Showing posts with label Sojourner Truth. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sojourner Truth. Show all posts

Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Celebrating Sojourner Truth

This morning I had the wonderful priviledge to attend the unveiling of the new bust of Sojourner Truth to be on permanent display in the US Capitol.  Among the hundreds of distinguished speakers and guests were decendents of Sojourner Truth, First Lady Michelle Obama, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, Congresswoman Shelia Jackson Leigh, head of the Congress of Black Women, E. Faye Williams, and award-winning actor Cicely Tyson.  

It was truly amazing to see so many strong, powerful, outspoken women representing not just the struggle for equality, but the acheivments gained!  

One of my favorite moments was when Cicely Tyson approached the podium, not has herself, but in character as Sojourner Truth.  She performed Sojourner Truth's famous "Ain't I A Woman" speech that still rings true today.  Here is an excerpt (my favorite) from that speech:

"That man over there says that women need to be helped into carriages, and lifted over ditches, and to have the best place everywhere. Nobody ever helps me into carriages, or over mud-puddles, or gives me any best place! And ain't I a woman? Look at me! Look at my arm! I have ploughed and planted, and gathered into barns, and no man could head me! And ain't I a woman? I could work as much and eat as much as a man - when I could get it - and bear the lash as well! And ain't I a woman? I have borne thirteen children, and seen them most all sold off to slavery, and when I cried out with my mother's grief, none but Jesus heard me! And ain't I a woman?

Then they talk about this thing in the head; what's this they call it? [member of audience whispers, "intellect"] That's it, honey. What's that got to do with women's rights or negroes' rights? If my cup won't hold but a pint, and yours holds a quart, wouldn't you be mean not to let me have my little half measure full?

Then that little man in black there, he says women can't have as much rights as men, 'cause Christ wasn't a woman! Where did your Christ come from? Where did your Christ come from? From God and a woman! Man had nothing to do with Him.

If the first woman God ever made was strong enough to turn the world upside down all alone, these women together ought to be able to turn it back, and get it right side up again! And now they is asking to do it, the men better let them."


Newsday Tuesday!


Time for the another round of good news and bad news in the world of feminism. Lets start with the good stuff first:

Good: Truth is finally in the Capitol! The bust of feminist Sojourner Truth was unveiled today in a ceremony this morning at the U.S. Capitol. In a movement begun ten years ago by the National Congress of Black Women, Ms. Truth's bust, the first of an African American woman, was unveiled to a large crowd that included First Lady Michelle Obama, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and Secretary Hillary Clinton.

Feminists of Iceland are celebrating the election of Johanna Sigurdardottir, the first female and openly gay Prime Minister in the nation's history. Whoop, whoop!

Snaps and claps to California Attorney General Jerry Brown for his letter to the California state Supreme Court stating that anti-affirmative action Proposition 209, amending the state constitution in 1996, is unconstitutional! Organized by California businessman Ward Connerly as the "California Civil Rights Initiative," Prop 209 has ended affirmative action policies in public employment, education, contracting, and gutted sex discrimination law. After achieving similar success in Michigan, Washington and Nebraska, Connerly was unable to garner enough signatures for anti-affirmative action measures in Missouri, Oklahoma, Arizona, and was DEFEATED in Colorado in 2008!

And just to ruin the party a little, here is some bad news:

Bad: As a Dominican woman, I am saddened (albeit not surprised) to hear of the the Dominican Republic's legislature's recent approval to ban all abortion without exception for the woman's health, rape or incest. Not bad enough? The DR Congress is also considering imprisoning women seeking abortions or attempting to abort a fetus.