BLACK IS SUBLIME

Martin Luther King Jr wasn't the only one with a dream. Here is our dream for the Black community. Share your dreams with us!

Mary McLeod Bethune also founded a boarding school, the Daytona Beach Literary and Industrial School for Training Negro Girls which went on to become Bethune-Cookman College. The college in known today as Bethune-Cookman University located in Daytona Beach, Florida and is a private historically Black university. (source: National Women's History Museum)

The Kitchen Table Series was photographed in 1990 and later printed in 2003. The series features Weems as the lead of this photo series along with other cast members such friends, lovers, and daughters. (source: National Gallery of Art)

Black Wall Street in Tulsa, Oklahoma, was a thriving Black community in the early 1900s. It proved that despite all of the racial inequality of the time, we are more than capable of providing a livelihood, by creating a vast community of various enterprises from banks, businesses, and schools, we are more than capable of providing a safe, sustainable, self sufficient community of our own.

Can you imagine driving when traffic signals only had signals for stop and go? That's some speedy reaction time you need to bring your vehicle to a stop with no warning. Well before 1923, traffic lights in the United States only had signals for stop and go. It was not until 1923 when Garrett Morgan, inventor and businessman, invented and patented a new traffic signal that warned drivers that it would soon be time to stop their vehicle. This traffic signal was the stepping stone to the modern three light traffic signal that we are familiar with today. (source: US Department of Transportation)

Greatness starts with us and celebrating our own personal victories. Make time for yourself to savor all the accomplishments you have achieved. Give yourself a pat on the back, raise a toast, or order your favorite meal today. Hats off to you for being amazing! Keep at it!

From podcasts, virtual events, affirmation posts and much more, BEAM consistently finds a way to show up for our community. Highlighting the importance of mental and emotional health is imperative for our people, especially in a the stressful social, political, financial climate we find ourselves in today.

You were born great and are destined for greatness. Do not let other people tell you otherwise or try to diminish your light.