kashema

 

“The kind of beauty I want most is the hard-to-get kind that comes from within: Strength, Courage, Dignity”

When I was a little girl, my grandmother used to take my cousins and I on bus rides to Redding, Pennsylvania.  On one of these occasions, we rode a bus named “Ruby Dee”. We were standing outside and the driver came up to us and asked if we knew who Ruby Dee was, we didn’t.  He gave us a three minute biography and said that he named his daughter after her.  Years later, I came across her biography and thought she was amazing, so much fire in such a petite frame. She stood up and fought in the civil rights and for injustices of current day always believing in what’s right. When I watch Do The Right Thing, I cheer when she and Ozzie come on the screen.  I  also love the love that Ruby and Ozzie have. Reading the Essence interview with her and Susan L. Taylor so many moons ago, was such an important lesson in love. Thank you, Ruby Dee.