Honoring the Grady Girls: Legacy of Courage and Community Impact

Have you ever paused to consider the silent pillars of strength in our communities—those women whose names may not be etched in history books but whose impact resonates through generations? Join me, Carmen Cauthen, as I recount the inspiring stories of my mother and her sisters, the legendary Grady Girls from Mount Olive, North Carolina. These women broke barriers in education and activism during the Great Depression, leaving an indelible mark on their communities. Inspired by their courage, I set out to ensure their legacies are celebrated, nominating my mother for the Raleigh Hall of Fame and crafting an event reminiscent of Oprah's Legends Ball to honor these unsung heroes.

In an era where women's contributions often went unnoticed, "Quiet No More" shines a deserving spotlight on Black women who have worn multiple hats—caretaker, educator, community leader—without the applause they truly deserved. By penning a book dedicated to these formidable women and hosting a celebratory dinner event in Raleigh, I aim to document their invaluable contributions and inspire others to appreciate their legacy. 

This is a heartfelt invitation to embrace a legacy of recognition and ensure that the stories of these remarkable women continue to inspire respect in the generations to come.

====================================
Carmen Wimberley Cauthen is an author, speaker, and lover of history, Black history in particular. As a truth teller, she delights in finding the hidden truths about the lives of people who made a difference - whether they were unknown icons or regular everyday people.

To Learn more of Carmen:
www.carmencauthen.com
www.researchandresource.com

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Unseen, unheard.
We've lived like that far toolong.
I'm Carmen Coffin and this isQuiet, no More.
I am a woman of substance,strong and beautiful.
Do you know what that means?

(00:25):
I hope not, because I sort ofcreated it myself and it has a
special meaning for me, and I'vebeen toying with woman of
substance, strong and beautifulfor a couple of years in my head
, but I knew what it meant and Iknew that I needed to go

(00:46):
somewhere with it.
My mother was a woman ofsubstance.
In fact, in Mount Olive, northCarolina, where she grew up, she
and her sisters were known asthe Grady Girls.
All of the great girls werestrong women, they were women of

(01:06):
substance, and you shouldconsider that they were born
between the 20s and the 40s.
They all went to college.
Almost all of them got at leasta bachelor's degree, but most
of them also got master'sdegrees.
You consider this is during thetime of the Depression.

(01:27):
They grew up on a farm and theywere just amazing women,
strong-willed, determined to dowhat they saw needed to be done.
And I thought about it.
My mother was a communityactivist.

(01:49):
She was a teacher.
She was a teacher at heart.
Forever, even probably to herlast day she was still teaching
us stuff, but she was one whowould make a decision and not
back down.
One who would make a decisionto not back down.
She ran for school board herein Raleigh before the Wake

(02:10):
County School and the RaleighCity School Boards merged and
she told me at one point when Iwas older that when she made the
decision to run for schoolboard she was asked not to by
some of the Black men in townbecause another gentleman who
was a friend of hers was runningfor the school board and they

(02:33):
wanted to be sure that she waselected and she decided not to
follow through with what theywanted and she ran anyway.
They both won with what theywanted and she ran anyway.
They both won.
And when she finally came offthe board it was 25 years before
there was another twoAfrican-Americans on the school

(02:54):
board here in Wake County and Iwas so proud of her.
I remember standing at theelementary school.
I remember standing at theelementary school passing out
pamphlets asking people to votefor her.

(03:16):
I remember being an embarrassedproud the year I graduated from
high school because she was onthe school board at the time and
during that period of time,school board members from the
city, would you know, go todifferent graduation ceremonies,
and she just had to be at mine,had to get up and give me a hug
and you know, when you're thatage, you're like I don't want my
mama to get up and do stuff.
But nevertheless, I learnedfrom her.

(03:37):
I learned to be strong, to notgive in or give up, to be
willing to fight for things thatneeded to be fought for, to be
willing to say the things thatneeded to be said, to take a
stand if I needed to take astand, to be quiet when I needed

(04:02):
to be quiet, which is hard todo sometimes, yes, but I wanted
to honor her and Raleigh, thecity of Raleigh, has a program
Well, the city of Raleighdoesn't have it, but it's a
program called the Raleigh Hallof Fame, and people are inducted
into the Hall of Fame after anapplication process, and so the

(04:26):
year after she died, I wonderedwhy she'd never been made part
of the Hall of Fame, and so Idecided.
One of the other things that Ilearned growing up was if you
want something done, you just doit.
So I nominated her for the Hallof Fame, the Raleigh Hall of
Fame, and she was accepted andinducted into that the year

(04:49):
after she died and inducted intothat the year after she died,
and I really wished I had donesomething earlier so that she
could have been honored and seenit.
I realized that there were somany women, so many Black women
in particular, who had donethings that were important at
the same time that she was doingthem, and maybe even before.

(05:12):
I knew before we celebratethings that young Black women
are doing today, but we don'tnecessarily celebrate things
that older women are doing.
And so I decided I wanted to besure that she and her friends
were honored.
And so I came up with thiswoman of substance idea and I

(05:39):
just created a logo and at-shirt, but I didn't really do
anything with it.
And the more I researchedhistory and what Blacks have
done in history in America, themore I began to realize how many
Black women have done thingsand gotten no recognition unless

(06:00):
they're at the national levelBlack women who need to be
honored for what they have doneand how they have undergirded
society and helped to build thiscountry that we live in.
And so I made the decision lastyear that I was going to tell

(06:24):
somebody that I wanted to dothis and you know, sometimes you
have an idea in your head andthat's where it lives, is in
your head, and if you don't openyour mouth it doesn't become
real.
And so I made the decision thatI wanted to host an event.
I thought it would just be, youknow, a little reception, maybe

(06:46):
honor 10 or 12 women.
And my business coach said tome, why do you keep focusing on
this?
And I was like because it'ssomething I have to do, it's
something I really have to do.
And so finally she said, wellthen, don't keep it small.
You know, if you're going to doit, do it big enough to make a

(07:07):
splash, make a difference.
So I thought about that and Isaid okay.
And I started to think aboutOprah's Legends Ball, when she
had said she had forgotten toinvite Cecily Tyson for her.
I believe it was her 50thbirthday and so she was going to

(07:27):
invite her for lunch.
And then she started thinkingof other Black women that she
considered had made the waypossible for her to do the
things that she had done.
And so it began to grow and sheconsidered herself a young'un
compared to them.
So she had legends andyoung'uns to come together for a
big luncheon and then a bigdinner dance and then a Sunday

(07:51):
gospel brunch at her estate inCalifornia, and I always thought
that that was so important thatshe was willing, as known as
she was, to honor these otherwomen who had come, who had made
strides and made open pathwaysfor her, and so this is what I

(08:14):
really decided I wanted to do,and so April 25th of this year
2025, would have been mymother's 95th birthday, was she
still living, and so I am goingto host a dinner event in her
honor.
This is called Woman ofSubstance, strong and Beautiful.

(08:36):
But I'm not just honoring mymother, I'm honoring women.
Probably about 250 women Ithought it was 200, but I went
back and looked at my numbersyesterday so probably about 200
women from the late 1800sforward and young women.

(08:57):
So there are about 200 legendsand about 50 young'uns who have
been amazing women and probablyhave only gotten notice in their
obituaries if that for thethings that they have done
throughout the Raleigh area andRaleigh, just the city of

(09:19):
Raleigh.
I'm not doing the county, I'mnot doing the region.
I'm not doing the regionbecause it amazed me when I
began to realize how muchsupport Black women have put
into our communities, into notjust our schools, into
organizations.
I was researching mygrandmother because, you know, I

(09:43):
never knew her to be anythingother than grandma.
I never knew her to be anythingother than grandma, and I put
her name in in searching innewspapers and started to find
out about organizations she hadbeen involved with, how she had
been involved with the GirlScouts, how different women that
I knew around me growing up haddone things that they didn't

(10:06):
talk about.
Or if they did talk about them,I was a kid and I didn't care.
And I just want to give honorand homage and respect to Black
women who have been amazing inthe things that they have done
and haven't gotten any creditfor it.
And so I want to invite you tolook around you in your

(10:30):
community, in your church, inyour place of worship, in your
school, whether it's yourcollege or your high school or
your wherever.
Look and see who the women were, who've undergirded, who have
supported the men and thechildren and other women who

(10:51):
have helped to start programsand organizations that would do
things in the community thatwithout them we would be a
sadder place to live, and givethem homage and give them homage
.
Give them respect.
If they're alive, tell themthank you.
If they're not, find a way towrite that down, because it's

(11:20):
the things that aren't writtendown that we don't know about.
It's the history that waswritten from the point of view
of white men and their moneythat left out a lot of the
things that everybody else inthe country did.
Make sure that you are honoringand respecting those women who

(11:40):
have been doing things aroundyou that you really hadn't
thought about, that you hadn'tthought about how they took time
out of their schedules.
They took time out of cookingand cleaning and taking care of
your children and their childrenand other people's children.
That took time out of theirteaching schedules to make sure

(12:04):
that students who didn't havemoney to bring supplies to
school had them.
That were involved in yourworship ceremonies or your
Sunday school or your Biblestudy.
That worked alongside theirhusbands in their business and
the husband got all of thecredit for the business and they

(12:25):
didn't Do those things.
Respect them.
Don't be quiet about thatanymore.
I know I am not going to dothat.
As part of this, I am writing abook just about these women,
because these are pieces ofhistory that need to be written

(12:48):
down somewhere where it isimportant for others to be able
to read and to take courage totake inspiration from things
that black women have done, thatthey haven't been recognized
for, and so I just want toencourage you today, if you're

(13:10):
in the Raleigh area, when youhear that the tickets are for
sale for the dinner, get one,because the book that I write
will be a gift for those peoplewho are at the dinner.
It will be part of thecelebration of these Black women
who were quiet, but they didthings anyway, and some of them

(13:36):
are gone, and so we want toencourage our young people, our
young men and our young women tobe able and willing to honor
those who have done for them,around them, behind them,
unbeknownst to them.
We want to be quiet.

(13:58):
No more You've been listeningto Quiet no More, where I share
my journey, so you can be quiet.