Badass Lotus Flower Libra Forde is my first installment of my "Four Badass Black Women" series. You can reach her here: https://www.facebook.com/librabetall or https://www.instagram.com/be.tall/.
Libra's mom named her Libra because her pregnancy brought balance to her life. At 6 feet, five inches, Libra continues that balance in her own life.
Born in Harlem, NYC, Libra is single mom to three daughters. After living in Hawaii for many years, she decided to move to Oregon to finish her daughters’ education. Now in her sixth year here, Libra said she ended up living in Damascas without knowing much about the area...or that they would end up being the only Black family for miles around them.
When she worked with special needs kids in Vermont, she found her calling to advocate for and support young people. Now she is the chief operations officer for Self-Enhancement, Inc, and chair of the North Clackamas School District. Self-Enhancement Inc. is a multi-service organization, guiding underserved youth to realize their full potential.
Libra first learned about race when she was five or six. Her parents were both activists. Libra’s life was built around stories of “firsts,” and her parents told her this was what they expected from her and nothing less.
She loved living in the brown state of Hawaii...it was the first time in her life that being Black was not the issue. When she settled into Hawaii, she called her family and said, “I’m never coming back.”
She’s glad that her daughters grew up in a place where they could appreciate their brownness, immersed in beaches, blue sky, and joy. When she moved back to the mainland, she realized she had not talked to her daughters about race.
Libra does profound Facebook Lives on a regular basis. I asked her about a recent one when she talked about Oregon’s physical beauty underlain by its ugly history. She shared a story of vacationing in Coos Bay with her kids, and activist friends shared that there had been a racist incident not far from where was vacationing.
The problem she sees in Oregon’s rural areas is that Oregon had laws that upheld discrimination, but some white people don’t seem to realize that these laws don’t exist anymore. As a result of the racism, Black people don’t want to go to these places. “We have to stop upholding these outdated laws,” she says. “You need to uphold Black voices in rural areas.”
In response to the #BlackLivesMatter protests, Libra started an activist movement that could be done in cars. The first Death of Racism event had great support—at least 96 cars showed up. The event was particularly powerful for Libra because they gathered on a stretch of highway where her daughter had been chased. Counter-protesters showed up, but she loved the opportunity to go against such a group in a way that was positive and peaceful.
As a domestic violence survivor, she’s always conscious of the fact that she’s made some difficult choices that have not been easy for her kids. When they arrived in Oregon, they experienced a tragedy that took them from a full family to being homeless in 24 hours. The healing came through her telling her story. Libra's favorite flower is the lotus, because it grows in the mud and the worst conditions.
I asked her what she would say to her 21-year-old self, and again, without skipping a beat, she said, “Never dim your light. Stay bright...in dimming my light, I realized how damaging that is for an individual, and I don’t want that for anybody...if someone thinks you’re too bright, give them some sunglasses.”
Next week I interview Jewels Pedersen, a writer, performer, and activist...another badass Black woman with three daughters.
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