SAN ANGELO, Texas- Sally Meyers is the winner of this year’s Remarkable Women contest! KLST will donate $1,000 to the charity of her choice, the Dunbar Historical Library, located at 903 Martin Luther King Drive in San Angelo.
An advocate for the young, old, black, white, able, and disabled Sally Meyers, originally from Iowa, strives for equality.
“I was very sheltered. It was a small town and I was a part of the co-Christian council. We went to Mississippi in 1962, mainly to observe and it turned out that it was much more than that,” said Remarkable Women nominee, Sally Meyers.
At the time the Freedom Riders were fighting for civil rights and 19-year-old Meyers saw the despair of racism firsthand. It changed the way she looked at inequality.
“My best friend, Jean Johnson, who was an African American girl. We were both music majors and we went downtown and sat at the Woolworth counter and suddenly I thought ‘hmm they’re not going to serve us are they’. That time really formed my life, opinions, focus, and purpose,” said Meyers.
Little did they know then that sitting at the wrong counter was punishable by law. Fast forward to 1982 and Meyers moved to San Angelo, where she wears many hats.
“Teacher/Director for La Escuelita Preschool, Concho Valley Home for Girls, Children’s Librarian for Tom Green County, Texas Library Association, NAACP Organization, Dunbar Library,” said Meyers, as she described how she’s involved in the community.
“My mission is to promote equality and to enjoy all the people in the community and make them realize the importance of the things they bring from their culture to ours,” added Meyers.
As children, we learn behaviors from examples around us. Sally tells us she’s committed to showing children of all creeds that when they open a book and learn something new– it could be from a character who looks like them.
“I took that position seriously in putting diverse books on that list and Spanish books because we have a big Spanish population. They need to see their language in a list of books that are important for children to read,” said Meyers.
She also sits on a San Angelo historical library board that African American kids could use during segregation. She calls it the light of her life!
“My love really, it’s a collection of multicultural literature! We are so hoping for the community to realize that this a jewel, a treasure for them to discover,” said Meyers.
Leah Barbee, the woman who nominated Sally speaks about the person she is and why she knew her friend and fellow librarian was in fact a remarkable woman.
“She does all the things a lot of us have done, wife, mother, etc. but the entire time she has maintained a purpose and a reason to be, and she is a servant of our community,” said Barbee.
When asked what her motivation is to keep striving for change?
“I think it’s my husband, he’s such a good man. Raising our children, 2 of them being biracial, showed us that we needed to work toward equality, towards justice for all people. I think both of us have that same mindset and we love each other very much,” exclaimed Meyers.
