My aunt, Ora M. Gudnitz, passed away today after a battle with Covid-19. It’s a big loss for my family, and we miss her dearly. She was my mom’s eldest sister, and truly a beacon of light and tireless trailblazer

She was born in 1933 near West Memphis, Ark. Her parents worked as cotton sharecroppers to help send her to boarding school and then Lane College (Tenn., below). In the 1950s she graduated, studied in Denmark, and became the first black teacher at Girls’ High (Philadelphia, Pa.)

In 1969, she and her family were among the first to integrate the Philadelphia suburb of Yeadon, Pa. She was not welcome, facing insults, vandalism and her children being assaulted at school. But they persevered. I was born in Yeadon nearly 20 years later

She valued education, setting the tone for multiple generations within my family. She cared hard. She introduced my mom & dad. My other aunt, 80, said it best: “She was the catalyst for change in our family. Her life was not easy, but she had so much intelligence and fortitude.”