Black female trailblazers focus of exhibit

A local museum exhibit is honoring black female trailblazers from Augusta.

The Lucy Craft Laney Museum of Black History will feature these women in the African-American Trailblazers of Augusta exhibit through Feb. 27.

“There are so many women in this community who have made tremendous contributions. Those women are the women who really helped to make Augusta what it is today,” said executive director Christine Miller-Betts.

The trailblazers will include educator Lucy Craft Laney, the Rev. Essie McIntyre, businesswoman Julia Dent, renowned opera singer Jessye Norman, Augusta City Councilwoman and funeral home owner Carrie Mays and Ruth Crawford, a founding member of Shiloh Community Center.

Miller-Betts said she was inspired to organize the exhibit by the Association for the Study of African-American Life and History, which has named its national 2012 black history theme as “Black Women in American Culture and History.”

“I think it’s important because African-American women’s contributions are often overlooked,” Miller-Betts said.