Students become first Black girl Eagle Scouts in Michigan
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GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — If sisterhood were a merit badge, Phoenix Moyer and Kimani Brame would have earned it.
“This is the person I’ve shared my tent with, this is the person I eat my meals with, did most of my classes with,” said Kimani Brame, sophomore at East Kentwood High School, when referencing Phoenix Moyer.
Moyer is also the person Brame made history with. They’re the first Black girls in Michigan to become Eagle Scouts.
“We did it together, all the way,” said Phoenix Moyer, a junior at Grand River Preparatory High School.
Moyer said the groundbreaking achievement gave her a new appreciation for the phrases, “Black girls rock” and “Black girl magic.”
“I think it’s one thing to see other people be that first but to be that first, yourself, it’s really special,” said Moyer.
Congresswoman Hillary Scholten, the first woman ever and Democrat since the 1970s to represent Grand Rapids, celebrated the two for their achievement.
“I know what it’s like to break barriers and to be the first, but you’re blazing a trail for so many women to follow, and I couldn’t be more proud of you,” said Representative Scholten.
Becoming an Eagle Scout is no easy feat.
About four percent of boys and girls who become scouts reach that level, according to the Michigan Crossroads Council of Boy Scouts of America.
More than 80,000 Eagle Scouts live in Michigan. Moyer and Brame’s brothers are in the number.
The history makers agreed, with laughter, that the hardest part of earning Eagle was camping.
“I can do paperwork all day,” said Moyer.
“Yeah, I can do paperwork all day, it’s the dirty stuff, but we did it; that’s what’s important,” said Brame.
The trailblazers join a short list of other Black girls who became Eagle Scouts in the U.S., but they hope the milestone will be the start of something new in the mitten.
“It’s good to see Black people, especially Black women, in roles that you don’t usually see them in,” said Moyer.
“We are the first, but I really, really hope we are not the last,” said Brame.
Both girls earned 29 merit badges. They only needed 21 to earn Eagle status.
Moyer said she plans to study horticulture after high school, and Brame told NewsNation affiliate WOOD she wants to become an anesthesiologist.
Both plan to continue their involvement with scouts after graduating.
