by Tammy Ditmore | Feb 8, 2026 | Black History Month
Fred Gray is a “lawyer by trade” and a Church of Christ “preacher at heart” who won the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2022 at age 91 for his boundary-shattering Civil Rights work. Gray represented Martin Luther King Jr., Claudette Colvin and...
by Tammy Ditmore | Feb 7, 2026 | Black History Month
The Snowy Day was the first children’s book featuring an African American character to win the Caldecott Medal, one of the most prestigious awards for children’s literature. This beautiful, simple little book by Ezra Jack Keats follows Peter as he explores...
by Tammy Ditmore | Feb 6, 2026 | Black History Month
I frequently travel through the Austin airport and whenever I do, I always try to stop at least briefly at the statue of Barbara Jordan to honor her remarkable life. Jordan was the first African American woman in in the Texas Senate (1966-72) and the first African...
by Tammy Ditmore | Feb 5, 2026 | Black History Month
I didn’t know anything about Ida B. Wells until fairly recently, but as a former journalist, her story inspires me so much. Wells was an outspoken, African American, female journalist in the late 1800s and early 1900s, when those things just did not go together....
by Tammy Ditmore | Feb 4, 2026 | Editing
I’ve heard lots of great speakers at Pepperdine University over the years, but Ruby Bridges was definitely one of the most inspiring when I heard her in 2016. Ruby was sent to a previously all-white school in New Orleans when she was six years old. Every day for...
by Tammy Ditmore | Feb 3, 2026 | Editing
The Harlem Hellfighters was one of the most highly decorated American units in World War I. They spent more time in continuous combat than any similar American unit: 191 days on the front lines and suffered more losses than any other American regiment, with more than...
by Tammy Ditmore | Feb 2, 2026 | Editing
What is Black History month? It was originally founded as Negro History Week in 1926 by Dr. Carter G. Woodson to help promote and preserve information about African American life, history, and culture to the global community. The second week of February was first...
by Tammy Ditmore | Feb 1, 2026 | Editing
In 2025, I decided at the last second that I was going to try to post something on my Facebook account every day for Black History Month. Honestly, I was expecting that it would be easy to find things online that I could repost without much effort. When it turned out...
by Tammy Ditmore | May 28, 2025 | Editing, Publishing
One of the most rewarding moments as an editor is receiving a copy of a finished book from an author I worked with months ago. And it’s a special treat when the book is as enjoyable as Melissa Carter’s Facing Inward. If I told you a book that this is a...
by Tammy Ditmore | Jan 17, 2025 | Events, personal reflections
Over the past ten days, horribly destructive fires in Southern California have been in all the headlines, and friends and family from around the country have contacted me, wanting to know if we are okay. Many of them have only a rudimentary idea of where we live or...
