Senator Hassell-Thompson spoke on behalf of Ms. Taylor:
"As someone who is so pleased and honored to cosponsor this resolution along with Senator Montgomery, let me say to you, Susan Taylor, we can't say enough about the imagery of African-Americans that you brought through your magazine. We talked about black power ten years before, but you showed us what black power really was. You helped us to shape our thoughts about ourselves as people in this country. And you went on to make sure that young women of every color could look at themselves and say, I am beautiful no matter what the standard is. I am beautiful inside of me, and that's an extremely wonderful gift that you have."
"As Senator Montgomery says, your work with at-risk youngsters, your mentoring to ensure that we break the pipeline from school to prison means so very much to us when we know that our young people, by fourth grade, are already being earmarked to go to prison because they cannot read and they are not developing as well as they need to be doing. Your role in mentoring and using your voice to help people to understand the plight of our young children at risk will go a long way."
"I also want to commend you also, as someone who has done work in Africa, for the work that you do there and for what you do to enlighten the world about who Africa is and the things that we must do to bring the qualities of both countries together around the issues facing poverty, facing miseducation of children everywhere in the world."
"And so I thank you personally, Susan Taylor, and I thank you on behalf of this Senate for single-handedly giving a vision of people of African ancestry that no one else has been as accomplished as you have done. And I just can't personally tell you what it's done for each of my 2 daughters, who are 40 and 42, and for the years that they have read your magazine from
their girlhood through today. They thank you too for helping them to walk tall, be tall and be beautiful as women with African descent."
