Eli Saslow, Washington Post
- Theirs is a diverse group of astronauts and athletes, of politicians and performers, but membership requirements are universal and rigid. If you’re persistent enough to overturn 200 years of history and courageous enough to surmount stereotypes, you might have what it takes to become the first African American to achieve a position.
If you manage it, here is some of what might await: threats, media scrutiny, jealousy and the pressure of representing an entire race. As first, you experience much of this alone.
There’s L. Douglas Wilder, the first black elected governor, who in 1990 confessed to his Virginia staff: “Good God. If I blow this, there might never be a second.” There’s Carole Gist, the first black Miss USA, who was guarded by 24-hour security after she received a barrage of hate mail. There’s Arthur Mitchell, the first black dancer in the New York City Ballet, who said his 1955 debut “sent the crowd into a frenzy, like a thunderbolt hit the theater.” There’s Ruby Bridges, the first black child to attend an all-white Southern elementary school, who walked past a wall of protesters each morning en route to her first-grade classroom.
