Pass It On

[piano intro] [upbeat music] - [Heather] Meet North Carolinians, past and present, who go beyond the glass ceiling to pave the way for future generations.

[sewing machine clacking] It's all on "My Home," coming up next.

[bright bluegrass music] All across the state, we're uncovering the unique stories that make North Carolina my home.

♪ Come home ♪ ♪ Come home ♪ [gentle piano music] - [Lillian] I was afraid at first that the men would oppose me because I'm a woman, but I don't feel that way now.

I feel rather shy and timid before all these men.

- There always has to be the first person, right?

And so in North Carolina, Lillian Exum Clement was the first person.

- [Lillian] But I've always worked with men, and I know them as they are.

I want to blaze a trail for other women.

I know that two years from now there will be many other women in the legislature.

but you have to start a thing, you know.

Lillian Exum Clement.

January 5th, 1921.

[gentle piano music continues] - [Heather] Lillian Exum Clement of Western North Carolina indeed started a remarkable thing as one of the first female lawyers and politicians of her time.

- She's the first woman elected to a state legislature in the Southern United States, so it's a big deal.

[upbeat music] - [Heather] Exum, or Ex, as she was known, pursued her passion for education, leading her to pass the state bar exam.

She received awards for her high score, and quickly opened her law practice in Asheville, the first woman attorney in North Carolina to do so.

Dubbed Brother Exum by her male colleagues, Clement established herself as an astute and talented criminal lawyer.

By 1920, Buncombe County Democrats had recruited her to run for state legislature, and she won in a landslide, 10,361 to 41.

At age 26, she traveled to Raleigh to begin her first term.

- It's amazing what she did at such a young age.

It's amazing that, in 1920, she was a lawyer.

The fact that she used her voice for other women, and was willing to be the first, is just extraordinary, because when you're the first, the culture hasn't quite accepted you, right?

And in addition to that, she was a young woman.

What we've seen in politics since her time is a lot of women don't get involved in politics until after they've had their children, until after they've finished a career.

To have someone so young have the desire and the courage to do it is just wonderful.

- Exum is born in a rural community outside of Black Mountain, and doesn't really move into the city until she's about eight, nine, 10 years old.

And so she would've been coming into a brand-new Biltmore Village.

Her father was helping construct Biltmore Village.

She had a very quick introduction to urban life, and I think would've been, you know, certainly associating with other upper middle class families that are moving to Biltmore.

And then we've got evidence that she, you know, did talk to Edith Vanderbilt, that Edith Vanderbilt encouraged her to pursue her passions.

This is Exum's Bible.

It is held in our collection here.

And we can turn to the first page, and we see we have this inscription.

It says, "For Exum Clement, with best wishes for many happy birthdays, from E.S.

Vanderbilt, March 12th, 1900."

And of course, E.S.

Vanderbilt would be Edith Stuyvesant Vanderbilt, the wife of George Vanderbilt.

[bright piano music] When we look at what Lillian's legislative agenda looked like, we know she introduced 17 bills.

16 of them passed.

[bright music] - She introduces a bill for the secret ballot, which was also a very controversial bill, because then it would have made it impossible for the political powers that be to coerce or purchase votes.

If you cannot see who somebody's voting for, if you vote, you know, in privacy, then it's much harder to coerce somebody into voting the way you want them to vote.

- She introduces a bill that requires the testing and inoculation of dairy cattle for tuberculosis.

And then she also was able to rally the state legislature to fund the Lindley Training School for Girls, which was here close to Asheville, and that was a home for unwed and delinquent young women.

[bright music continues] - Which was a very controversial bill, because she was accused of promoting a sinful lifestyle amongst unwed, you know, mothers.

[bright music continues] She also halved the time that it took for a woman to be able to sue for divorce after an abandonment.

Previously it would take 10 years for a man to have abandoned his wife before she could sue for divorce, and she got that narrowed down to five years.

She did focus a lot of her energy on child and maternal issues, which was progressive for the time.

She described herself as a very conservative person.

[bright music continues] She introduced the bill to require yellow lights on street lights, on traffic signals.

There weren't yellow lights before - [Lillian] January 11th, 1921.

I don't want people to expect too much of me.

There's little I can do alone.

If I blaze the trail for other women to come in until there is enough to do something, then I feel I have done my duty.

[somber piano music] - It's worth noting that Exum did support eugenics.

She was one of the folks who introduced a bill to forcibly sterilize women who were deemed mentally incompetent.

And that is a legacy that North Carolina has dealt with and grappled with.

It was happening well into the 1960s.

- Talking about slave owners being a product of their time, well, there were always abolitionists.

There were always people who questioned the morality of slavery, and there were always people who questioned and advocated against the morality of the eugenics movement.

And of course, there was that racial component as well.

If you were an African American, you were much more likely to be forcibly sterilized.

And in fact, most of the people who were sterilized under the North Carolina eugenics program were African American.

[gentle piano music] - [Heather] During her single term at the legislature in Raleigh, Clement planned her wedding to Eller Stafford, a telegraph operator and journalist working for the "Asheville Citizen Times."

Her letters to Stafford reveal a deep and loving relationship, and her longing to return home to Asheville.

- [Lillian] Just think, it will only be three weeks and three days until this is over!

We sure are working hard now.

I had such a real dream of you night before last.

Darling, I miss you so much, and will be so glad when I can be with you.

- Clement had concerns about her health and struggle to maintain her weight and energy while in legislative session at the state capitol.

- [Lillian] Honey, I don't want you to come down next Sunday.

Now, you may think I don't want to see you, but I've never wanted to see anyone so much in all my life.

But the truth is, I'm not very well, and I'm going to do only the work I have to, and rest the remainder of the time.

Some days I stay in bed 12 hours.

Don't tell Mama.

She will worry.

I am taking treatment from Dr. Tucker, the osteopath, and he says it's nerves, and not being able to eat enough.

You don't mind waiting one more week, do you, darling?

[bright music] - [Heather] After her legislative term, Clement returned to her Asheville home, marrying Elias Eller Stafford in March of 1921.

Two years later, they would welcome daughter Nancy.

But in 1925, Clement succumbed to pneumonia during the Spanish flu epidemic.

One of Exum's last diary entries is to her daughter.

- [Lillian] Last night you slept with someone besides Daddy and Mother for the first time.

Daddy was sick, and Mother was sick, and then Nancy came in and spent the night with you.

You said, "God, God, God," meaning God will make you well, and he surely will.

[bright music] - I'm not surprised that she was from Western North Carolina where both Democrats and Republicans are more libertarian, more individual.

You know, what's your individual effort?

And I think she clearly showed that identity politics can be helpful in some ways, but getting everybody to support you really is showing that you're a full member of the community.

[bright music continues] [wind howling] [somber music] - I feel very fortunate and I feel very blessed to be a child in many cultures.

I get to call two countries my home.

How do you own up and embrace that part of you that is Latina, or is that it's a different culture, but at the same time, you know, you live here in the United States?

When I'm thinking about what I want people to see, I want them to see my two worlds.

I am Lisbeth Carolina Arias, and Descalza is a handcrafted, fit for you clothing brand, where we source our textiles from Latin America, specifically my home country, El Salvador, and Guatemala, and then we bring the fabrics here, and create unique statement pieces In North Carolina.

[upbeat music] I think it's important to reflect your heritage, because it's part of who you are.

And sometimes you want people to see how colorful and beautiful it is, and these vibrant, beautiful colors full of rich history.

This is why I'm creating Descalza.

I want you to see what I see when I go home, and these textiles represent that.

[bright music] I was born in El Salvador, and when I was two years old, my mother brought me here to the United States.

[Adelia speaking in Spanish] [Adelia speaking in Spanish] [Adelia speaking in Spanish] - My mother was a seamstress, and when I was about 11 or 12 years old, I started to pick up that trait.

My family wasn't able to go to college.

I'm the first one in my family to come here.

In 2012, I was doing an internship in Panajachel, Guatemala, and spent a summer there, and I worked with the Mayan women.

And this is the first time that I'm learning about these textiles, and I'm watching them and I'm seeing them.

And what really hit home was the fact that these women look like me.

When you're growing up in the United States, a lot of times you don't see your reflection in your work, and you don't see other people doing the same thing you do.

The fact that we had something in common, and the fact that these textiles, my roots were in there, it stayed with me, the fact that these textiles are kind of a reflection of my own history.

My life would've been completely different if my mom decided not to bring me here.

I have so many more opportunities.

I've learned so much.

I've been able to go to college because I'm here, because I'm living in the States.

But when I'm in El Salvador, I can't help but feel like I need to do something here.

Like, this is my home just as much as North Carolina is.

With Descalza, it allows me to work with these artisans, because unfortunately their craftsmanship is dying, because no one knows about it.

So I'm hoping that I can create these opportunities for the artisans, but at the same time have the opportunity for this skill not to die off.

When I was thinking about Descalza, I was like, I need help in creating this stuff.

Like, I can prototype, I can sample, but I can't be sewing for, you know, the entire time.

I'm not gonna run a business.

One day, I'm just walking, and then all of a sudden I get this call.

I meet Dona Magdalena.

She is the perfect person for the job.

[bright guitar music] [sewing machine clacking] Dona Magdalena and myself.

So the passion that I have for creating this, for designing this for Descalza, she has the same passion in the sewing and the making of it.

Any sort of challenge, she loves it.

[Magdalena speaking in Spanish] [bright guitar music continues] [Magdalena speaking in Spanish] [Magdalena speaking in Spanish] [Magdalena speaking in Spanish] - These textiles, how they're made, their patterns, the colors, everything is a reflection of our history, of our heritage.

And it's not art that's just put together.

Every single component of it has a meaning, and it's rooted back to our beginnings, how the country began, how the Mayans used to work.

I couldn't help but see how my friends that also identify as a child of many cultures, you know, their families from Latino America.

And so it just stayed in my mind how, like, here's this group of people that are proud to be where they're from.

They're proud of their heritage.

They don't wanna let that go.

And then here in Latino America, there's these people that are creating these textiles that represent our heritage.

[upbeat music] When I think of fashion, I think of it as a tool.

I think that as, this is my opportunity to say something to this world, and to say something to the people that I'm going to pass by today.

[rousing music] - There's a lot of talk in Charlotte about economic mobility and kind of like, if you're born into poverty, you stay in poverty.

It's really critical for me to come back to Charlotte, because I feel like this city actually, like, raised me, and I didn't want girls here to miss out on opportunities, on a lifestyle that could really change their trajectory.

My name is Khalia Braswell, and my home is Charlotte, North Carolina.

INTech Camp is an organization where we teach girls how to be creators through technology.

Our mission is to inform and inspire girls to innovate in the technology industry.

If I were able to do all of these things, and I'm a product of Charlotte, what can I do to give back to the girls here and just show them that there is a different way?

[upbeat music] Apple, for people in tech, is like the holy grail.

It's like, I made it, right?

And I think Apple really was, like, the true tech company that I was able to work, from growing up in Charlotte, born in Rocky Mountain, which really did change my perspective, and make me fall deeper in love with technology.

I got my first computer in the fourth grade.

It was around income tax season time, and my mom gave me the question of, do you want a pair of Jordans, like my friends had, or would you like a computer?

And I guess it says a lot about me, because I chose the computer.

So you know, I'm super excited.

Like, this big gray box, and what it could do.

I remember playing the "Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing" game, and it was just fascinating to be able to learn, okay, well, I'm gonna teach myself how to type.

I knew like, okay, technology is something that obviously I'm super into, and the rest really was history from there.

The tech industry as a whole just is super dismal when it comes to women in tech, especially if you drill down even deeper and get into Black and Hispanic women in tech.

You just don't see 'em a lot.

If you are at a company day to day, a lot of times you can be the only one.

And so it's like, well, how can we change that?

I just felt a tug to do more.

It was a huge leap.

Apple really was the first full-time job that I had, and then I decided to quit to move home, and so I felt a little crazy, and I just felt like I needed to do it, and give INTech 100% at least for a year.

[upbeat music] A lot of our INTech scholars are amazing.

So they come to us, some of them never having exposure to computing in a formal way as far as education goes.

And we are that spark for them.

And you just don't know the impact that you'll have on the scholar until they come back.

[upbeat music] I always describe my experiences as, like, you know, me running INTech and being around our scholars really encourages me to work in tech, because it's like, I'm fulfilling our mission, right?

Like, I am a woman in tech and setting the example for them, but then being with them, it's like, okay, like, I wanna do this more.

How can I, you know, continue to help encourage you and inspire you to be in tech?

You know, even though I'm younger, I'm impacting lives all around me, and I don't take that for granted at all.

[bright music] - [Connie] So when I walk onto a stage, I get always excitement at first.

But when I dance, I feel like I'm letting go of, like, you know, all emotions, and I'm just free, just doing what I love, as well as doing it with the people I love, and sharing it.

- Okay, so here in United States, she's ranked as the number one B-girl in the youth age group.

So that's heavy in itself.

And then, once we came back from Japan, she placed sixth internationally.

- [Connie] I started breakdancing when I was about nine years old.

- [Imani] I remember there was this little girl in a little pink sweater, her favorite little pink sweater, with a beanie on.

I'm like, okay, she's precious.

But then, like, you know, the music started, and this little kid just spinning on her head, just going off, and I'm like, "You guys know who that is?"

[upbeat music] - What's up, guys?

This is B-girl Connie.

And this is the battle that I recently just went to, and I seriously killed the beat on this one.

And so here's the video of the battle.

[upbeat music] [upbeat music] - We put a piece of linoleum down in the den, and that's where she would practice.

- My name is Connie Kingston, and my home is Burlington, North Carolina.

[crowd cheering] [upbeat music] What do you think his master plan is?

His eyes are, like, uh... Get it, get it, get it, get it!

- So I'm Mona Devries, and I'm Connie Kingston's mom.

She has really incredible ambition.

- These are my trophies.

Well, I still have more.

[laughs] - And the self-discipline to go and practice head spinning.

If you added it all up, I wonder how many hours she has spent head spinning.

[upbeat music] [crowd cheering] - You don't see a trophy like that very often.

- No, you don't.

- [Heather] Like a golden boombox.

- This is like spray on it.

- I love it so much.

- Yeah, I love it.

I think the breaking community is really important, because we get to support each other.

It's a lot of, like, collaboration, as well as just sharing our styles and moves and helping me.

If like one move I'm struggling with, they'll give tips.

- Lift, CC, hook, spin.

Stand up.

Spin down.

Yeah!

- So Imani helped me with pushing me in my goals.

I love the way she dances and how we got along so well.

It's like a best friend.

And she also went to Japan with me as my mentor.

- Top 16 girls got to qualify and compete in Japan.

Unfortunately, the United States already had their spots filled up for the Youth Olympics, and were not allowing any more United States athletes.

So she did qualify, but she was not able to compete for that Olympic title in Bueno Aires.

- I didn't care what the Olympic committee decided to do.

I watched my daughter qualify to go to the youth Olympics.

She had done what she wanted to do.

That was what her goal was.

I probably don't tell her enough how proud I am of her.

- [Imani] It was heavy, 'cause she's the only female from the United States to even qualify.

- I think, when I first started, I didn't see a lot of female dancers, so it made me kind of like inspired that, you know, there's a lot of like... 'Cause when I was little, when I was a kid, I didn't see any other, like, little B-girls.

So I was like, "Oh, this is cool, but I would like to see more female dancers."

- Why do you think social media has helped?

- I think it's helped a lot of young girls, because it inspires them to see someone, or another girl, doing something they like, or even another male dancer.

It makes them wanna work for that.

[upbeat music] So my advice for little B-girls out there is to not give up, and that the dance scene is welcome to any little girls.

But I like that kids at any age can start doing it whenever they want.

And I think that's the big factor about breakdancing, is that anybody can do it.

Doesn't matter if you're a boy or a girl, if you're a kid, if you're an adult, anybody can do it.

It's a wrap!

[air horn recording blasting] [crew cheering] - [Heather] Next time on "My Home," Join us to meet people whose passion, creativity, and talent are making a positive mark, and blazing new trails.

It's all on "My Home."

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