When I was growing up in the 90’s, there were few absolutist figures. By that, I mean the type of personalities whom an adult could invoke with the understanding that they were not to be questioned. In my house, these figures were God, Martin Luther King, and Oprah Winfrey. Oprah Winfrey revolutionized the thought processes of the legions of elders in my life. Thanks to Oprah, nearly every adult in my family began drinking 8 ounces of water every day, rethinking whether women could (or should) wear blue jeans, and reading the work of Toni Morrison. As a child, her impact was a given factor of daily life, and the older I got, the more I recognized how truly unprecedented Oprah Winfrey’s significance is.

Oprah’s story began in rural Mississippi; her mother, Vernita Lee, was a teenage housemaid, and there has been some controversy as to the true identity of her father. Her mother struggled financially, and the family moved around in an effort to find financial sustainability. For several years, Oprah lived with her grandmother before moving to Milwaukee with her mother. Ms. Lee gave birth to another three children, one of whom was put up for adoption. By 1962, Ms. Lee sent Oprah to live in Tennessee with Vernon Winfrey, the man listed as her father on the birth certificate. Oprah was raised in poverty, survived sexual violence, and discovered she was pregnant at 14. She gave birth prematurely, and her son died shortly after birth.

Oprah would return to her mother in Wisconsin before being sent to Tennessee a final time. With Mr. Winfrey, Oprah began to blossom academically and socially. She became an honors student, won scholarships, and was crowned Miss Black Tennessee. While still in high school, she began working at the local Black radio station, and she became the youngest news anchor and the first Black woman anchor at Nashville’s WLAC-TV. In the mid 1970s, Oprah moved to Baltimore, where she transitioned from radio to television.

In 1983, Oprah took over a low-rated morning television show and swiftly transformed it into the most popular talk show in its slot. Expanded to an hour and renamed as The Oprah Winfrey Show, it catapulted her exceptional talent into millions of homes all over the world. While it began as a tabloid-esque television show, Oprah began to infuse A-List celebrity interviews, political updates, wellness tips, and social issues into her program. With over 4,000 episodes and 25 years on the air, The Oprah Winfrey Show became the central piece in Oprah’s growing media empire. Before her syndicated television show would air its final episode in May, 2011, Oprah would become a well known actor, writer, producer, philanthropist, publisher, and critic. She would go on to launch magazines, including O, The Oprah Magazine and O at Home; Harpo Productions, a television and film production company; and, of course, OWN, a television network. Between Oscar nominated performances and groundbreaking celebrity interviews, her name became synonymous with global philanthropy and unparalleled transformative impact. Over those 25 years, it became commonplace to hear celebrities mention the inspirational power of Oprah’s celebrity. As her hold on the media grew, she became one of the few personalities associated with building schools, supporting children through college, and buying cars for an entire studio audience.

From abject poverty in the rural south to the USA’s first Black billionaire, North America’s only Black multi-billionaire, and the richest African-American in the world, she not only personifies the “rags to riches” story, she infuses it with integrity and possibility for millions of Black children.

Heather Harvey,
Co-Founder