Revonda Bowen - Seeing Similarities and Doing Something About It

Revonda Bowen - Seeing Similarities and Doing Something About It

WASHINGTON, July 21 /PRNewswire/ -- Inspiration often arises out of courage, and Revonda Bowen's story is no different.

Ms. Bowen is a modern-day Ruby Bridges, the five-year old African-American school girl whose year-long bravery and steadfastness led to the integration of the New Orleans public schools in the early 1960s. Like Ruby and the many pioneering sisters and brothers before her, Ms. Bowen defies hatred, racism, ignorance, and destructive public scrutiny.

On Monday, July 25, 2005, at 2:00 pm, Ms. Bowen will appear on Black Entertainment Television in New York to tell her story.

In 1994, Ms. Bowen, whose mother is black and father is white, wanted to attend her high school prom with her boyfriend. No problem with that, except that she lived in Alabama . . . and her date for the evening was white.

Hulond Humphries, the white principal at Randolph County High School in Wedowee, Alabama, publicly announced that he would cancel the school dance to prevent inter-racial couples from attending. Then, speaking directly to Ms. Bowen, he said that her parents had made a mistake by having a mixed-race child.

Until that moment, Ms. Bowen's high school experience was not much different than many of her peers. She was bright, funny and popular. By all measures, Ms. Bowen joined in and fit in -- she was a member of the student government, the cheerleading squad, and the school band. She was well-liked by her classmates and their families.

But the fateful dance -- and the principal's ignorant bigotry -- changed all of that. Ms. Bowen and her date attended a counter-prom held at a local national guard armory. Unlike most young women after a prom, who remember the dress, the corsage, the dancing, and the kiss, Ms. Bowen recalls the media, the demonstrators, the onlookers, and the armed guards.

In her new book, No Mistakes, No More Tears: the Revonda Bowen Story, Ms. Bowen details her experiences -- her life as a care-free teenager, her life at the center of modern-day racial and social controversy, and her life a decade later as a 27-year old woman fighting against racism.

"Yes, I stood up for myself," she writes in her book. "I often stood up for myself. Everywhere I went questions and more questions. I saw both anger and terror in the eyes of our community. People felt like they didn't know what to do, but needed to do something."

She is indeed doing something. Fighting against hatred, and helping people to see similarities rather than differences, is something at which she is hard at work.

About Perennial Sports and Entertainment

Perennial Sports and Entertainment, a new division of Perennial Law Group, works with current and aspiring professional athletes and entertainers who are seeking to propel their careers forward or in new directions. PSE assists clients in refining goals, planning careers, identifying opportunities, developing alternatives, defining options, and evaluating choices.

CONTACT: E. Lindsey Maxwell, II, Partner of Perennial Sports and Entertainment, +1-202-349-4093 or lmaxwell@perenniallg.com.

Source: Perennial Sports and Entertainment

CONTACT: E. Lindsey Maxwell, II, Partner of Perennial Sports and Entertainment, +1-202-349-4093 or lmaxwell@perenniallg.com

Web site: http://www.perennialsg.com/

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