CLEVELAND,Ohio-Women's History Month, which comes to a close on March 31, is an annual declared month that highlights the contributions of women to events in history and contemporary society. It is celebrated during March in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia, corresponding with International Women's Day on March 8, and during October in Canada, corresponding with the celebration of Persons Day on October 18.

The commemoration began in 1978 as "Women's History day" in Sonoma County, California, and was championed by Gerda Lerner and the National Women's History Alliance to be recognized as a national week (1980) and then month (1987) in the United States, spreading internationally after that.

In the United States, Women's History Month traces its beginnings back to the first International Women's Day in 1911. In 1978, the school district of Sonoma, California participated in Women's History Week, an event designed around the week of March 8 (International Women's Day). In 1979, a fifteen-day conference about women's history was held at Sarah Lawrence College from July 13 until July 29, chaired by historian Gerda Lerner. It was co-sponsored by Sarah Lawrence College, the Women's Action Alliance, and the Smithsonian Institution.

When its participants learned about the success of the Sonoma County's Women's History Week celebration, they decided to initiate similar celebrations within their own organizations, communities, and school districts. They also agreed to support an effort to secure a National Women's History Week.

Pictured are Hattie "Mama" Porter and her son, activist Alfred Porter Jr, president of Black on Black Crime Inc Her son's picture is shown in the expended view of this post an in latest news by clicking on the title of this article

Visitation begins at 1pm and will be followed by a service at 2:30pm. Pastor Tamar Gray, who leads the church, will officiate and deliver the eulogy.

Porter was 85-years-old.

Services are entrusted to Gaines Funeral Home in Cleveland.

"Mama Porter," as Porter was called by people who loved her and fondly knew her, was an icon among grassroots community activists in the Cleveland area  She was the mother of community activist Alfred Porter Jr. , president of Black on Black Crime Inc and a community organizer. She earned the title "Mama Porter" not only because of her activism around voting rights and on the frontlines during excessive force and women's rights and other community protests, but also due to her wisdom on an array of issues and her dedication to the church, her family, and the community.

With Alfred as her only child and as a single parent struggling to make ends meet, she was an active parent during the Cleveland schools desegregation era of the 1980s and 1990s, and she fought for Black children. She was a former chair of the School Community Council (SCC), a parental involvement and watch-dog organization mandated by then U.S. District Court Judge Frank J. Battisti under the now defunct desegregation court order in Reed v Rhodes, the longstanding schools desegregation case that ended in 1998 and was substituted with mayoral control of Cleveland's public school district. And in that role with the SCC she worked with the late Dr. James M. Coleman, then an assistant superintendent and a member of the Cleveland schools desegregation team, never hesitating to stand up for parents and Black children when others sought to violate the remedial provisions of the court order.

Mama Porter was born on July 4, 1936 to the late Calvin Boyd Sr. and Lucille Boyd in the deep south in Pickensville, Alabama, which is divided by the Tom Bigby River and shares its western border with the Mississippi state line. She had three siblings, Calvin Boyd, Jr., Paula Maxine Dupree Boyd, and Willie Anne Garrett, all of whom preceded her in death. She was raised in the small town of Pickensville, which at that time had about 150 residents.

After graduating from high school she attended Morris Brown College in Atlanta Georgia and later worked at Lincoln University. She married and relocated to Chicago, Illinois as part of the Great Migration when more than six million African Americans from rural towns like Pickensville moved to large Northern states in urban areas in the hope of finding jobs and a better life.

Fleeing domestic violence, Mama Porter left Chicago and she and son Alfred moved to Cleveland in 1970, and Cleveland became their longtime home. She was employed by the Cleveland Metropolitan School District as an office assistant and later worked for the United Way.  She was a tireless advocate for civil and human rights, not only as a parent deeply involved during the Cleveland schools desegregation period but throughout her adult life, and until illness slowed her down.

In addition to her son Alfred Porter Jr, Mama Porter will be missed by so many, including her nephew, Donald Depree Jr., cousins Ann Barclay, Scottie Barclay, Bill Barclay, and Bonnie Barclay, community activists, members of the church congregation at Grace Communion Church in Cleveland where she is a member, and a host of friends and associates.

By Kathy Wray Coleman, associate publisher, editor. Coleman is a seasoned Black Cleveland journalist who trained at the Call and Post Newspaper for 17 years and an experienced investigative and political reporter. She is the most read independent journalist in Ohio per Alexa.com

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WASHINGTON, D.C.-Supreme Court pick Ketanji Brown Jackson has rejected frivolous GOP attacks on her record and said during testimony at a U.S. Senate hearing this week on her nomination that  "nothing could be further from the truth." Below is a synopsis from U.S. Senate hearings, which are ongoing for now, on her nomination to the Supreme Court, Jackson Brown the first Black woman nominated to the nation's highest court

• -President Joe Biden’s Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson answered senators’ questions about her record and judicial philosophy during the second day of her confirmation hearings.
• -Jackson told senators a day earlier that she looks at her cases “from a neutral posture” and applies the law “without fear or favor.”
• -The hearing marks the first time lawmakers will be able to directly cross-examine Jackson under oath in a public forum since she was nominated to the Supreme Court. The federal judge previously met privately with senators on Capitol Hill.
• -Jackson, a 51-year-old judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, if confirmed would become the first Black woman to sit on the U.S. high court.

CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL ARTICLE AT CNBC.COM

Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com -By Kathy Wray Coleman, associate publisher, editor-in-chief-CLEVELAND, Ohio- The Black Women's Political  Action Committee of greater Cleveland, which is led by Elaine Gohlstin, who succeeded retired East Cleveland Municipal Court Judge Una H.R. Kennon as president of the Black women's political organization, will honor retired Ohio 8th District Court of Appeals Judge Patricia Ann Blackmon during a special open-to-the-public ceremony on Thurs,. March 24, 2022 at Karamu House Theater on Cleveland's largely Black east side. Doors will open at 5:30pm and the ceremony will begin at 6pm. Judges who attend are asked to wear their robes.