Women's History Month - Eleanor Roosevelt

Women's History Month

Eleanor Roosevelt

ANNA ELEANOR ROOSEVELT
- 1884 - 1963

A shy, awkward child, starved for recognition and love, Eleanor Roosevelt grew into a woman with great sensitivity to the underprivileged of all creeds, races, and nations. Her constant work to improve their lot made her one of the most loved women of her generation.

She was born in New York City on October 11, 1884, daughter of lovely Anna Hall and Elliott Roosevelt, younger brother of Theodore. Eleanor was eight when her mother died in 1892, the children went to live with Grandmother Hall; her adored father died only two years later. Attending a distinguished school in England gave her, at 15, her first chance to develop self-confidence among other girls.

Six feet tall, slender, graceful of figure but apprehensive at the thought of being a wallflower, she returned for a debut that she dreaded. In her circle of friends was a distant cousin, handsome young Franklin Delano Roosevelt. She was 19 when they became engaged in 1903 and they were married in 1905. Within eleven years Eleanor bore six children; one son died in infancy.

Franklin served in the NY state Senate from 1910 to 1913 and Eleanor started her long career as political helpmate. When he was stricken with poliomyelitis in 1921, she tended him devotedly. From his successful campaign for governor in 1928 to the day of his death, she dedicated her life to his purposes. She became eyes and ears for him, a trusted and tireless reporter.

FDR and Mrs. Roosevelt came to the White House in 1933, and she understood social conditions better than any of her predecessors. She transformed the role of First Lady accordingly. She broke precedent to hold press conferences, travel to all parts of the country, give lectures and radio broadcasts, and express her opinions candidly in a daily syndicated newspaper column, "My Day."

In 1939, the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) refused permission for African American contralto, Marian Anderson to sing to an integrated audience in Constitution Hall. With the aid of President Franklin D. Roosevelt and First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, Ms. Anderson performed a critically acclaimed open-air concert on Easter Sunday, 1939 on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. ER as usual stood up for civil rights and in protest wrote a letter of resignation. (see above)

Another example of her willingness to make change was during WWII, when due to racial discrimination, African American servicemen were not allowed to learn to fly until 1941, when African American college graduates were selected for what the Army called "an experiment" they were assigned to an airfield adjacent to Alabama's Tuskegee Institute. The experiment involved training black pilots and ground support members. The squadron, quickly dubbed the Tuskegee Airmen, was activated on March 22, 1941.
However, no-one would fly with an African American pilot. When Eleanor Roosevelt visited Tuskegee Army Air Field in 1941, she insisted on taking a ride in an airplane with a black pilot at the controls. ER's pilot was Charles Anderson. She then insisted that her flight with Anderson be photographed. Eleanor used this photograph as part of her campaign to convince FDR to activate the participation of the Tuskegee Airmen in North Africa and in the European Theater.
In June 1943, the Tuskegee Airmen entered into combat over North Africa. When the war ended, the Tuskegee Airmen returned home with one hundred and fifty Distinguished Flying Crosses, its success would contribute to the eventual integration of the United States military.

Eleanor was First Lady for 12 years. An outspoken advocate of social justice, she became a moral force during the Roosevelt administration, using her position as First Lady to promote social causes. As a nationally syndicated columnist, popular lecturer, author, party leader, and social activist, ER assured her friends that "my voice will not be silent. ER dedicated her unstinting energy to "winning the peace."

FDR died in 1945 and within a year she began her service as American spokesperson in the United Nations. She became the champion of human rights — dignity, security, respect for all people; and diplomatic justice between nations. Eleanor Roosevelt’s life was dedicated to the eradication of poverty, racism, war and despair.

*****

I have always admired Eleanor Roosevelt, especially her willingness to stand up for others. I am also encouraged to know that a letter written in protest could still be talked about 73 years later. It takes courage to make change in the world and Eleanor Roosevelt is an excellent example of that.

peacesojourner

Women's History Month - March 2012

Women's History Month -March 2012

The public celebration of women's history in this country began in 1978 as "Women's History Week" in Sonoma County, California. The week including March 8, International Women's Day, was selected.

In 1981, Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) and Rep. Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.) co-sponsored a joint Congressional resolution proclaiming a national Women's History Week. In 1987, Congress expanded the celebration to a month, and March was declared Women's History Month.

Test Your Knowledge of Women's History

1. Who founded Bethune-Cookman College, established the National Council of Negro Women, and served as an advisor on minority affairs to President Franklin D. Roosevelt?

2. What woman was the first African-American woman to win the Nobel Prize for Literature?

3. What Black woman refused to give up her seat to a White man, in Montgomery, Alabama, in 1955, thus sparking the civil rights movement of the following decade?

4. Who was the first woman to run for President of the United States (1872)?

5. Who opened up social work as a profession for women, and also won the 1931 Nobel Peace Prize for her anti-war organizing work?

6. Which Mexican-American woman has repeatedly been the leading money winner in the Ladies Professional Golf Association?

7. Who was the first woman Poet Laureate of the United States?

8. Who was the first “First Lady” to have developed her own political and media identity?

9. Who wrote the first version of the Equal Rights Amendment, in 1923?

10. Who was the first Black woman elected to Congress?

11. What leading suffragist was arrested and convicted of attempting to vote in the 1872 election?

12. Who was the first Chinese-American woman ever elected to hold a statewide office in the United States?

13. What journalist traveled around the world in 72 days in 1890?

14. What woman was turned down by 29 medical schools before being accepted as a student, graduated at the head of her class, and became the first licensed woman doctor in the U.S.?

15. What former slave was a powerful speaker for the rights of women and Black people?

16. When was the Equal Rights Amendment first introduced into Congress?

17. Who was the last queen of the Hawaiian Islands, deposed because American business interests wanted to annex Hawaii to the U.S.?

18. Which woman was banished from the Massachusetts Bay Colony for holding religious discussion meetings in her home?

19. Who spoke out for the advancement of American Indians’ rights from speaker’s platforms nationwide and before Congressional committees in the 1880s?

20. Who drove a stagecoach across the roughest part of the West without anyone knowing until she died that she was a woman?

21. Who was the first Hispanic woman to serve as U.S. Treasurer?

22. Who was the Shoshone Indian woman who served as guide and interpreter on the Lewis and Clark expedition?

23. Who was Chair of the Board and publisher of The Washington Post and Newsweek magazine, and also oversaw six broadcasting stations?

24. About 20,000 women shirtwaist workers staged a strike for better working conditions. Their action was called the “Uprising of the 20,000.” When and where did this strike occur?

25. When did officials of Little League Baseball announce that they would “defer to the changing social climate” and let girls play on their teams?

26. As vice president of the United Farm Workers, what woman has been vital in speaking for civil and economic rights for farm workers throughout the U.S.?

27. When did Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 go into effect, prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sex in federally funded school programs and activities?

28. What woman was invited to teach nuclear physics at Princeton University, even though no female students were allowed to study there?

29. What woman served as a “conductor” on the Underground Railroad, freeing hundreds of southern slaves and leading them to safety in the North? A $40,000 reward was offered for her capture.

30. What woman is credited with helping free more than 2,000 Chinese women and children smuggled into San Francisco to be sold as slaves?

31. Who was the first African-American woman poet to have her works published?

*****

1. Mary McLeod Bethune (1875–1955)
2. Toni Morrison (b. 1931)
3. Rosa Parks (b. 1920)

4. Victoria Woodhull (1838-1927)

5. Jane Addams (1860-1935)
6. Nancy Lopez (b. 1957)
7. Rita Dove (b. 1952)
8. Eleanor Roosevelt (1884-1962)
9. Alice Paul (1885-1977)
10. Shirley Chisholm (b. 1924)
11. Susan B. Anthony (1820-1906)
12. March Fong Eu (b. 1929)
13. Nellie Bly (1867-1922), real name Elizabeth Cochrane Seaman
14. Elizabeth Blackwell (1821-1910)
15. Sojourner Truth (C. 1797-1883)
16. 1923
17. Queen Liliuokalani (1838-1917)
18. Anne Hutchinson (1591-1643)
19. Sarah Winnemucca (1844-1891)
20. Charlie Parkhurst
21. Romana Bañuelos (b. 1925)
22. Sacajawea (c. 1786-1812)
23. Katherine Graham (b. 1917-2001)
24.1909, New York City
25. 1974
26. Dolores Huerta (b. 1930)
27. 1976
28. Chien-Shiung Wu (1912-1997)
29. Harriet Tubman (c. 1820-1913)
30. Donaldina Cameron (1869-1968)
31. Phillis Wheatley (1753-1784)

(Questions provided by National Women's History Project)

African American History Month - Sojourner Truth

Sojourner Truth - Abolitionist, Women's Rights Advocate

The following reminiscences were recorded by Frances Gage who was in attendance at The Ohio Women’s rights Convention, Akron Convention, Akron, Ohio, May 1851.
"There were very few women in those days who dared to "speak in meeting"; When, slowly from her seat in the corner she rose. She moved slowly and solemnly to the front, laid her old bonnet at her feet, and turned her great speaking eyes to me - I rose and announced "Sojourner Truth," She stood nearly six feet high, head erect, and eyes piercing the upper air like one in a dream. At her first word there was a profound hush.

Ain’t I a Woman?

That man over there say a woman needs to be helped into carriages

and lifted over ditches and to have the best place everywhere. 


Nobody ever helped me into carriages

or over mud puddles or gives me a best place . . .

And ain’t I a woman? 


Look at me. Look at my arm! I have plowed 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 to it–
and bear the lash as well


And ain’t I a woman?


I have born 13 children and seen most all sold into slavery

and when I cried out a mother’s grief none but Jesus heard me . . .


And ain’t I a woman? 


That little man in black there say a woman can’t have as much rights,

as a man cause Christ wasn’t a woman


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 together women ought to be able to turn it
rightside up again.

*****

Sojourner Truth - Born: (c. 1797-1883)

Born one of twelve children, Isabella Baumfree in Ulster County, New York, she was freed by the New York State Emancipation Act of 1827 and lived in New York City for a time.

Around this time she had a life-changing religious experience and became a devout Christian. On June 1, 1843 she took the name Sojourner Truth which she felt God had given her and she assumed the "mission" of spreading "the Truth" across the country. She became famous as an itinerant preacher, drawing huge crowds with her oratory (and some said "mystical gifts") wherever she appeared. She became one of an active group of black women abolitionists, lectured before numerous abolitionist audiences, and was friends with such leading white abolitionists as James and Lucretia Mott and Harriet Beecher Stowe. She also became involved with the Women’s Suffrage Movement.

Some amazing statistics for a woman in the 1800’s – especially a woman of African descent:

- Before freedom she was sold three times: 1806, 1808, 1810

- She had five children -- Diana (c. 1815); Peter (c. 1822); Elizabeth (c. 1825); Sophia (c.1826) and Hannah who died in infancy. (Some controversy came about her ‘Ain’t I a Woman’ speech. In it Sojourner is quoted as having 13 children. Historians today primarily agree on five.)
- She filed and won a lawsuit to secure the return of her son, Peter, who had been illegally sold into slavery in Alabama from New York (1827-28).

- With the outbreak of the Civil War she raised money to purchase gifts for the soldiers, distributing them herself in the camps. She also helped African Americans who had escaped to the North to find habitation and shelter.

- In 1844, she joined the Northampton Association of Education and Industry in Massachusetts. Founded by abolitionists, the organization supported women's rights and religious tolerance as well as pacifism.

- In 1853 she met with Harriet Beecher Stowe in Andover, Mass.

- She owned three homes in all. Northampton, Mass. (1850), Harmonia village outside Battle Creek, Michigan (1857) and College Street, Battle Creek, Michigan (1867).

- In 1864, Sojourner was employed by the National Freedman's Relief Association in Washington, D.C. She worked diligently to improve conditions for African-Americans.

- In 1865, while working at the Freedman's Hospital in Washington, she rode in the streetcars to help force their desegregation. (90 years before Rosa Parks claimed her seat on the bus.)

- 1871 - Frederick Douglass signed her Book of Life while she was making rounds for freedom in New York.

- In 1872, she returned to Battle Creek and tried to vote in the presidential election, but was turned away at the polling place.

- She actually had an audience with two Presidents of the United States in the White House. Abraham Lincoln (1864) and Ulysses Grant (1870).

Age and ill health caused her to retire from the lecture circuit, and she spent her last days in a sanatorium in Battle Creek, Michigan. When she died on November 26, 1883, her last words were, "Be a follower of Jesus."

She is buried in Oak Hill Cemetery, Battle Creek, Michigan. Her grandsons, Sammy Banks and William Boyd, and her daughters, Elizabeth Banks Boyd and Diana Corbin are buried in the same plot. Despite her hardships she had managed to keep her family together.

Illiterate all of her life, Sojourner’s courage and candid, homespun way of speaking against the evils of slavery and the denial of women’s rights made her a major presence in her day. She still stands preeminently as the only woman of color who gained a national reputation on the lecture platform in the days before the Civil War.

A woman of courage and tenacity who believed she had God on her side.

Her life is a testimony that she did.

*****

peacesojourner

Women's History Month -12 Nobel Peace Laureates

Women Nobel Peace Laureates

I was planning to choose one of the following women to write about but I couldn't decide which one. Twelve women have received the Nobel Peace Prize, all of whom have dedicated their lives to peace.

Here they are:

1. Baroness Bertha von Suttner -Nobel Peace Prize, 1905

A friend of Alfred Nobel, Baroness Bertha von Suttner was a leader in the international peace movement in the 1890s, and she received support from Nobel for her Austrian Peace Society. When Nobel died, he bequeathed money for four prizes for scientific achievements, and one for peace. Though many (including, perhaps, the Baroness) expected the peace prize to be awarded to her, three other individuals and one organization were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize before the committee named her in 1905.

2. Jane Addams - Nobel Peace Prize, 1931 (shared with Nicholas Murray Butler)

Jane Addams, best known as the founder of Hull-House, a settlement house in Chicago, was active in peace efforts during World War I with the International Congress of Women. Jane Addams also helped to found the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom. She was nominated numerous times, but the prize went each time to others, until 1931. She was, by that time, in ill health, and could not travel to accept the prize.

3. Emily Greene Balch - Nobel Peace Prize, 1946 (shared with John Mott, YMCA)

A friend and co-worker of Jane Addams, Emily Balch also worked to end World War I and helped to found the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom. She was a professor of social economics at Wellesley College for 20 years, but was fired for her World War I peace activities. Though a pacifist, Balch supported the American entry into World War II.

4. & 5. Betty Williams and Mairead Corrigan - Nobel Peace Prize, 1976

They founded the Northern Ireland Peace Movement. Betty Williams, a Protestant, and Mairead Corrigan, a Catholic, came together to work for peace in Northern Ireland, organizing peace demonstrations that brought together Roman Catholics and Protestants, protesting violence by British soldiers, Irish Republican Army (IRA) members (Catholics), and Protestant extremists.

6. Mother Teresa - Nobel Peace Prize, 1979

Born in Skopje, then in Yugoslavia, Mother Teresa founded theMissionaries of Charity in India and focused on serving the dying. She was skilled at publicizing her order's work and thus financing the expansion of its services. She was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979 for her "work in bringing help to suffering humanity." She died in 1997 and was beatified in 2003 by Pope John Paul II.

7. Alva Myrdal - Nobel Peace Prize, 1982 (shared with Alfonso GarcíaRobles)

Alva Myrdal, a Swedish economist and advocate of human rights, as well as a United Nations department head (the first woman to hold such a position) and Swedish ambassador to India, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize with a fellow disarmament advocate from Mexico, at a time when the disarmament committee at the UN had failed in its efforts.

8. Aung San Suu Kyi - Nobel Peace Prize, 1991

Aung San Suu Kyi, whose mother was ambassador to India and fatherde facto prime minister of Burma (Myanmar), won election but was denied the office by a military government. Aung San Suu Kyi was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for her nonviolent work for human rights and independence in Burma (Myanmar). She has spent most of her time since 1989 under house arrest or imprisoned by the military government for her dissident work.

9. Rigoberta Menchú Tum -Nobel Peace Prize, 1992

Rigoberta Menchú was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for her work for "ethno-cultural reconciliation based on respect for the rights of indigenous peoples."

10. Jody Williams - Nobel Peace Prize, 1997 (shared with the International Campaign to Ban Landmines, ICBL)

Jody Williams was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for her work with the International Campaign to Ban Landmines.

11. Shirin Ebadi - Nobel Peace Prize, 2003

Iranian human rights advocate Shirin Ebadi was the first person from Iran and the first Muslim woman to win a Nobel Prize.

12. Wangari Maathai - Nobel Peace Prize, 2004

Wangari Maathai founded the Green Belt movement in Kenya in 1977, which has planted more than 10 million trees to prevent soil erosion and provide firewood for cooking fires. Wangari Maathai was the first African woman to be named a Nobel Peace Laureate, honored "for her contribution to sustainable development, democracy and peace."

*****

The Nobel Peace Prize is an award presented to either an individual or an organization in accordance with Alfred Nobel’s living will. Alfred Nobel, was a Swedish inventor and industrialist. He disposed the Nobel Peace Prize in his will to be awarded to “the person who shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between the nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses." The prize can be awarded for current efforts, rather than for having accomplished a goal or resolved an issue.

*****

An amazing group of women to whom we owe so much. All of whom had the courage to stand up for others and speak out, even when it may have been unpopular to do so.

peacesojourner

History of International Women's Day

The History of International Women's Day

On March 8th of this week this was celebrated.

GENDER FACTS - Global Issues:

- Globally women account for the majority of people aged over 60 and over 80

- World population - 6,872,741,131

- Of 1.2 billion people living in poverty worldwide, 70% are women
- 80% of the world's 27 million refugees are women
- Women own around only 1% of the world's land
- AIDS sees women's life expectancy of 43 in Uganda and Zambia
- Women are 2/3 of the 1 billion+ illiterate adults who have no access to basic education

International Women's Day has been observed since in the early 1900's, a time of great expansion and turbulence in the industrialized world that saw booming population growth and the rise of radical ideologies.

1908
- 15,000 women marched through New York City demanding shorter hours, better pay and voting rights.

1909
 - In accordance with a declaration by the Socialist Party of America, the first National Woman's Day (NWD) was observed across the United States on 28 February. Women continued to celebrate NWD on the last Sunday of February until 1913.

1910 - A woman named a Clara Zetkin (Leader of the 'Women's Office' for the Social Democratic Party in Germany) proposed that every year in every country there should be a celebration on the same day - a Women's Day - to press for their demands. The conference of over 100 women from 17 countries, representing unions, socialist parties, working women's clubs, and including the first three women elected to the Finnish parliament, greeted Zetkin's suggestion with unanimous approval and thus International Women's Day was the result.

1911 -
on 25 March, the tragic 'Triangle Fire' in New York City took the lives of more than 140 working women, most of them Italian and Jewish immigrants. This disastrous event drew significant attention to working conditions and labor legislation in the United States that became a focus of subsequent International Women's Day events. 1911 also saw women's 'Bread and Roses' campaign. 


1913-1914 - 
International Women's Day was transferred to 8 March and this day has remained the global date for International Women's Day ever since. In 1914 further women across Europe held rallies to campaign against the war and to express women's solidarity.

1918 - 1999
- International Women's Day has grown to become a global day of recognition and celebration across developed and developing countries alike. For many years the United Nations has held an annual IWD conference to coordinate international efforts for women's rights and participation in social, political and economic processes.

2000 - and beyond
IWD is now an official holiday in Albania, Algeria, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brazil, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, China, Cuba, Georgia, Hungary, Italy, Israel, Laos, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Macedonia, Moldova, Mongolia, Montenegro, Poland, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Tajikistan, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Vietnam. The tradition sees men honoring their mothers, wives, girlfriends, colleagues, etc with flowers and small gifts. In some countries IWD has the equivalent status of Mother's Day where children give small presents to their mothers and grandmothers.

Women are still not paid equally to that of their male counterparts, women still are not present in equal numbers in business or politics, and globally women's education, health and the violence against them is worse than that of men.

Annually on 8 March, thousands of events are held throughout the world to inspire women and celebrate achievements. A global web of rich and diverse local activity connects women from all around the world ranging from political rallies, business conferences, government activities and networking events through to local women's craft markets, theatrical performances, fashion parades and more.

*****

I recently learned that in Russia, every year on March 8, the men and children purchase roses for women in order to express their appreciation. I really like that idea – so men, give as many compliments as you can to women on that date – roses would also be appreciated :-)

You may have noticed that several countries are missing from the 'Official Holiday' list. I also have noticed in the past that March 8th usually passes without much fanfare in the United States but I am glad that the month of March has been designated as Women's History Month.

During this month I will be writing about some women who I personally admire, so stay tuned!

African American History Month-Marian Anderson

Marian Anderson was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, February 27, 1897.

Today is the 114th anniversary of her birth. She was a contralto, perhaps best remembered for her performance on Easter Sunday, 1939 on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C.

Ms. Anderson joined a junior church choir at the age of six, and applied to an all-white music school after her graduation from high school in 1921, but was turned away because she was black. Later, she debuted with the New York Philharmonic on August 26, 1925 and scored an immediate success with the critics. In 1928, she sang for the first time at Carnegie Hall. Her reputation was further advanced by her tour through Europe in the early 1930s where she did not encounter the racial prejudices she had experienced in America.

Ms. Anderson won the Julius Rosenwald scholarship allowing her to train abroad in England, France, Belgium, Holland, the former Soviet Union and Scandinavia. She toured Europe many times in her career.

In 1939, she was denied the right to perform at Constitution Hall in Washington, D.C. because the venue owners, The Daughters of the American Revolution enforced a clause in their contract that stated “concerts by whites only.” DAR member Eleanor Roosevelt and several other members resigned in protest.

As an alternative to the Constitution Hall concert, Marian’s representatives arranged for her to perform at the Lincoln Memorial. In attendance were 75,000 people, the largest turnout to date at that time, and heard by millions of listeners on the radio.

Although she was reluctant to view herself as an activist, the Lincoln Memorial concert has been said to be one of the most dramatic events in civil rights history.

Several weeks later, at the invitation of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Ms. Anderson performed at the White House for King George VI and Queen Elizabeth of England, making her the first African American to perform at the White House.

In spite of her treatment by the Daughters of the American Revolution Ms. Anderson remained a patriot. She performed in hospitals and bases for the troops in World War II and the Korean War.

In 1957 she toured India and the Far East as a goodwill ambassador through the U.S. State Department and the American National Theater and Academy. She traveled 35,000 miles in 12 weeks, giving 24 concerts.

Upon her return President Eisenhower appointed her as a delegate to the United Nations Human Rights Committee. As a member of the United Nations Trusteeship Committee, Ms. Anderson helped oversee the well-being of more than 100 million people living in U.N. trust territories in Africa and the South Pacific.

She sang at the inaugurations of Presidents Eisenhower and Kennedy.
Most important was her international stardom – she traveled the world extensively and enjoyed more freedom and appreciation abroad than at home.

In 1963 Ms. Anderson also sang at the historic March on Washington. She was alongside Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. I was able to see and hear her on that day along with my family and friends who attended the March. That same year she was awarded the American Medal of Freedom.

Ironically, Marion Anderson launched her retirement tour at the very hall where she had been denied so many years before, Constitution Hall in Washington, D.C.

Marian Anderson passed away on April 8, 1993 at the age of 96, leaving a legacy of excellence and selfless service to a world of adoring fans.

On January 27, 2005, a commemorative U.S. postage stamp honored her as part of the Black Heritage series.

Ms. Anderson was a recipient of the Silver Buffalo Award, the highest adult award given by the Boy Scouts of America.

She symbolized the civil rights movement with dignity and grace; and was the first African-American to be named a permanent member of Metropolitan Opera Company, also, she was a frequent performer at the White House.

Four years ago, while visiting Philadelphia, I had the opportunity to visit the home of Marian Anderson. It was a special experience as we were shown around by her family members. The home has the original furniture, piano, and china just as Ms. Anderson used them when she lived there. Even some of her dresses were on display. I would encourage anyone who is in the area to make an appointment to visit.

While hearing the personal stories of her life, I was, once again, in awe to think of the many experiences that she had and the courage that she exhibited while enduring racism and prejudice by others. She carried herself with dignity and with her head held high.

Her story is an inspiration for everyone.

African American History Month - Sojourner Truth

Sojourner Truth - Abolitionist, Women's Rights Advocate

The following reminiscences were recorded by Frances Gage who was in attendance at The Ohio Women’s rights Convention, Akron Convention, Akron, Ohio, May 1851.
"There were very few women in those days who dared to "speak in meeting"; When, slowly from her seat in the corner she rose. She moved slowly and solemnly to the front, laid her old bonnet at her feet, and turned her great speaking eyes to me - I rose and announced "Sojourner Truth," She stood nearly six feet high, head erect, and eyes piercing the upper air like one in a dream. At her first word there was a profound hush.

Ain’t I a Woman?

That man over there say a woman needs to be helped into carriages

and lifted over ditches and to have the best place everywhere. 


Nobody ever helped me into carriages

or over mud puddles or gives me a best place . . .

And ain’t I a woman? 


Look at me. Look at my arm! I have plowed 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 to it–
and bear the lash as well


And ain’t I a woman?


I have born 13 children and seen most all sold into slavery

and when I cried out a mother’s grief none but Jesus heard me . . .


And ain’t I a woman? 


That little man in black there say a woman can’t have as much rights,

as a man cause Christ wasn’t a woman


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 together women ought to be able to turn it
rightside up again.

*****

Sojourner Truth - Born: (c. 1797-1883)

Born one of twelve children, Isabella Baumfree in Ulster County, New York, she was freed by the New York State Emancipation Act of 1827 and lived in New York City for a time.

Around this time she had a life-changing religious experience and became a devout Christian. On June 1, 1843 she took the name Sojourner Truth which she felt God had given her and she assumed the "mission" of spreading "the Truth" across the country. She became famous as an itinerant preacher, drawing huge crowds with her oratory (and some said "mystical gifts") wherever she appeared. She became one of an active group of black women abolitionists, lectured before numerous abolitionist audiences, and was friends with such leading white abolitionists as James and Lucretia Mott and Harriet Beecher Stowe. She also became involved with the Women’s Suffrage Movement.

Some amazing statistics for a woman in the 1800’s – especially a woman of African descent:

- Before freedom she was sold three times: 1806, 1808, 1810

- She had five children -- Diana (c. 1815); Peter (c. 1822); Elizabeth (c. 1825); Sophia (c.1826) and Hannah who died in infancy. (Some controversy came about her ‘Ain’t I a Woman’ speech. In it Sojourner is quoted as having 13 children. Historians today primarily agree on five.)
- She filed and won a lawsuit to secure the return of her son, Peter, who had been illegally sold into slavery in Alabama from New York (1827-28).

- With the outbreak of the Civil War she raised money to purchase gifts for the soldiers, distributing them herself in the camps. She also helped African Americans who had escaped to the North to find habitation and shelter.

- In 1844, she joined the Northampton Association of Education and Industry in Massachusetts. Founded by abolitionists, the organization supported women's rights and religious tolerance as well as pacifism.

- In 1853 she met with Harriet Beecher Stowe in Andover, Mass.

- She owned three homes in all. Northampton, Mass. (1850), Harmonia village outside Battle Creek, Michigan (1857) and College Street, Battle Creek, Michigan (1867).

- In 1864, Sojourner was employed by the National Freedman's Relief Association in Washington, D.C. She worked diligently to improve conditions for African-Americans.

- In 1865, while working at the Freedman's Hospital in Washington, she rode in the streetcars to help force their desegregation. (90 years before Rosa Parks claimed her seat on the bus.)

- 1871 - Frederick Douglass signed her Book of Life while she was making rounds for freedom in New York.

- In 1872, she returned to Battle Creek and tried to vote in the presidential election, but was turned away at the polling place.

- She actually had an audience with two Presidents of the United States in the White House. Abraham Lincoln (1864) and Ulysses Grant (1870).

Age and ill health caused her to retire from the lecture circuit, and she spent her last days in a sanatorium in Battle Creek, Michigan. When she died on November 26, 1883, her last words were, "Be a follower of Jesus."

She is buried in Oak Hill Cemetery, Battle Creek, Michigan. Her grandsons, Sammy Banks and William Boyd, and her daughters, Elizabeth Banks Boyd and Diana Corbin are buried in the same plot. Despite her hardships she had managed to keep her family together.

Illiterate all of her life, Sojourner’s courage and candid, homespun way of speaking against the evils of slavery and the denial of women’s rights made her a major presence in her day. She still stands preeminently as the only woman of color who gained a national reputation on the lecture platform in the days before the Civil War.

A woman of courage and tenacity who believed she had God on her side.

Her life is a testimony that she did.