THEY CARRIED US
The Social Impact of Philadelphia's Black Women Leaders
The Launch Event
On February 29, 2020, 250 enthusiastic mena and women gathered at the Philadelphia Convention Center to celebrate the publication of They Carried Us: The Social Impact of Philadelphia’s Black Women Leaders written by Allener M. Baker-Rogers and Fasaha M. Traylor.
The contemporary women whose stories in the book have been invited to place a personal item into a Time Capsule that was presented to the Charles L. Blockson Afro-American Collection and bequeathed to the Class of 2045 of the School District of Philadelphia. The Time Capsule also holds a copy of They Carried Us that contains each woman’s and the authors’ signatures, along with a signed tablecloth symbolic of “gaining a seat at the table.” Dramatic readings from the book were performed before and after lunch. The program concluded with a high-school-aged young woman, Noor Bowman, who shared her vision of overcoming the leadership challenges faced by today's young black women leaders.