Sharon Lee never felt like she fit in growing up in Cleveland in the ’70s and ’80s. As the only Korean American at her high school, she was asked if she knew karate or if she was related to Bruce Lee. “I was very aware, when I was very young, of not being white, and I really struggled with that, growing up, feeling embarrassed about my parents, not feeling like I fit in, always wishing I was taller and had bigger eyes,” she said.

Growing up in Champaign as one of a handful of Jewish children in town, Ruth Kuhn Youngerman enjoyed friendships with people from a variety of faiths. The Jewish community was small and close-knit, led by Jewish storeowners such as the Sterns, Lowensterns and Kuhns who helped develop commerce in downtown Champaign and Urbana.

This program profiles 13 African-American women: Imani Bazzell, Erma Bridgewater, Mary Clark, Miriam Scantelbury, Maudie Edwards, Lucy Gray, LaShundra Hambrick, Doris Hoskins, Hattie Paulk, Phyllis Clark, Dorothy Vickers-Shelley, Margot Williams and Crystal Womble.