(Vol. 114 No. 1) Text (PDF) - Spelman College: Home

NewsmakersPick up a magazine — be it Black Enterprise, Essence, Time orNewsweek — or skim a newspaper — perhaps The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The St. Louis Post or your favorite local daily - and chancesare you will find some reference to or mention of Spelman College andits alumnae. Women who are making noise, making waves, makingmarks, making decisions and making a difference in the world. We continueour alumnae “makers” segments in this issue with Newsmakers.Let it be known that as alumnae continue to make news, theSpelman Messenger is determined to report it.A historic photograph of MelbaMoore Carter, C’49, appears on theMay/June 1999 cover of SocialEducation,the official journal of the NationalCouncil for the Social Studies. The photographcaptures Carter on a 1961picket of Rich’s Department Store inAtlanta. She was protesting the store’srefusal to hire black clerks.The 1999 Best of Atlanta issue of AtlantaMagazine featured May 22, 1901, the occasionof Spelman’s first college commencement,as one of “the moments that shapedAtlanta’s soul.” The first two college graduates,Claudia White (Harreld)and Jane Anna Granderson, arepictured.The September 11-18, 1999 editionof The Reporter announced 15thAnnual Brunch and Biennial Celebrationof The National Political Congressof Black Women, Inc. (NPCBW)where Christine King Farris, C’48,was slated to be honored as a LivingLegend.Alexine Clement Jackson, C’56, is featured in a national advertisementcampaign by America’s Pharmaceutical Companies. The full-pageadvertisement, which has appeared in publications such as Newsweek,focuses on Jackson’s 12-year triumph over breast cancer. She attributesthis to the work of pharmaceutical researchers and their quests for bettermedicines and cures. (See photo on page 16.)Spelman women are about business, as documented in issues of BlackEnterprise. In the May 1999 issue, Sylvia H. Cordy, C’67, president ofCordy & Co., a public relations and training firm with offices in Denverand Maryland, offers tips on building media relations (Black Enterprise,“A TV guide for Entrepreneurs”). Marjorie Whigham-Desir, C’80,corporate issues editor for Black Enterprise, is the writer of an articleprofiling the B.E. Auto Dealer of the Year, “Bigger is Better,” appearing inJune 1999. The magazine reserved its August 1999 “Powerplay ProfessionalSpotlight” for Jerri Devard, C’79. The profile focuses onDevard’s impressive and varied career track in the area of marketing,and her unique ability to make strategic transitions from one businessto the next.Who wouldn’t expect to find Spelmanwomen on the pages of the magazine for“today’s African American woman?” Thepoignant story of Scherryl JeffersonHarrison, C’69, a prosecutor of abusersof women who was herself experiencingabuse, is told in “HerToughest Case,” an article appearingin the August 1999 issue ofBlack Enterprise magazine. TheSeptember 1999 Essence issueincludes a segment on actressAnika Hawkins, C’95, showingoff the season’s hottest hairstyles.Sherri McGee, C’87, offersinsight on how top celebrities relaxand renew in the October issue. Inthe same issue, the latest book of Marian Wright Edelman, C’60,Lanterns: A Memoir of Mentors, is reviewed. Latanya RichardsonJackson, C’72, her husband actor Samuel L. Jackson, and daughter,Zoe, adorn the cover of the lastEssence of the 1990s. They exploretheir trials and triumphs as a familyin the midst of the Hollywood.Finally, you should know thatSpelman women are behind thescenes at Essence as well. MeeraBowman Johnson, C’94, isAssociate Art Director, NicoleMcKenzie, C’98, is AssistantManager of Sales and Promotionand Ava Williams, C’88,is an editorial intern.Dazon Dixon Diallo, C’86, is featured in the October/Novemberissue of Ms. magazine for her work in the area of HIV/AIDS and reproductivehealth. Dazon founded SisterLove, now the oldest and largestfull-service HIV/AIDS organization for women in Georgia, which provideseducation, housing and support services for those at risk for orinfected by the virus.W I N T E R / S P R I N G 2 0 0 029