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February 1, 2021
KALAMAZOO, Mich. Professor. World traveler. Journalist. Inventor. This 20th century renaissance woman may not have made it to the moon, but
Dr. Merze Tate s resolve to boldly blaze her own path puts her among Western Michigan University s brightest stars. Fueled by a thirst for knowledge and boundless ambition, she became the first Black student to receive a bachelor s degree from Western State Teachers College which would later become WMU in 1927. But the road to get there was not easy. She took the limits off herself, as an African American and as a woman, says
Sonya Bernard-Hollins, a Western alumna and founder of the Merze Tate Explorers. She lived her entire life with the attitude that, I m not going to let that stop me. There may be some barriers, I may have to fight through them, but I m not going to let that define me.
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Indifference toward the most vulnerable has driven the death toll of COVID-19, just as it did during the height of the HIV/AIDS crisis. Against this backdrop, even small acts of kindness can make a difference.
Like her mother, who had worked as a nurse in a factory, my mother found her calling in caring for others. Between raising my sisters and me, she taught special education, ran a women’s crisis hotline, volunteered at the state prison to teach reading, worked at the YMCA and that’s just what I can remember before I left for college. I fondly remember trailing behind her as we walked through the neighborhoods of Marion, Indiana, as she knocked on doors to convince factory workers to vote for George McGovern. I have memories of her kneeling beside old wooden desks encouraging her students at Crispus Attucks High School in Indianapolis. And though vague, I have this image of her at a YMCA picnic, surrounded by children vying for her attention children with twisted bodi