We get syrupy about “Hidden Figures” from all over and know little about the heroes and sheroes who grew up in our own back yard. Mrs. French L. Cowens was born French L. Jackson to Willie Mae and Willis Jackson in Gladewater, Texas. She grew up in old North Central Dallas.
This coming New Year will be the year 6260 on our oldest calendar, the ancient Egyptian calendar, the oldest calendar in the world. And we are the oldest people in the world, the elders of humanity. Indeed, we are builders of a Nile Valley civilization named Kemet that was once called the Light of the World, the Navel of the World and the Temple of the world. Therefore, before we lose ourselves in the established order ritual of new-year-lite resolution-making on everything from loss of weight to giving less to the lotto, we might want to pause, remember and think deeply, and then make resolutions worthy of our weight and work in the history of the world. And this requires that in the midst of the diminished and distorted portrait of ourselves painted by the dominant society, we remember and rightly conceive of ourselves in more truthful, dignity-affirming and expansive ways.