Barbara A. Seals Nevergold , a native of Louisiana, is a lifelong resident of Buffalo, New York. She is a retired educator, counselor, and community and political activist. She is cofounder of the Uncrowned Queens Institute for Research and Education on Women, Inc., and coauthor of the Uncrowned Queens: African American Women in Community Builders of Western New York series with Peggy Brooks-Bertram. In addition to the Uncrowned Queens, her other passion is family history research. Nevergold and her husband of forty-one years, Paul, have two children, Alanna and Kyle, and one grandchild, Naia. Peggy Brooks-Bertram is a native of Baltimore, Maryland, and has lived in Buffalo, New York, since 1986. She is a scholar on the life of Drusilla Dunjee Houston. In 2007 she published a long-lost manuscript of Houston's, Origin of Civilization from the Cushites, for which she received Honorary Mention in the Best Black Books for 2007. She is currently writing a biography on Houston. She is the mother of two children, Lillian Yvonne-Margaret, a poet and photographer, and Dennison Ivon Jean Bertram, an international photographer. Her husband Dennis Bertram is also an artist. Brooks-Bertram is also a community activist with interests in the health care of African American women. Barbara and Peggy are the recipients of the 2009 New York State Women of Excellence Award in Education.

"This book will take you back to the time just after the 2008 election … a great collector’s item for those wanting a keepsake that commemorates, in prose, the feelings of that time." — RAWSISTAZ Literary Group"…a many-faceted love letter laden with history, herstory, empathy, and hope." — Gary Earl Ross, author of Blackbird Rising: A Novel of the American Spirit"...the world has long heard of the power of Athenian women. But we have yet to feel and recognize the full impact that black women have had on the cultural and political life of the United States. Those past and living generations (those Uncrowned Queens) will gather mystically at this moment: through the agency of this book … black women and their men will come out of a dark tunnel and light up the heavens." — Chicken Bone Journal"…a wonderful collection of letters and poetry written to our First Lady … You will feel the encouragement, pain, fear and hopes of women as you read each letter … This book demonstrates true sisterhood." — Urban Views Weekly"Each letter is heartfelt, real, and provides readers with gentle nudges regarding the magnitude of having people who look like them in the most powerful positions in the United States of America." — A Place of Our Own (APOOO) BookClub

• ForewordPrefaceAcknowledgmentsIntroduction

Barbara A. Seals Nevergold , a native of Louisiana, is a lifelong resident of Buffalo, New York. She is a retired educator, counselor, and community and political activist. She is cofounder of the Uncrowned Queens Institute for Research and Education on Women, Inc., and coauthor of the Uncrowned Queens: African American Women in Community Builders of Western New York series with Peggy Brooks-Bertram. In addition to the Uncrowned Queens, her other passion is family history research. Nevergold and her husband of forty-one years, Paul, have two children, Alanna and Kyle, and one grandchild, Naia. Peggy Brooks-Bertram is a native of Baltimore, Maryland, and has lived in Buffalo, New York, since 1986. She is a scholar on the life of Drusilla Dunjee Houston. In 2007 she published a long-lost manuscript of Houston's, Origin of Civilization from the Cushites, for which she received Honorary Mention in the Best Black Books for 2007. She is currently writing a biography on Houston. She is the mother of two children, Lillian Yvonne-Margaret, a poet and photographer, and Dennison Ivon Jean Bertram, an international photographer. Her husband Dennis Bertram is also an artist. Brooks-Bertram is also a community activist with interests in the health care of African American women. Barbara and Peggy are the recipients of the 2009 New York State Women of Excellence Award in Education.

"This book will take you back to the time just after the 2008 election … a great collector’s item for those wanting a keepsake that commemorates, in prose, the feelings of that time." — RAWSISTAZ Literary Group"…a many-faceted love letter laden with history, herstory, empathy, and hope." — Gary Earl Ross, author of Blackbird Rising: A Novel of the American Spirit"...the world has long heard of the power of Athenian women. But we have yet to feel and recognize the full impact that black women have had on the cultural and political life of the United States. Those past and living generations (those Uncrowned Queens) will gather mystically at this moment: through the agency of this book … black women and their men will come out of a dark tunnel and light up the heavens." — Chicken Bone Journal"…a wonderful collection of letters and poetry written to our First Lady … You will feel the encouragement, pain, fear and hopes of women as you read each letter … This book demonstrates true sisterhood." — Urban Views Weekly"Each letter is heartfelt, real, and provides readers with gentle nudges regarding the magnitude of having people who look like them in the most powerful positions in the United States of America." — A Place of Our Own (APOOO) BookClub

• ForewordPrefaceAcknowledgmentsIntroduction