Women’s History Month speaker urges audience to ‘sway’
“Sway,” Linda Johnson Rice said in the opening moments of her lecture titled “Having Our Sway: Women Gaining Power Through Purpose,” can change the status quo.
She was the guest speaker at the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff’s Office of Student Involvement and Leadership’s annual Women’s History Month’s virtual event Thursday.
Her definition of sway included the influence women can have over events in their own lives, as well as in larger society.
Sway can be gentle, steady like the 2017 hashtag Me Too movement, or a “rhythmic drumbeat over time that effects lasting change,” Rice said.
It can be a seismic sway that “can start a movement,” she said.
Rice quoted the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, saying, “‘Fight for the things that you care about but do it in a way that will lead others to join you.”
Black women gain power through purpose, and Rice added, sway has to start somewhere, and it often starts with one person.
The Women’s History Month event was held on Zoom and is available on YouTube under Annual Women’s History Month Celebration: Linda Johnson Rice.
“Arkansas holds a special place in my heart,” Rice said.
Her father, John H. Johnson, was born in Arkansas City in 1946. Johnson was the founder of Johnson Publishing Co., which published Ebony and Jet magazines, and owner of Fashion Fair Cosmetics, according to https://www.thehistorymakers.org/
Rice carries on in her father’s
tradition. She is a former chairman and chief executive officer of Johnson Publishing Co.
During his welcome to the program and Rice’s introduction, UAPB Chancellor Laurence Alexander talked about her accomplishments.
Rice is the youngest and first Black woman CEO among the top five of the 100 largest black-owned companies and has been described as “a ray of positivity in the black community with her strong and resilient leadership,” he said.
Rice served as a board member for numerous notable organizations including most notably the board of trustees for Chicago’s Museum of Contemporary Art (MOMA), the Women’s Board for the Boys & Girls Clubs of America, board of directors for Continental Bank Corp., Magazine Publishers of America, GrubHub Inc., Tesla Inc., Kimberly-Clark Corp., University of Southern California, and the Women’s Board of the Art Institute of Chicago.
In closing, Alexander said to Rice, “We extend to you a roaring Golden Lion rumble.”
CELEBRATING ALL WOMEN
The event opened with a welcome from Raven Franklin, an honor student and the 91st Miss UAPB.
Franklin is part of the UAPB STEM Scholars and has represented the university’s STEM Academy on campus and at state and national conferences.
“This month is our month to be recognized and appreciated for so much that we are not given credit for,” Franklin said about women.
She encouraged the audience to “stand strong” before turning the program over to Alexander.
Alexander also talked about some of the areas, such as sports, government, the arts and more, where all women were making a difference every day, and added, “We pay tribute and celebrate women of all backgrounds, cultures.”