The U.S. Army just promoted its first active-duty Black woman chaplain to the rank of colonel, according to the Richmond Free Press . Chaplain Monica R. Lawson makes history as the first active-duty Black female chaplain to rise up to the rank of colonel. Lawson is an African Methodist Episcopal minister, chief of recruiting and accessions for the U.S. Army Chaplain Corps, and a Spelman alum. “As an African-American woman who has always been proud of the skin that I’m in, in this time, this is a bright spot in a sea of what seems to be darkness never-ending. In a time when we are faced with political polarization, racial unrest, a pandemic, and economic uncertainty, it’s good to have something to celebrate and to take our minds off of what is going on, if only for a moment,” Lawson said. Lawson has served as a family life chaplain at Fort Bliss, Texas, a deputy Pentagon chaplain, battalion chaplain at Fort Story, VA, and Fort Jackson, deputy cadet command chaplain at Fort Knox, KY,...