Black History Month 2026
We’re excited to celebrate Black History Month by highlighting the voices and favorites of our Ivy Academy faculty and staff! We’re proud to learn, honor, and celebrate Black history together.
Throughout the week, we’ll be sharing: favorite books, music, art, local Black-owned businesses and personal stories and Black individuals who have made a meaningful impact on our community.
✨ Black Influential Person Spotlight ✨
Ivy Academy is honoring influential Black leaders who have shaped history, culture, and community.
Our featured spotlight comes from our bookkeeper, Kimberly Gray, who honors her great-grandmother, Minder Pettway Coleman of Gee’s Bend, Alabama- an accomplished quiltmaker, civic leader, landowner, and entrepreneur whose legacy of integrity, resilience, and community leadership continues to inspire generations.
In addition, we proudly recognize 10 other influential Black leaders submitted by our staff. While these individuals are not featured with personal stories, their impact is no less important, and we honor the lasting contributions each has made.
Kimberly Gray:
My maternal great-grandmother, Minder Coleman, was a woman I remember as smart, feisty, and fiercely independent. Growing up, it was always a special occasion when she traveled to Mobile from Gee’s Bend in Wilcox County, Alabama. Her presence carried strength, wisdom, and a quiet authority that commanded respect.
From her, I learned resilience. I learned how to take care of myself and my family no matter how difficult circumstances might become. She taught the women in our family how to survive—and thrive—in a world not designed for us. She often said that all she truly had was her “good name.” To her, honoring your word was everything. Your integrity was your wealth.
It was her good name and strong credit in the community that allowed her to succeed and lead. When my great-grandfather, Willie Coleman, lost the use of his legs and could no longer help maintain their land, she stepped forward without hesitation. Through determination and grit, she purchased and maintained 14 acres of land—caring for it well into her eighties. With the help of her seven children, she preserved her home and her property and ultimately passed it down to her heirs. Her legacy was not only land—it was leadership, discipline, and dignity.
Through my great-grandmother, I have always been inspired to persevere and pursue entrepreneurship as a path to financial independence.
Today, I am the owner of Words From Your Heart, an online stationery boutique specializing in personalized journals. I am also co-owner of Grayce Catering with my husband, Executive Chef Jamie Gray. Together, we provide gourmet cuisine for private clients and special events throughout Chattanooga and the surrounding areas.
Our business is more than food—it is service. We have been blessed with opportunities to give back by volunteering our services and providing meals to local nonprofit organizations such as WTCI-PBS, Art120, and area schools. It is through the rich traditions and enduring values of our families that we create culinary experiences prepared with love, heart, and soul.
In everything we do, we strive to exemplify excellence, determination, resilience, and deep community involvement—principles passed down from a woman whose greatest possession was her good name.
My great-grandmother.
Minder Pettway Coleman (1903–1999) was an American quiltmaker and civic leader from Gee's Bend, Alabama, celebrated for her improvisational quilts rooted in African American folk traditions and her pivotal roles in community cooperatives.[1] Born into a quilting family, she learned the craft directly from her mother without reliance on commercial patterns or books, producing distinctive works such as a "Log Cabin"–"Courthouse Steps" variation around 1940 and a "Four Patch"/"Nine Patch" variation in 1956.
Coleman's influence extended beyond quilting; as president of Gee's Bend Farms—an agricultural cooperative founded in the 1930s under the Farm Security Administration—she helped sustain the isolated community's economic self-reliance during the Great Depression and beyond. She also participated in the associated weaving cooperative, contributing to large-scale draperies for the Roosevelt White House and fabric used in a suit for President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who reportedly expressed thanks for the material. In 1966, she became vice president of the newly incorporated Gee's Bend quilting bee, working there full-time until 1978 and transforming her home into a central gathering spot for family quilters, including granddaughter Ella Lewis.
Her legacy endures through descendants like daughter Minnie Sue Coleman, whose quilts advanced the family's techniques, and through the broader recognition of Gee's Bend quilts as exemplars of vernacular art that prioritized functionality, resourcefulness, and bold geometric improvisation over formal design conventions.
Black History Month Celebration Up first: Black-owned local businesses!
These businesses are known and loved by members of our Ivy staff, and we’re excited to highlight and support them during Black History Month. Shopping local is a powerful way to invest in our community and celebrate Black excellence year-round.
Black History Month Celebration: Staff Favorite Reads
We’re continuing our Black History Month celebration by highlighting books our Ivy faculty and staff recommend as meaningful, powerful, and must-read stories. These titles have shaped perspectives, sparked conversations, and left lasting impressions on our community.
We hope you’ll check them out, add a few to your reading list, and share your own favorites in the comments. Let’s keep learning, reflecting, and celebrating together.
Black History Month Celebration Continuing our series, we’re spotlighting art & music and celebrating Black creatives our staff admire.
Dominique Harris is a local influencer and entrepreneur, founder of Natty Naturals, and host of The ATON Papers. Her work has been featured in Vanity Fair, Parents, and Apartment Therapy.
Rick Rushing III is a local blues musician who also offers lessons to kids in our community.
https://newschannel9.com/.../artist-of-the-month-rick...
We’re proud to celebrate the creativity and impact of Black artists and musicians- feel free to comment with your favorites!
