Your story started before you.

My grandmother Dorothy was born in 1937, the first of nine children born to JD and Gertrude Johnson. They lived in the small West Texas town of Dougherty, where the colored school closed during cotton season so the colored children could work in the fields.

My great-grandmother, Gertrude, wanted a better future for her children, so they moved to Dallas where the schools were good. My grandmother never graduated high school; she got married and started a family. Deep down, I think it bothered her. However, she was what you would call self-taught. She was always reading and giving out books, especially the Bible. Her house was full of books.

During the summers, she made me read Langston Hughes, Maya Angelou and Alex Haley. She instilled in me a love for reading. She taught me that words are powerful. When I was in elementary school, she would look me in my eye and say, “you are going to college, you are going to North Texas State. If it is good enough for the Bishop’s daughter, it’s good enough for you.” My grandmother, who never set foot on a college campus, made sure that each of her five grandchildren went to college.

She was a true educator. This is my grandmother in 1957. ~shared by @_she_did_that__