Trace the journey of Dr. Monette Ferguson from poverty to prominence and you will find a path that was cleared long before she was born by great figures from Black history.

"They are the reason I'm able to sit in this seat. They are the reason I'm able to have some of the freedoms that my ancestors did not have," said Ferguson.

As executive director of Alliance for Community Empowerment, formerly ABCD, Ferguson runs a community action agency born during the height of the Civil Rights Movement, when former President Lyndon B. Johnson declared the War on Poverty -- a war that she says had so many casualties.

"They were killed, they were lynched, they were just treated in a horrible way throughout history and our Black history today is of presidents, Oscar winners and CEOs and founders and that history is very much embedded into why I am so happy to be able to sit here today," she said.

Programs like Head Start are very close to her heart. Ferguson is not only in charge of them, she is a product of them, signaling a personal victory, she says, in the war on poverty.

"And that poverty was embedded into Black history, into the history of my people and my ancestors, and we have an opportunity here now more lately to overcome that history," said Ferguson.

Ferguson says her mission in life is to help other families overcome social and economic barriers using what she calls one of the greatest history lessons of all time.

"Black history, to me, is my history. It is American history," she said. "Within my family we have a mantra of strength and education and we believe that education is that pathway to equity."

Ferguson says there's really no mystery when it comes to what she hopes to do with the lessons of Black history.

"I am hopeful in a position like this that I can truly make a difference," Ferguson said.