Unconquered Peaks

May 17th, 1954. The U.S Supreme Court finally ruled that the “segregation of America’s public schools was unconstitutional”. This seemed to be a huge step forward in the right direction but, of course, it was faced with much resistance. Take Little Rock Central High School, for example. Like many school boards, the Little Rock, Arkansas School Board had decided to adopt a plan for gradual integration. The first group of schools to integrate would be high schools in September of 1957. However two main groups aimed to stand in the way of this: the Capital Citizens Council and the Mother’s League of Central High School. However, despite this clear opposition, it didn’t stop the Little Rock Nine. The Little Rock Nine were a group of schoolchildren, who were the first African Americans due to attend Central High Shool. They had all planned to arrive at the school together on that fateful Septemeber day. However, one of the nine, Elizabeth Eckford, never found out that these plans had in fact changed. So, Elizabeth arrived at school all alone.

Chief Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti was born in Nigeria in 1900, and went on to be an activist and political voice on a wide range of issues such as women’s suffrage, reforming the colonial tax system, social services, healthcare, education, international peace, and the representation of women in political spheres. She was a living incarnation of her ideals in the latter category: the title ‘chief’ denotes her participation in the parliamentary Western House of Chiefs, one of the first women to attain chieftaincy.

When she was just eight years old, Amariyanna Copeny wrote to President Obama to raise awareness about the Flint Water Crisis. The public health crisis started in 2014 when the drinking water of Flint, Michigan became contaminated with lead after officials failed to install proper corrosion inhibitors to the new water source.

Elected as a representative for Minnesota in Congress in 2017, Ilhan Omar has grown to be an eminent politician and given so many minorities a voice in the United States Congress. She has earned the title of the first Somali-American, the first naturalised citizen of African birth, and the first woman of colour to represent Minnesota. In a country still struggling to foster political equality, her election and policies have been a center of controversy, and she has to constantly defend herself and her story from prejudiced hate and discrimination. She is one of the few politicians that is inseparable from her story. Omar commented that hate for her is “anti-Muslim, anti-immigrant, anti-Black, sexist”. The intersectional oppression she has had to endure is no easy task.