Ida Mae Holland didn’t know it, but the night she met Bob Moses in 1962 would be her last night as a sex worker. Holland followed him through the streets of Greenwood, Mississippi, hoping to make money, but she ended up making a life-altering decision instead.
Moses, a young civil rights activist, walked to the Council of Federated Organizations, an agency that helped Black people register to vote. Holland followed him inside, but instead of a date, she got an invitation to help organize local residents.
From that point forward, Holland walked the streets with a different purpose. By 1986, she had a PhD, and went on to teach American studies in New York and theater in California. She even became an award-winning author.
Holland went to jail many times for standing up for others and for teaching others to fight for their rights. She added the name Endesha (Swahili for "driver of self and others forward”) to her birth name.
Ordinary people with their ordinary problems and struggles made the civil rights movement possible. We continue their work. We are capable of so much more when we realize that we, too, can create the future we want to see, regardless of what happened in our past.