Celebrating Us! 2024 Honor Roll:DaVine Joy Randolph, Judge Tanya Chutkan, VP Kamala Harris, Clare Luckey, and Coco Gauff
If possible, I would hand out awards to Black single mothers who make a way out of no way; to Black grandmothers who step up to parent a grandchild (or grandchildren) for an incarcerated son or daughter; to “two-jobs-to-make-ends meet” Black women; to no-venture capital-backed Black female entrepreneurs, or to Black college girls who work full-time, attend classes fulltime while maintaining a 3.9 GPA.
Instead, I honor five women who exemplify the resilience, ingenuity, creativity, and integrity of Black women in America.
ENTERTAINMENT
Da’Vine (“Day Vine”) Joy Randolph
People on screen don’t traditionally look like me. I’ve had to fight to play fully realized characters with complexities. (dailymail.co.uk, January 20, 2024)
Da’Vine Joy Randolph, in a stunning pale blue sequined Louis Vuitton gown, proudly posed on the red carpet at the 2024 Oscars, defying traditional Hollywood standards of female beauty--white skin and thin bodies.
Randolph won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role in “The Holdovers.” Prior to this win, she had racked up a Tony nomination (for her performance as Oda Mae Brown in the musical production of Ghosts), a Primetime Emmy nomination for her appearance on the Hulu mystery series, “Only Murders in the Building.”
In 2023, she received awards from the Philadelphia Film Critics Circle, the Phoenix Critics Circle, and the Phoenix film Critics Society.
Raised in Mount Airy, Philadelphia, a culturally diverse community, Randolph was considered a “divine joy” by her parents who tried for seven years to have a child. Passion for theater, especially musical theater, marked her early childhood and carried through her graduation from Temple University, Yale Drama School, and the British American Drama Academy.
Randolph’s Oscar win is a fitting tribute to her talent as well as her dedication to the craft.
Kudos to DaVine Joy Randolph for earning her place among cinema’s elites.
JUDICIAL
Judge Tanya S. Chutkan, U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia
“(Trump’s) four-year service as Commander in Chief did not bestow on him the divine right of kings to evade the criminal accountability that governs his fellow citizens ….” (Judge Chutkan’s 48-page opinion)
Donald Trump had the misfortune of landing in the courtroom of Judge Chutkan, a no-nonsense, but fair, adjudicator born in Jamaica, who was randomly chosen to oversee Trump’s criminal case for his involvement in the January 6, 2021, takeover of the U.S. Capitol by rioters.
Trump vilified her as “a very evil person,” “biased and unfair,” and “highly partisan” based on her rulings. “She obviously wants me behind bars.”
Chutkan respond by stating that Trump’s “arguably ambiguous statements” could be construed as intimidation or harassment of potential witnesses.
According to ABC News, in October 2023, “Judge Chutkan grants … a narrowly tailored gag order against Trump, prohibiting him from making or ‘reposting’ statements ‘publicly targeting’ the special counsel and his staff, as well as Chutkan's staff and the staff of other D.C. district court personnel.”
Judge Chutkin ruled against former president Donald Trump’s claim of executive privilege in handing over classified documents to the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack.
In October 2024, she unsealed “the redacted appendix from the immunity motion filed earlier this month by Smith that included new details about Trump and his allies' actions leading up to the Jan. 6 assault on the Capitol.”
When sentencing Jan. 6 insurrectionists, Judge Chutkin, motivated by what she characterized as a “violent attempt to stop the peaceful transfer of power” in which rioters were “desecrating the center of our government, ordered jail time rather than probation or home detention.
(In November 2024, special prosecutor Jack Smith moved to dismiss his election interference case against President-elect Trump, citing Department of Justice policy against prosecuting a sitting president.)
Kudos to Judge Chutkan for resisting Trump’s attempts to muddy the judicial waters with inflammatory statements, threats, and disinformation.
POLITICS
“The outcome of this election is not what we wanted, not what we fought for, not what we voted for. But ... the light of America's promise will always burn bright as long as we never give up.” (excerpt from Harris’s concession speech)
On January 6, 2025, in a not-so-rare display of Republican incivility, the husband of Senator Deb Fischer (R-NE) snubbed Vice-President Kamala Harris by refusing to shake her hand or make eye contact during his wife’s swearing-in ceremony.
To her credit, VP Harris, momentarily taken aback, quickly regained her composure and turned away with a smile.
This rebuff is the latest in right-wing conservatives’ history of disrespect for the vice-president.
In the initial days of Harris’s run for president, her candidacy ignited enthusiasm and hope among voters. However, throughout the shortest presidential campaign in U.S. history--107 days—she faced withering attacks, including charges of putting thousands of Black men in jail for marijuana offenses while district attorney in San Francisco; a denial of her “blackness;” questioning the validity of her citizenship; false claims of an affair with a married man; and attacks from some Democrats about her campaign strategies.
Detractors called her “Jezebel,” a wicked and rebellious woman in the Bible, and attributed her political rise to being a “DEI hire, colored, and a woman.”
Trump’s volley of insults included, "She's so bad. She's so pathetic. She's so fu*king bad."
Despite the president-elect’s derogatory remarks about women (“Does she have a fat ass? Absolutely." or “... Grab them by the pussy. You can do anything.") and his disinformation--from an alleged rise in violent crime to asserting that migrants crossing the border are “terrorists … coming in with very contagious disease,” he suffers no damage to his political ambitions.
On the other hand, Harris’s words, gestures, policies, and comments have been harshly dissected by conservative media outlets, fellow Democrats, MAGA Republicans, and Black Conservatives, in contrast to the soft questioning of Trump about his false or misleading assertions about crime, border insecurity, and the economy.
Kudos to VP Harris for her grace under fire.
SCIENCE
“I don’t know where I’d be without the many people who have mentored, encouraged, and pushed me since I started as an intern …”
In March 2024, The Johnson Space Center honored Clare Luckey, 29, “As a member of the Mars Architecture Team … she is one of the people at the forefront of designing the first crewed mission to the Red Planet. Her current work involves helping to develop the vision for the initial segment of Mars exploration missions.”
Luckey was named one of Forbes’ 30 under 30 Class of 2024 in the Science category.
Born in Deerfield, Michigan, she holds a Bachelor of Science in Earth Systems Science and Engineering from the University of Michigan and a Master of Science degree in Space Architecture from the University of Houston.
Her interest in space developed in middle school when she and a group of her friends participated in a Future Cities competition to design a city on Mars. “We didn’t win – not even close – but it challenged us to think critically and creatively.”
Although neither of her parents are engineers, she recalls that her grandfather was a maintenance technician on aircraft while in the military.
Luckey’s commitment to science extends beyond the cosmos. “I want to be someone that is approachable, helpful, and easy to learn from so that I can be a mentor to the next generation of students, in the same way that I had mentors.”
Kudos to Clare Luckey for representing the best in Black excellence.
SPORTS
“Playing the best of the best makes me feel confident in my game.”
On November 9, 2024, Coco Gauff became the first tennis player born in 2004 or later, male or female, to reach a prize money milestone: She surpassed 20 million dollars in career prize money after winning the Women’s Tennis Association Finals.
Not surprising for the Atlanta, Georgia native who began playing at age six.
Her parents, Carey and Candi Odom Gauff, could have become professional athletes; her father played basketball for Georgia State University, and her mother was a track and field star at Florida State University.
Married for 20 years, the Gauffs forfeited their careers (as a health care executive and an educator, respectively) to help Cocoa pursue tennis full-time. “My dad told me I could do this when I was eight, and obviously, you never believe it.”
Indeed, she has succeeded.
In July 2019, she was the youngest player ever to qualify for Wimbledon, where she defeated her idol, Venus Williams, in the Grand Slam.
In August 2023, Gauff won the U.S. Open and joined the ranks of the handful of African American women who have the title, including Althea Gibson, Venus and Serena Williams, and Sloane Stephens.
According to goodmorningamerica.com, “Coco made history when she carried the flag for Team USA … in the (2024 Olympic) Games' Opening Ceremony, becoming the first tennis player to carry the flag for the U.S.”
Ever modest about her accomplishments, Coco said, “You know, I don't think I'm going to change the world. I'm not delusional, but I think it could change some people in the world.”
Kudos to Coco Gauff for being a role model for all Black girls who dare to dream.
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