Meghan Markle made international headlines when she married Prince Harry of the British royal family and became a Duchess. Millions tuned into watch the 3-hour ceremony. But Meghan is not the first Black woman to live in the Royal Palace. In 1761, Sophie Charlotte married King George III and became the first ever Black Queen of England.

But Queen Sophia Charlotte, a descendent of a Black Portuguese family that lived in Germany, wasn’t just the Queen of England; She was also the Queen of Ireland as well. Even more interesting, they got married at the age of 17 and they went on to have 15 children. She was the queen for 57 years.

According to Gabriel Scott, historian and author of The Chosen Ones: Perception of Malcolm and Martin, people have tried to discredit and whitewash the significance of her history and contributions to England for many years. However, the truth can not be denied.

A very unique and intelligent woman

Queen Sophia Charlotte spoke several languages including English, German and French. She was good friends with accomplished classical composer, Johann Bach and his wife. And she once received a composition in her honor from Wolfgang Mozart.

In addition, the city of Charlotte, North Carolina in the United States is named after her in her honor.

But most notably, history confirms that she was, in fact, the great-great-great grandmother of the current queen, Queen Elizabeth. Wow! Who would’ve ever thought that the royal family had Black ancestry in their lineage?

(C) https://www.blackhistory.com/2018/06/first-black-queen-england-sophie-charlotte-meghan-markle-royal-family.html

Grace Paras (left) was the editor in chief of the Georgetown Law Journal and Toni Deane (right) is the first African American to lead the publication. Photo: Astrid Riecken/The Washington Post via Getty Images

The editors in chief of law journals at the top 16 law schools in the U.S. are women for the first time in history, the Washington Post reports.

The state of play: At an event honoring the 100th anniversary of women getting the right to vote that brought all of the editors together, Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said, "It's such a contrast to the ancient days when I was in law school. There really is no better time for women to enter the legal profession."

A woman was not elected to lead the law journal at Harvard Law School, Ginsburg's alma mater, until 20 years after she first arrived on campus.
The slate of female editors celebrated their historical accomplishment by putting together a Women & Law Journal that contains essays from female lawyers.
Worth noting, via the Post: Women still only make up less than a quarter of law firm equity partners, a quarter of tenured and tenure-track law professors and about a third of active federal district and appeals court judges.

And only four women have ever served on the Supreme Court.

Rashaan Ayesh
(c) Axios
Feb 7, 2020 - Politics & Policy

"Long ago, there was a noble word, LIBERAL, which derives from the word free. Now a strange thing happened to that word. A man named Hitler made it a term of abuse, a matter of suspicion, because those who were not with him were against him, and liberals had no use for Hitler. And then another man named McCarthy cast the same opprobrium on the word.... We must cherish and honor the word free or it will cease to apply to us."

Eleanor Roosevelt
Tomorrow Is Now: It Is Today That We Must Create the World of the Future (Harper & Row, 1963), p. 138

This photograph is of Polly Jackson, a conductor on the Underground Railroad.

Jackson was a key figure in the Underground Railroad movement, and her name is listed on a local monument dedicated to her and others who risked their lives to help free the enslaved. During the nineteenth century, the migration of fugitives from the Deep and Upper South to the North accelerated. Many, like Polly Jackson, traveled to Ohio. According to legend, she fought off slave catchers with a kettle full of hot water and a butcher knife. It was difficult for women to defend themselves against male pursuers, and this sometimes discouraged them from running away. However, women driven to the end of their limits would flee and defend themselves in any manner that they could.

According to legend, as a fugitive herself, Jackson fought off bounty hunters with a butcher knife and Kettle of boiling water. Jackson joined a community of free blacks in the settlement of Africa, Ohio, that was established near Ripley. Many of the local black residents served as conductors on the Railroad.

In 2002 she stepped into the national spotlight when she challenged the all-male status of the Augusta National Golf Club. But Dr. Martha Burk was already well-known for her impressive accomplishments in academia and both the public and the volunteer sectors. Dr. Burk grew up in Pasadena, Texas, a suburb of Houston. Having earned top grades in high school she graduated when she was 16 and entered the University of Houston.

Dr. Burk married and interrupted her studies for five years while raising two small children. She would say later, when interviewed by Peter J. Boyer for an article in The New Yorker, being a stay-at-home mom was “the most radicalizing experience in my life….It forced isolation for women in that situation”. So she returned to school at the University of Texas at Arlington, earning a masters degree in psychology and computer science in 1968 and a PH.D. in experimental psychology in 1974.

Though armed with top credentials Dr. Burk found that her gender was a hindrance in the workplace. When she applied for one university teaching job, she was asked to take a typing test. However she did become research director of the Graduate School of Social Work at the University of Texas at Arlington (1974-1976); then assistant professor of management there (1976-1979). While still at the University of Texas she developed an educational software program that became the basis for her own company. A.U. Software Inc. became so successful that Dr. Burk was able to quit her job at the university.

Dr. Burk and her first husband divorced and in 1986 she married Ralph Estes, an accounting professor. When Estes took a teaching job in Kansas, the couple moved to Wichita. Her political activism there led to tenure as president of the Wichita chapter of the National Organization For Women and as a director on the national board of NOW (1988-1990).

In 1990 Dr. Burk and Estes moved to Washington, DC, where they founded the Center For The Advancement of Public Policy, a research and policy analysis organization. From 2000-2005 she was chair of the National Council of Women’s Organizations, a network of over 200 national womens groups, with a combined membership of over 10 million women. It was in that capacity that she led the campaign to open Augusta National Golf Club to women. Her letter to then-club president William W. “Hootie” Johnson questioning the decades-old ban on women in the club resulted in a blistering 18-paragraph response by Johnson and released to the media. The ensuing months-long war of words brought some successes such as two women were eventually admitted as members in 2011, followed by a handful in the decade since, though the club is still overwhelmingly male.

As a nationally known psychologists and women's issues expert specializing in gender pay equity, Dr. Burk advises city, county and state governments on gender pay equity and conducts internal pay analyses for private sector companies. In 2010 Dr. Burk crafted the first-in-the-nation gender pay equity initiative for New Mexico as a senior advisor to then-Governor Bill Richardson.

Dr. Burk remains at the forefront of change for women in corporate America and continues to advise business organizations and government entities at all levels on gender pay equity. She serves as the Money Editor for Ms. Magazine; is a syndicated newspaper columnist; and is a blogger for womensvoicesmedia.org. Her public radio show Equal Time With Martha Burk originates from KFSR in Santa F, NM. Her latest book, Your Voice, Your Vote: The Savvy Woman’s Guide to Politics, Power; and The Change We Need (2020-2021).

She resides in Corrales, New Mexico with her husband, Ralph Estes.

REFERENCES
https://www.notablebiographies.com/newsmakers2/2004-A-Di/Burk-Martha.html#ixzz6C9ZTIFDp
New Yorker, February 17, 2003, p. D3
https://marthaburk.org/aboutmarthaburk.html