The Glory Road

Oprah Winfrey the influential talk show host has played a major role in modern American life, shaping cultural trends and was known for her charitable works. Her main aim and focus in her talk show and books was the American women as she is a role model for black American women.

 

Oprah Gail Winfrey was born in Kosciusko, Mississippi, on January 29, 1954. She lived a difficult childhood as her parents separated after she was born, so she had to spend her first years in her grandmother’s farm in Kosciusko, at that time her mother was looking for work in the North. At the age of three her grandmother taught her how to read, despite the hard environment that she lived in with her grandmother, Oprah enjoyed the love and support her grandmother gave to her.

Her life totally changed to the worse at the age of six when she moved to live with her mother who worked as a housemaid in Milwaukee. She was abused many times from relatives and other people at that time, when she tried to escape this hard life, she was sent to a juvenile detention home.

At the age of 14 it was a turning point in her life as she went to live with her father who was strict but she found the secure she needed, he made her read books and write reports on it each week. “As strict as he was, he had some concerns about me making the best of my life, and would not accept anything less than what he thought was my best,” says Oprah.

After finishing collage Oprah was interested in media and journalism. She then moved to Maryland and hosted the TV chat show People Are Talking in 1976. The show gained success and stayed for eight years. Oprah’s success led to nationwide fame and took place in Steven Spielberg’s film “The Color Purple” in 1985 the film was based on the Alice Walker novel; she was admired for her role as Sofia. She won an Academy Award for Best supporting actress. From this point Oprah started her own programme “The Oprah Winfrey Show” at 1986, it was successful and a highly watched TV show. Her TV show broken many cultural barriers such as, gay and lesbian issues and remained a great role model for women, specifically for black American women. She also focused of issues of self-help, spirituality, and self- improvement. Oprah promoted many books; her diet book sold many copies and she had many spiritual books on changing the way you look at your life.

Oprah had her own production company in 1986 “Harpo, Inc.” her main aim behind having her own production company was to produce the kind of movies she wanted to see produced.

Oprah's book club started in 1996, and it was a book discussion club segment of Oprah’s TV show “Oprah Winfrey”. It was all about Oprah selecting any new book for her audience to read and they discus it each month. The club stayed for 15 years until Oprah’s TV Show ended in May 25, 2011. A great thing that shouldn’t be ignored is that the club recommended 70 books during its 15 years.

Oprah was the richest African American of the 20^th century and she stayed the world’s only black billionaire for three running years, this was according to Forbes magazine. In 2005 Business Week named her the greatest black philanthropist in American history. As Oprah was well known for her charitable work as she donated millions of dollars of her own money to various charities and organizations. A big part from her donation goes to three main charities: The Angel Network, which has been publicized on a large range in her show; her own personal foundation, The Oprah Winfrey Founadtion, and The Oprah Winfrey Operating Foundation, which exclusively support her Leadership Academy in South Africa.

Oprah’s Angel Network, started small in 1997, at that time her main goal was to get audience more involved in giving and volunteering. She used her talk show to publicize the Angel Network; one of the projects done by the Angle Network was the “Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls in South Africa”. She also talked about many issues concerning the importance to donate and created a website that shows information about her show and public charity.

She also supported the Clinton Foundation, which support many causes; treating HIV and AIDS. She is also one of the largest contributors to Free The Children, an organization that is concerned in building schools for children in the developing countries.

With all this charitable work she has truly established herself as a selfless person. She also took place in a lot of charitable projects to help people in improving their life.

Oprah Winfrey has been and will always be a great role model for everyone around the world. Although she had a terrible childhood, but she never lost hope and worked hard to achieve her goal. Now she is one of the richest African American and one of the most influential people that took part in changing people’s life.