Editor’s note: Veteran entrepreneur and investor Donald Thompson is a regular contributor to WRAL TechWire. His columns appear on Wednesdays.

RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK – This week, as we kick off Black History Month with renewed energy around racial equity and justice, the usually reminiscent celebrations of Black achievement feel more fresh and future-focused. As Black people in America, we have so many leaders to celebrate right now. Yes, it’s important to remember and honor the quintessential Black Americans like Frederick Douglass, Hariett Tubman and Rosa Parks, but every year we must also expand that canon to show what modern history-makers look like.

2020 gave us so many stories of strength, persistence, triumph and hope: stories that inspire us to be our best selves and to do the hard but necessary work of culture change. These narratives are important because they help us envision what we can become, both as individuals and as communities. As the saying goes, “you can’t be what you can’t see,” and today’s Black heroes, like Vice President Harris, Colin Kaepernick and Amanda Gorman, are proving what we can become. That phrase, coined by another Black American history maker, the children’s rights activist Marian Wright Edelman, is a call to dream big and to let ourselves be inspired to action by other people’s achievements. 

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In the words of Imani Perry for The New York Times, “we create ourselves in light of the stories we hear and tell. Having stories that give us courage and inspiration are always necessary but especially so when we face injustice.” Still, we should be aware of the ways that hero stories can easily become legends or fables and can give too much credit to the individual instead of the wider community. As Perry writes, “social change is never wrought by individuals. Movement is a collective endeavor and the romantic ideal of the hero obscures that truth.” When we highlight individual stories, we must remember our own responsibility for inciting and cultivating social change. 

With that context in mind, my team at The Diversity Movement is honoring twenty Black Americans with our inaugural Black History Now Awards. Follow us on LinkedIn throughout the month of February as we announce the honorees. In the meantime, here are two of my top picks: people who are inspiring me to use my voice and keep encouraging others to use theirs too.        

Brianna Pinto: Soccer Star and Mentor

Brianna Pinto plays soccer for UNC and for the women’s national under-twenty team. She’s a terrific athlete, but what inspires me about her is the way she’s using her skills and her voice to advocate for other women and for change. As a League Member and mentor for Voice in Sport, Brianna gives her time, perspective and resources to help young athletes navigate the challenges and inequities of women’s sports. 

If you know me at all, you know how deeply I believe in the value and power of sports. Winning and losing as part of a team teaches you how to collaborate, to lead, to keep learning and pressing forward, no matter what gets in the way. Yet according to research, 51% of girls drop out of sports by age 17. Female athletes face tremendous hurdles around body image, mental health and nutrition that male athletes are much less likely to experience. If they do keep playing into adulthood, here’s the lackluster reward: only 24% of college sports budgets and 3.2% of sports media coverage are afforded to women’s sports. At 20 years old, Brianna has experienced enough of that already, and she is using her voice to build a different future. I admire that. 

Dr. Kizzmekia Corbett: Viral Immunologist and Equity Advocate

Dr. Kizzmekia Corbett made the news this year as a Black woman at the center of COVID-19 vaccine development. She’s a research fellow at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and one of the key immunology experts credited with bringing the Moderna vaccine to life. Like Brianna Pinto, Dr. Corbett has local ties; she was born and raised in North Carolina. That might make it obvious enough why I chose her — she has been a critical player in ending the pandemic — but I think Dr. Corbett’s story as a Black history maker extends beyond her scientific work. 

Her story draws attention to the intersection of three major forces this year: pandemic science, economics and racial injustice. As she said in an interview for ABC News, her visibility as a Black woman in science is important especially “to younger scientists and also to people of color who have often worked behind the scenes and essentially done the dirty work for these large efforts toward a vaccine.” Dr. Corbett uses her voice to highlight inequalities in finance, esteem and opportunity for scientists from diverse ethnic backgrounds. As part of the movement to Fund Black Scientists, she argues that bias and disparity in funding is the most dangerous barrier to scientists of color and the advancement of medicine at large. 

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As history makers, Brianna Pinto and Dr. Kizzmekia Corbett have so much in common. They’re curious, courageous, diligent and helpful: some of the qualities I admire most in people. They aren’t afraid to use their voices and their skills to help motivate change — or, if they are afraid, they do it anyway, which is also great. Who do you see making Black History Now, and how are you honoring their stories within your organization this month? If you want help learning the moves you can make for an authentic and engaging celebration, download our free Black History Month Programming Guide and follow along with us on LinkedIn as we announce our inaugural honorees. 

About the Author 

Donald Thompson is a serial entrepreneur, angel investor, author, podcaster, public speaker and mentor for Google’s Entrepreneurs Exchange. He is currently CEO at Walk West, a multi award winning digital marketing agency, and co-founder/CEO of The Diversity Movement, a technology-enabled diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) training firm that teaches organizations how to create lasting culture change for greater innovation and profitability. Join Donald’s Team on February 18th for a webinar about How DEI is Transforming Venture Capital and Private Equity or learn more by visiting donaldthompson.com.