All timeline stories.
With her appointment in 2021, Roz Brewer became the only African American woman CEO of a Fortune 500 company, Walgreens. She was also the first African American to lead a Walmart division as president and CEO of Sam’s Club. While at Sam’s Club, she made a $13.6M commitment to women and..Read More
Najah Bazzy, RN, PhD (honoris causa) is the founder and CEO of Zaman International, a non-profit that supports marginalized women and children of all backgrounds in Detroit. This group has helped more than 250,000 people. Today, Zaman operates from a 40,000-square-foot facility in the suburb of Inkster. The group’s warehouse offers aisles of..Read More
Dr. Glenda Price served as the president of Marygrove College from 1998 to 2006. She was the College’s seventh president and the first African American to hold this position. From October 2012 to April 2016, she served as the president of the Detroit Public Schools Foundation. In this role she was responsible for..Read More
Martha Teichner has been a correspondent for CBS Sunday Morning since December 1993 and is the winner of 11 Emmy Awards and 5 James Beard Foundation Awards. Furthermore, Teichner was given the Alfred duPont-Columbia University Award for her reporting on the Newtown, Connecticut elementary school shooting, the Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award for reporting on the exodus..Read More
Dorothy Zehnder is the co-founder and co-owner of the Frankenmuth Bavarian Inn, one of the top independent restaurants in the country. She manages the many businesses that are part of the Bavarian Inn Corporation umbrella including the Bavarian Inn Restaurant and Castle Shops, Bavarian Inn Lodge, Frankenmuth Gift Shops Inc., Frankenmuth River Place Shops, and a specialty line..Read More
Elizabeth Jackson (1918-2020) was a champion for and a leader of the labor movement. She was the first African American woman to serve as an UAW International representative (1966). Three years later, Jackson became the first woman to sit on the national negotiation team during UAW and Ford contract talks. Before that, in 1957 Jackson became..Read More
Atlas Ruth Westbrook (1941-2017) was a middle and high school math teacher and counselor in Southeast Michigan. Before her career in education she was a computer programmer at NASA during the Mercury and Apollo programs, working as a computer programmer (a human computer as depicted in the movie Hidden Figures) and..Read More
Ella Mae Backus (1863-1938) of Grand Rapids became the first female Assistant U.S. Attorney in the State of Michigan. From 1903 to 1938, Ella worked in the U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Michigan offices first as Clerk and then as Assistant U.S. Attorney. In 1887, Ella Mae attended..Read More
Through her philanthropic endeavors and own self-determination, Clara Bryant Ford (1866-1950) made it her life’s mission to improve the life and welfare of women and those in poverty-stricken areas across the country. Clara Ford and her husband, Henry, created and funded numerous programs that focused on women’s rights and self-sufficiency, education,..Read More
Elizabeth (Lisette) Denison Forth (1786-1866) of Macomb County was born into slavery. She won her freedom by escaping with one of her brothers to Canada after a court ruling by the Michigan Territory Supreme Court in 1807 which stated that escaped slaves who established their freedom in Canada could not be..Read More