johnson, Olympian Wilma Rudolph and, most lately, Rosa Parks.
“Lots of people suppose that Rosa’s activism began together with her refusing to surrender her seat on the bus, however she lived a lifetime of activism lengthy earlier than that,” Washington wrote in her newest put up, that includes a side-by-side picture of Parks’s mugshot from the Nineteen Sixties and her personal re-creation of it.
After all, Parks was a famend activist within the civil rights motion greatest identified for her function within the Montgomery bus boycott, throughout which she refused to surrender her seat for a white passenger on a segregated bus within the Jim Crow south.
“It was Rosa Park’s [sic] act of civil disobedience on that bus that sparked a revolution,” Washington wrote. “She took that seat in an effort to take a stand. That seat on the bus was her preventing stance – and so we proceed the battle immediately, in no matter approach we will!”
“Lets ask ourselves, what can we do!” she continued. “Sit. Stand. March. Make calls. Volunteer. Speak to your loved ones and buddies. Do no matter you may and nevertheless you may. Rosa taught us that. And we’re endlessly grateful. It was an honor to honor her.”
Washington’s efforts to raise the tales of Black American girls in historical past have been extensively appreciated by her followers.
“Love how you might be paying homage to those phenomenal girls!” one follower wrote on Washington’s current put up.
“Studying from historical past is important. This actually occurred,” a fan added, whereas one other wrote, “Standing On Hero’s Shoulders!”
In Washington’s first put up in early February, the actress stated she was impressed to start the collection as a result of she needed to personally do one thing to remind those that Black Historical past is “about extra than simply slavery and Jim Crow.”
“Our historical past is a tapestry of magnificence, tradition, energy, neighborhood, resilience, & energy. And thru all of it – the ache and the enjoyment – Black girls have held it down,” she wrote on the time. “I wish to have a good time and honor Black HERstory and embody my sisters who’ve paved the way in which for placing magic into the world.”
And that she did.
“Wilma ran (actually!) in order that Black athletes and Olympians may run too. And present the world our magic, our abilities, and our willpower,” Washington wrote in her put up celebrating Wilma Rudolph, who gained three gold medals for observe and discipline occasions in the course of the 1960 Olympics in Rome.
Following her big wins, Rudolph turned a task mannequin for Black and feminine athletes and helped elevate girls’s observe and discipline in america.
“She wasn’t the primary Black athlete or the primary feminine athlete to win three gold medals, she was the primary ATHLETE,” Washington made clear in her put up.
Washington additionally donned a protracted and curly wig to channel Beverly Johnson, the primary Black girl to cowl Vogue journal in August 1974.
“She confirmed little Black women, the style business, and the WORLD that Black is gorgeous and highly effective,” the actress wrote in her tribute put up. “Eternally grateful to Ms. Beverly and to the entire Black fashions of this period that modified the sport.”
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