http://s2smagazine.com/stories/2012/01/cathy-hughes-i-was-not-pregnant-high-school-dropout
If you think Radio One founder Cathy Hughes, the first African-American woman to head a publicly traded company, had to overcome tremendous odds to seal her position in history, you’d be right. But she said that being a pregnant high school dropout was not one of them.
“I’m gonna write a book. I’ve started it. Because I’m tired of people telling my story incorrectly,” she told attendees at the Verizon Wireless Small Business Empowerment Series on Thursday night in Washington, D.C.
When Cathy found out she was pregnant while in high school, she said she didn’t drop out, as many online profiles of her indicate.
“Believe me, I walked across that stage and got my paper,” she said, acknowledging that she was pregnant with her only son, Alfred, when she did it.
She added that if she hadn’t finished, she and her baby would’ve had gotten a whupping from her mother.
Cathy, a broadcast-barrier breaker and creator of the “Quiet Storm” radio format, also put an end to another sentiment about her life.
“It was a challenge but not a struggle,” she said, describing the period where she was forced to sleep on the floor of her first radio station, WOL, in a sleeping bag as “a fabulous time.” As proof she cited memorable visits to the station—including some romantic rendezvouses—as well as the knowledge that her dogged determination was the only way for her to achieve her dream.
“I realized that I had a business that I was building and I would do anything to keep it alive.”
