MILWAUKEE — TMJ4's Andrea Williams met with Mrs. Jessie Ruth Bradley McNeely-Wells and her daughter Tracey McNeely at St. Matthew CME Church, the location where she recently celebrated her 105th Birthday.
They discussed her life, but most importantly how her life has served as a blueprint for her daughter.
"She was quite the advocate for justice which is where I got it from. She had me marching about this age. I was about this tall," said Tracey.
Watch: Jessie McNeely-Wells and her daughter Tracey share how they inspire each other
One of 10 kids, Ms. Jessie was born in 1919 in St. Joseph Parish, Louisiana. Woodrow Wilson was President and Congress just approved the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution which guaranteed suffrage to women, but for a black woman that meant very little. However, when the Voting Rights Act passed in 1965, she was all in.
"As a child, I can remember her always working the polls, until she got older, then I had to take her myself and assist her in the voting process," said Tracey.
"That's one thing they'd let me do. If it's something I want to do and go, I got to do that," said Mrs. McNeely-Wells.
The mother and daughter duo not only showed up dressed alike, but they clearly also inspired each other along the way. Together they attend meetings and rallies for Milwaukee Inner-City Congregations Allied for Hope (MICAH), League of Progressive Seniors, 100 Women on the Move, and Souls To The Polls.
Mrs. McNeely-Wells looked at her daughter and said, "I admire you." Her daughter smiled and responded, "It makes me proud that I can be someone she admires because I learned everything from what she did."
And she learned everything from her mother.
"I don't know what it was about me, but I'd see Mother doing things and then I think about that. Well, if Mother can do it, I can do it," said Mrs. McNeely-Wells.
Full circle indeed, Mrs. Jessie is also known for her amazing ability to cook. She even created her own cookbook.
"Whenever I cooked, they talked about it, said it was really something different."
It was truly a pleasure sitting down with these classy and somewhat sassy ladies. It's a testament that leading by example can definitely create a kind, loving, and confident woman. Like mother, like daughter.
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