Suzanne Kay

“I remember waiting for Huey Newton to show up at our home in California at a fundraiser for Presidential candidate Shirley Chisholm. I was twelve years old and I had a huge crush on Mr. Newton. Many celebrities and political figures were in our backyard by the pool milling around, but I stayed at the front door waiting for what I considered the most important guest of the evening. That night I slipped into bed disappointed that Mr. Newton hadn’t made it. As my mother tucked me in, I asked her if Ms. Chisholm was going to win the presidency and my mother said winning wasn’t what mattered. Ms. Chisholm was running for president to shift the idea of who could hold that office. Years later, I heard Ms. Chisholm speak and fell in love with her forthright manner - and that was when I understood the similarities. My mother had also built a career that expanded the idea of what was possible for a black woman. In that regard, they were both heroines to me.”

Suzanne Kay is a writer and filmmaker currently working on a documentary about her mother, the late actress Diahann Carroll, among other projects. She produced and co-wrote a feature film, Cape of Good Hope, which won numerous awards and nominations, including Honorable Mention for the People’s Choice Award at the Toronto International Film Festival, National Board of Review, and NAACP Image Awards. She has been published in Huffington Post, the Southampton Review and BigCityLit.