Keynote address at the Amazon Women in Manufacturing Celebration- October 2023
(Barcelona, Spain)
Determination, Dedication & Development: Amazon Women in Manufacturing
Buenos Noches– Good Evening
I find myself tonight in one of my favorite places– in the company of extraordinary women and those who admire them. All day, I’ve been learning about some of your stories and the paths that you’ve taken to get where you are right now.
And I can see clearly that each of you, over the course of your careers, has had the courage to do something that doesn’t come easily to most. In a world of followers, you’ve managed to run your own race. Which is why I want to share with you the story of another brave trailblazer, one from a place and time unlike this one.
This story may sound utterly unfamiliar to you or it may be completely recognizable to you. In either case, there’s a reason why.
____________________________
Imagine if you will, a time long past. It is 1940 in Clarksville, Tennessee. A small rural town in the southern United States, where segregation persists and race-driven poverty is abundant. It is June and the air is thick with heat and the sound of bugs thriving in their season. On the 23rd of that month, Blanche– a maid– and her husband Ed– a railway porter– welcome his 20th child, Wilma! They would go on to have two more children in later years. But today, I want us to focus on Wilma’s life.
Wilma was born premature and underweight. Though resilient, she was a medically- fragile child… plagued with pneumonia and then scarlet fever. As if that were not enough, she contracted polio. The virus caused paralysis in her leg and foot, requiring her to wear a brace for support.
You could say that Wilma had a challenging start, and you’d be right. But that would ignore a quality that young Wilma had in abundance- DETERMINATION.
“I believe in me more than anything in the world,” she would go on to say. So even though her doctor told her she might never walk again, Wilma didn’t give up. She knew that impossible is just a word for something that hasn’t been done yet.
Wilma’s DETERMINATION was matched by her family’ DEDICATION. Despite the demands of a household filled with children, her parents continued to seek medical care. It wasn’t easy. At that time in American history, the Rudolph’s local specialists would not accept Black patients into their care, so help had to be secured at a distance- 80 kilometers to be exact.
That’s how far Wilma and her mother had to travel– every two weeks for two years straight– for treatments at a historically-Black medical school. And, on the days between travel, her family massaged her legs four times a day. To accommodate the demands of Wilma’s treatments, she was homeschooled until 2nd grade.
But by the age of 12, the results of their collective persistence were undeniable: Wilma had overcome the effects of polio and learned to walk without a leg brace.
Cut to Wilma as a middle schooler. She was eager to use the hard earned gift of strength and mobility so she joined the basketball team and continued to play into her high school years. In the off season, she would run track to keep busy.
It was on the high school basketball court that Wilma drew the attention of Ed Temple, a Track and Field coach from Tennessee State University. Coach Temple saw that Wilma was a natural athlete and so he invited her to participate in a summer track camp at the University. She accepted Coach Temple’s invitation and was introduced to the Women’s Track Team, known as the Tigerbells.
Wilma had met and conquered the challenge of getting onto the field after a childhood marked with polio. Now she had a new challenge– staying the course.
Luckily, Wilma’s life was about to be shaped by DEVELOPMENT– the passion for nurturing raw talent. With Coach Temple’s encouragement and support, Wilma practiced with the Tigerbells throughout high school and won a number of amateur track events.
As any runner will need you, speed is crucial. But it takes more than that to be a winner. You have to learn to be nimble. You know the turns along a track? You have to learn to anticipate those, being present but also being ready for what’s ahead.
If you’re running your race with the help of others, you have to be ready for them too. You have only a moment to catch or pass the baton. You need to be primed and prepared to run with it.
Training with Coach Temple helped with all of that. And so it was that at the tender age of 16, Wilma Rudolph qualified to compete in the 1956 Australia Summer Olympics in the 200-meter individual event and as part of the 4×100 relay team. She was the youngest member of the U.S. Olympic team in the Melbourne games. Her relay team matched the world-record time and won the Bronze medal.
Wilma returned home to high school and shared her medal with friends. Being the determined young woman that she was, Wilma decided that she would try to win the gold medal at the 1960 Olympics in Rome.
But another challenge surfaced. During her senior year of high school, Wilma became pregnant and gave birth to her first daughter. Undaunted, she enrolled in college just a few weeks later, where she continued to train under Coach Temple.
As an official member of the Tigerbells, Wilma competed on the collegiate level and qualified for the 1960 Summer Olympics. When in Rome, Wilma did not disappoint. She set the new world record in the 100 meter and won the gold medal. Aided by the wind, the word record was not recorded.
But she managed to set the new world record in the 200 meter, where she also won a gold medal. In the 4×100 she ran the final -anchor- leg of the race with three Tigerbell teammates. After years of training and practice, she almost dropped the baton at handoff. Despite the near fumble, she was able to overtake her German opponent and her team won a gold medal.
Wilma Rudolph was the first woman in U.S. history to win 3 gold medals at a single Olympic Game. When asked, she named 1936 Berlin Olympics track champion, Jesse Owens, as her inspiration.
Wilma was hailed as the fastest woman in history and gained a measure of fame because the 1960 Rome Olympics was televised. After taking home 3 gold medals, she competed in a post-games European tour that included London, Germany, and the Netherlands. Upon seeing her compete, the Italians called her “la Bazzella Nera”…The Black Gazelle. The French dubbed her “La Perle Noire”…The Black Pearl.
Wilma returned home to the United states as “The Tornado, the fastest woman on earth.” The visibility in the United States and around the world fueled her through subsequent years of successful competition, where she continued to set records. However, before the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, Wilma retired from the sport.
She continued her university studies and graduated… ultimately, becoming a teacher and track coach. Wilma Rudolph is widely regarded as a role model for Black female athletes and as a civil and women’s rights pioneer… because of the notoriety that she earned as a world class athlete.
____________________________
The story of Wilma Rudolph is equal parts improbable, amazing and inspiring. But why am I standing before you tonight, telling you the story of an American icon?
Because I think that you might recognize some shades and shadows of your own life in hers. And if you don’t, I’m here to tell you why you should.
Hers is a success story that is singular, but one that also has familiar contours.
There’s determination- what we control within ourselves. Wilma had this quality and then some. She would come to say this about it: “I ran and ran and ran every day and I acquired this sense of determination, this sense of spirit that I would never give up, no matter what else happened.”
She resolved to be the exception– to overcome the obstacles that she faced first to get on the track and then to prevail on it. Being the exception is never easy, but as you work your way through, you might just become exceptional. I know you all certainly are.
It is a real honor to be here among these esteemed nominees, women who are the modern-day improbable, amazing and inspiring. You are the embodiment of determination. Much like Wilma, each of you was shaped but not deterred by your experiences. The past fuels your present. You have chosen learning over lethargy… possibility over paralysis.
Undoubtedly, you also had the benefit of dedication, people in your orbit like Wilma’s committed family. And I suspect you there were others like the ever-present Coach Temple, people who help to develop your natural talents. These people support you and nurture your ambitions. They partner in the removal of obstacles and enable your best.
The honor of recognition… your nomination was the outgrowth of hours of dedication and commitment to craft. You are not only an accomplished professional, you are also running the race toward diversity, equity, and inclusion in your workplace.
As they say where I am from, you stand on the shoulders of giants. Meaning, that you are able to achieve because someone came before you and blazed a trail. As Jesse Owens was to Wilma Rudolph, you can make an impact because you choose to run the next leg of this race.
Your work is not in isolation. Rather, you are part of a team where individual contributions are pivotal and collective impact is felt. You, like Wilma, are being recognized in this moment as the anchor runner of a recent race.
You are being recognized as an individual, when in fact… this is a team sport. On the other side of this validating experience, I challenge you to facilitate a ripple effect of visibility. Make sure that those who do this work alongside you feel the vibration– the validation and appreciation– that we are experiencing this evening.
____________________________
Nominators– What a joy it is to be in the presence of individuals who support in the spirit of Coach Temple.
The very nature of a nomination is the act of seeing something special and naming it.
But, there was much that preceded the moment of nomination. First, you had to be present and attuned to what was, what is happening around you. You had to be open to the possibility that different gifts exist and that you could be the supporter of someone else’s dream. You felt compelled to invest your time and energy to recognize exceptional talent.
This evening is possible because you identified talent and brought it to the attention of others.
After this night draws to a close, I encourage you to continue walking in the model of Coach Temple. Keep identifying and cultivating talent. Make space for learning and growth in areas beyond your own experience and capabilities. Build great teams that allow space for mistakes and position talent to build on their strengths. Lend your influence, so that talent can get to greater heights than they would achieve without your support. Persist, even in the face of occasional disappointment.
Talent will not always make the choices that you would make for them. But they will make choices informed by your care. Finally, invest repeatedly. May your consistent coaching become reflexive and repeatedly impactful as was the case with Coach Temple’s Olympian Tigerbells.
____________________________
What a privilege it is to be here, at the invitation of Amazon.
It is not lost on me that like the Olympics, Amazon is a global symbol of achievement. As a business you are in a class of your own. Yet through this event, there is self-awareness, recognition that there is still room to grow and evolve.
Like the Olympics, Amazon has the power to shine its bright light on talent on a global stage.
In the time of Jesse Owens, there were few Black American Olympians. His presence was inspiring for the next generation, for Wilma Rudolph. Three generations after Jesse and two generations after Wilma, the world consistently experiences Black Women in abundance on the U.S. Olympic track teams. From none… to one’s presence being an act of resistance… to the state of being the standard of excellence. What a transformation! An evolution.
The recipe for that change was athletes and coaches consistently committing to pursuing defying the odds… and a stage… a place to demonstrate the exceptional… to inspire the next.
May this be the first of many occasions where Amazon’s bright light shines on the best of the best– women in manufacturing.
I often say that the work of changing representation feels more like a marathon than a sprint. But then I think of the words of an old African proverb that says: “if you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.”
What might happen if we take on the seemingly glacial pace of change in sprints? What if we team, play to our strengths, and attack the challenge of underrepresentation in relays? What if we all do our part as individuals? Will the finish line get closer?
I believe that our individual choices have collective impact. And tonight, I hope that you feel seen for making a difference. Because, YOU are undoubtedly inspiring! Thank you for all that you do, and for the opportunity to bear witness to greatness.
Sabrina McLaughlin Smith 