By: Salaam Green

Octavia Spencer

an

Alabama Black Woman

I think that young women and little girls need to see that they don’t have to be the damsel in distress. They don’t have to not show their strength. They don’t have to be whatever the stereotype is or the tropes that we go to in our minds. 

“You have to create your own path and I’m up to the challenge.”
— Octavia Spencer

Octavia Spencer, born in Montgomery, Alabama hailing Auburn University as her Alma Mater. She won an Academy Award for the film the Help  among countless other awards. She is the only black actress to receive two consecutive Academy Award nominations according to Wikipedia. in her Oscar winning speech Spencer gave a tearful shot out to her hometown adapted from al.com “I would like to thank my families — my family in Alabama, the state of Alabama, my LA family … my ‘Help’ family,” she said, fighting back tears. “I share this with everybody,” she added.

Her contributions to writing include some lesser known facts of her series of Children’s Books titled Randi Rhodes, Ninja Detective. Her astounding speech in Alabama given at to students set the stage ablaze and put Alabama on the map as a place where dreams are born and change makers led. One of my favorite quotes from her regarding civil rights follows…

“The fact that women are very young in obtaining their civil rights and African-Americans are young in obtaining their civil rights, I think it’s about time that we extend that to all Americans, whether straight, gay, purple, green, black, brown.”
— Octavia Spencer

Alabama Black Women from Montgomery, all the way to Auburn University can find their way to Hollywood as Octavia did and that’s what makes Alabama Black Women pillars of transformation curating their own path-.

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Your Big Sis, Salaam

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