A letter from Ombré on Black History Month

As the Co-Chairs of Ombré, Jetty’s committee to educate and bring visibility to issues facing the BIPOC community, we wanted to share the ways we commemorated and celebrated Black History Month this year.

While it’s impossible to reduce the history of African American influence and excellence to just one month, our hope was to reflect as a company; and to shine light on current and historical events, honoring the too-often neglected accomplishments of Black Americans. 

We took part in an interactive team building experience with Unexpected Virtual Tours to learn more about Black history and Civil Rights, sent each employee a gift card to Marcus Books, America’s oldest Black-owned independent bookstore, to purchase a book of their choice, and posted daily internal educational posts to showcase Black Americans who’ve made an impact on our lives.

Posts ranged from photojournalist Gordon Parks, known for his photographs focusing on civil rights issues and poverty in the United States, Olympian Alice Coachman, the first African American woman to win a gold medal in the 1948 London Olympics, Kehinde Wiley and Amy Sherald, the first Black artists commissioned to paint presidential portraits, Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, the first African American woman to be nominated to the Supreme Court, and so many more.

We’re so proud of the care our team put into helping us celebrate and reflect, something we hope to continue not only in February but throughout the year.

A big thank you to those who contributed and put so much thought into this, and to our Ombré committee members for all of their hard work to bring this together. 

Ombré Co-Chairs,

Pam Hammond, Jaseña Cooper, and Erica Brown