African-Americans in Western New York and beyond are coming together to pay homage to unheralded black women of the past 100 years, the unsung heroines whose legacy of self-determination speaks to a tradition of effecting change.

"Uncrowned Queens"-a Web site dedicated to recognizing those unsung heroines-spotlights the accomplishments of African-American women in the region who have remained largely in the shadows over the course of a century, but who have in their own significant way contributed to the collective achievements of the community, and of black history.

	Peggy Brooks Bertram (left) and Barbara Seals Nevergold pay hommage to the unsung heroines—African-America women who have achieved much, but remained largely in the shadows—with the “Uncrowned Queens” Web site.
	photo: Dennis Bertram

The title of the site is derived from a poem published in 1917 by Drusilla Dunjee Houston, "America's Uncrowned Queens."

"She really was speaking to the same kinds of issues that we're speaking to now-that there are African-American women who are really toiling in the background, trying to make things right," said Peggy Brooks Bertram, an associate for faculty development and graduate fellowship programs in the Office of the Vice President for Public Service and Urban Affairs and co-chair of the site.

"We decided there were hundreds of women in the African-American community who had done a lot of things over the past century, but hadn't been recognized for it," said Brooks Bertram, who also is an adjunct assistant professor in the Department of African-American Studies. "And we were especially interested in making sure we identified women who you didn't usually see getting accolades."

The project began to take shape more than a year ago when Barbara Seals Nevergold, coordinator of student support services in the Educational Opportunity Center, answered a request to participate in the Women's Pavilion Pan American 2001 Inc., a Web organization serving as a hub for community projects celebrating the achievements of women in conjunction with the centennial of the Pan American Exposition of 1901. At the time, none of the organization's focus groups were dedicated solely to examining the achievements of minority women. Seals Nevergold sought to fill that need.

"I thought about what could possibly be an activity that focused on the community," said the co-chair of "Uncrowned Queens."

And thus, the pair began work on the project, which currently features the biographies of some 150 "uncrowned queens."

The ultimate goal for the site, http://wings.buffalo.edu/uncrownedqueens, is to cull the names of 1,901 women.

Developed under the auspices of the Women's Pavilion, Nevergold notes the importance of recognizing the accomplishments of African-American women who in the past were relegated to the background, their history obscured by events that sought to exclude-or exploit-their very existence.

"When Congress passed the act that established the Pan Am, the language said the purpose of the (exposition) was to showcase all of the accomplishments of mankind over the last 100 years.in all aspects-arts, industry, education," she explained. "That promise wasn't fulfilled, as far as looking at groups of color.

"Our activity comes back to the original goal of the Pan Am-here we are, here are the accomplishments, here are the contributions that this group of people has made to the community," she said.

The pair turned to community organizations-namely the Afro American Historical Association of the Niagara Frontier, the Buffalo Chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and the Buffalo Genealogical Society of the African Diaspora, Erie County Links Inc. and the Xi Epsilon Omega Chapter of the Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Inc.-for nominations, while also coming up with their own slate of nominees.

"We're talking about women who were active back then, or were active in the community in the past 100 years," Nevergold said. "We were going back to women who were deceased and had left the collective memory. But there was someone who remembered."

The late Ann Montgomery, whose career as a business owner began in the 1910s in Buffalo where her various enterprises flourished as part of Little Harlem, is among the women featured on the site. Eva M. Noles was the first black nurse to train in Buffalo, and went on to become director of nursing at what now is Roswell Park Cancer Institute. Also featured on the site, Noles remains an active member of the nursing community.

"There was a cadre of people who had done all kinds of things-the community hair dresser who'd been dressing hair for 50 years, making all of us look lovely, but no one every gave her an outstanding achievement award," explained Bertram. "Or the woman who was the baby sitter for everybody's child in the neighborhood, or the person who was the community historian. We have women like that."

She credits UB in helping make possible their project.

"You can't do this kind of thing without the support of the university," Bertram said, lauding Lisa Francescone, a senior administrative assistant in PSUA, for her assistance in structuring and designing the site. As well, Bertram received a grant from UB's Canadian-American Studies Committee to pursue cross-border connections for the site.

Nevergold said they are pursuing additional support for future activities related to the site, which was funded originally through the Women's Pavilion and several co-sponsoring organizations. She said they'd like to work with the Buffalo Board of Education in developing a curriculum to accompany the Web site. And this month, the pair will present "Uncrowned Queens" to the New York State Social Studies Association, which is holding a day-long seminar on the Pan Am.

Ultimately, the women hope the site will become an interactive community resource. Individuals would be able to add the stories of women who are important to them. And the pair intends to include the stories of other underrepresented groups-not just blacks.

"Long after we're finished, the community can step forward and start to identify the next wave of people," Bertram said. "It's consistent with out attempt to marry the history of a culture of people with the use of technology to explore that.

"We think it's an extraordinary educational opportunity for people to say that although African Americans may have been in the shadows in 1901, this project, this opportunity, belatedly fulfills the original mission, which was to talk about the contributions of all people," Bertram said.

A century after the Pan Am exhibits of the "Old Plantation" and the "African Village"-which did little more than offer a stereotypic and demeaning glimpse into the lives of African Americans, whose triumphs in the years after slavery and leading up to 1901 largely went unrecognized-Bertram and Nevergold are doing their part to ensure the accomplishments of African-American women are celebrated, and heralded.

"There's not enough out there to give people a real understanding of what this celebration of the 100th anniversary of the Pan Am is," Nevergold said. "We focus on the Pan Am as the initial impetus for this activity-but it goes far beyond the Pan Am, because we look at impact, we're looking at community in terms of. . . history."

Still, the Queen City struggles to contextualize adequately the strides made by African Americans, Bertram points out.

"This piece we're doing on 'Uncrowned Queens' is really the only piece that attempts to make sure that communities other than white communities are represented in this second thrust of celebrating the City of Light," she said, which perhaps begs her question-one that challenges the notion of just how far we've come.

"Really, how much light shines, and if it does, where does it shine?"