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doing a good job, go ahead and do it.’ “But at the same time, it’s not something I sought out to do. There are a lot of women who say ‘I can lead and I am going to be the leader’ and they’ll fight for it if it’s not going to be given to them willingly. But it’s not something I saw myself doing, but I guess it’s my calling because
I’ve been here for a while.”
Of all the leaders who sparked a
change in black history, Franklin said Harriet Tubman is one who comes to mind as a strong female role model.
Tubman was an escaped slave in America who practiced abolitionism — carrying out multiple rescue mis- sions to free slaves — and political activism as a women’s suffragist in the 1800s.
“(Harriet Tubman) got to the point where she wanted to be free, and she said I’m going to be free or else I’ll die trying,” Franklin said. “She wasn’t going to willingly give up her freedom. So she actually became a leader because she went back and got more people and brought more
people. So it’s just people like that who are motivated and have that gut feeling that this is not right, and I havetobetheoneifnooneelseis going to do something about it.”
She noted that although the black community has come “a long way” since Harriett Tubman’s efforts, there is still a “ways to go.”
“It’s important to have (black female leaders in the community) just so the generation that follows us knows there are some support systems for them. ... One generation learns from the other. Her generation “had strong role models,” she said, and “I want to start with being an example to the next generation as a role model so that when I’m gone someone is there and trained to take my place, and so for the next gener- ation they must also learn that they are also obligated to bring up that next generation.”
In addition to her own determi- nation, it also took many role models in Franklin’s childhood in order for her to eventually end up completing 25 years as an educator at National Park College.
“My mom, she was a go-getter, so I guess I inherited some of that from her. I have a lot of female role models who I look up to, and I model after them,” she said. “I have an aunt whose a prayer warrior and she prays and gives me a lot of encouragement in a way.”
Franklin said when she decided she wanted to become a teacher, it was her seventh-grade math teacher at Langston Junior High, Marva Gant,
who inspired her.
“(Mrs. Gant) was phenomenal.
She saw something in me and en- couraged me and I guess the more successful I became I loved math, so she was one of my first role models,” she said. “Family members (were my role models) mostly, but then when I got into Langston Junior High. ... We had many of the teachers who became role models. We saw pro- fessional black women doing things and they encouraged us, so that also helped me along the way.”
Franklin said that growing up she was probably a “statistic who wasn’t doomed for success,” being raised in project housing on Potter Street.
“Most people have the stereotype if they’re raised in the projects they aren’t ever going to get out of the projects; it takes motivation, I guess,” she said. “I was always motivated. I didn’t fight a whole lot as a child ...IguessIwentalongwithalotof things because I was considered to be a little quiet girl.”
Franklin eventually paved her own way to college by acquiring scholarships.
“So I want to say to those people who think they’re in a situation and can’t get out of it, it just takes deter- mination and you can rise above your situation,” she said. “Don’t let your current circumstance determine your final destination because we all can get out of it if we have the desire to do better.”
Franklin said the necessity of a strong role model for the younger black generation who will face simi-
20 FEB/MAR 2020 ¯ HER MAGAZINE