Deandria Moore
An African American leader that I admire?
An African American leader whom I admire is my aunt, Darice Ray. My aunt had a lot of tragic things happen in her life, but she didn’t give up, she kept going. She has shown the world that even though bad things sometimes happen, something good may come out of it. She motivates and inspires pre-teens and teenage girls to be a lady and stick up for what they believe in, through all the trouble the world gives out. Through her circumstances she was compelled to join and start organizations that would make a difference in the lives of women and teenage girls.
This is the story of Darice Ray and how she became a leader. In 1999, Darice Ray survived nearly fatal shotgun blasts as a result of domestic violence. She was returning home from work one evening with her three children, and got out the car to open the garage door, when “boom”, her world was changed forever. There was a shooter that shot two shots from a shotgun that shattered her face along with the car window and windshield. One of those shots hit her in the forehead; that one shot shattered her skull around her eye sockets and left her eyes lying on her chest. Thankfully her children were not hurt, but for them to have witnessed the whole thing has left them scarred for life. She lived and was finally released from the hospital but, she is now legally blind. She however, did not let this hinder her from being a strong woman and mother and continues to raise her three children. After this happened she made up her mind to make a change in her community and spread the word about domestic violence. She joined a group called Pioneers for Peace; over the past several years she became one of the most requested and dynamic speakers of the organization. Seeing that domestic violence needed to be told from a women’s stand point, she developed an organization called “Building It Together C.R.C.”, and to further her crusade she started a program for...