Black History Month: 15 Black Inventors You May Not Know

 https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1gj2JMewt2f1rJGbaJLxTSweZPhwbW1KTGjFrtgHIC9k/edit?usp=sharing

Black History Month: Profile in Courage - Mari Copeny

 Mari Copeny

Mari Copeny was born July 6, 2007 in Flint, Michigan.  She has become known globally as “Little Miss Flint.”  Entering the public spotlight, she sent a letter to then President Obama to highlight the water crisis in Flint and the lack of viable solutions from the city or state.  On receiving the letter, President Obama visited Flint to witness the issues firsthand.   After his visit, he would approve $100 million dollars in relief for the city of Flint.  When Mari grows up she plans on running for president in 2044.

Mari has never let her age prevent her from making a significant impact on the dialogue around environmental racism.  She bravely stands up and confronts the entire country on the reality of what her state’s negligence has done to her community.   She is a voice of the unheard hardships of Americans trapped by a collapsing and toxic infrastructure. 

Mari serves as a social justice warrior.  In 2017, she was a national youth ambassador to the Women’s March on Washington.  She works with the anti-bullying group Trendsetters Productions.   In 2019, she was chairwoman of the board of Kid Box.  She works with Eighteen by 18, a youth organization founded by her mentor, Yara Shahidi.   She sits on the Flint Youth Justice League and the MDE Anti-Racism Student Advisory Council.

Mari has brought the spotlight to Flint in numerous ways.  She has raised over $600,000 for her Flint Kids projects including giving out over 17,000 backpacks stuffed with school supplies, a yearly  Christmas event with thousands of toys, easter baskets, movie screenings, and lots of other events centered around the kids in her community.  She began a book project wherein she gets books by authors of color into the hands of the children in her community.  She  raised over $250k and gave away over a million bottles of bottled water.  She takes the most pride in pivoting away from single-use bottled water to partnering with a company (Hydroviv) to produce her very own water filter, that is shipped all over the country to those that are facing toxic drinking water, to date she has raised over $600,000 to produce and distribute her filters.

 Article paraphrased from Mari’s “About” page: https://www.maricopeny.com/about

February is Black History Month

 

Premier: The American Diplomat Film

 The film will premiere on Tuesday, February 15, 2022!

The American Diplomat tells the story of three African-American ambassadors — Edward R. Dudley, Terence Todman and Carl Rowan — who pushed past racial barriers to reach high-ranking appointments in the Truman, Eisenhower and Kennedy administrations. Asked to represent the best of American ideals abroad while facing discrimination at home, they left a lasting impact on the Foreign Service.

Official Website: https://to.pbs.org/3zYUZhD | #AmericanDiplomatPBS

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