"At every phase in your life, look at your options. Please, do not select boring ones."-Barbara Hillary

Barbara Hillary (1931-2019) was a nurse, activist, two-time cancer survivor, the first Black woman to reach the North Pole, and the first Black woman to reach both poles.

Raised in the Harlem neighborhood of New York City, Ms. Hillary was raised by her mother, Viola Jones Hillary, who migrated from South Carolina in The Great Migration. Her father passed away when she was two years old. She spent much of her childhood reading.

Ms. Hillary later earned her BS and MS in gerontology. She was an activist, founding organizations such as the Arverne Action Association to improve life in the Averne neighborhood of NYC. She also founded a pioneering non-profit multi-racial magazine, The Peninsula Magazine.

After a 55 year-long career in nursing, she sought adventure by travelling to Quebec for dog sledding and to Manitoba to photograph polar bears. Once she learned that no Black woman had been to the North Pole, she started to train and to raise funds for her own expedition.

At the age of 75, Barbary Hillary became the first Black woman to reach the North Pole on April 23rd, 2007.

The Seattle Times reported: "As the sunlight glinted off the ice, distorting her vision, Hillary struggled beneath a load of gear and pressed on. In her euphoria at reaching the Pole, she forgot the cold and removed her gloves, causing her fingers to become frostbitten."

On January 6th, 2011, she became the first Black woman to set foot on the South Pole, and thus became the first Black woman to reach both poles.

She fell in love with the beauty of polar landscapes and came to understand the effects of climate change on the planet. She spent the final years of her life advocating for those impacted by climate change. #PolarImpact #pioneer #blackinnature #diversityoutdoors #blackoutdoors