Lucretia Mott

Lucretia Mott

I’m sure that some of you are familiar with Nantucket, Massachusetts. If not, it is a small beautiful island off of Cape Cod. A hot vacation spot, most recently, Kourtney Kardashian and her family vacationed there. Now imagine this serene little island over 200 years ago, inhabited by Quaker, women’s rights activist, religious reformer, and abolitionist, Lucretia Mott, formerly, Lucretia Coffin. This brave woman was born on January 3, 1793 in Nantucket, Massachusetts. 

By definition, a Quaker is, "a member of the Religious Society of Friends, a Christian movement founded by George Fox c. 1650 and devoted to peaceful principles. Central to the Quakers' belief is the doctrine of the “Inner Light,” or sense of Christ's direct working in the soul. This has led them to reject both formal ministry and all set forms of worship.”Mott’s parents influenced her Quaker upbringing which landed her at a Quaker boarding school in New York State at the age of thirteen. Upon working at the school as a teaching assistant, Lucretia met her husband, James Mott who greatly supported her religious beliefs and way of life.           

  Leaving Nantucket, and New York behind for Philadelphia becoming wed in 1811. Philadelphia suited their Quaker lifestyle very well, as the area was where William Penn influenced the area with Quaker beliefs. Mott became a Quaker minister in 1821. One of her strongest attributes being her articulate speaking abilities. 1827 brought the couple to chose a more progressive wing of faith. Her husband was so dedicated to Lucretia’s beliefs that he left the cotton trade around 1830. 

 Quakers were strong advocates against slavery and would boycott any products produced by slave labor. Mott’s “radical” views regarding slavery exposed her to several instances of violence. Mott helped found the Philadelphia Female Anti-Slavery Society in 1833, as their president. She took on an authoritative role in the national organization upon the admission of women. We have watched society succumb to racism, sexism, we have seen discrimination first hand. This time period would snicker at the thought of anyone other than a white male having equal rights, so one can only imagine the brutality Mott faced. She made tremendous strides, continuing on to when she was denied a seat in 1840 at the World Anti-Slavery Convention in London because she was a woman. Mott and Stanton arrived at the Convention where they were neither greeted nor were they acknowledged at all. The twelve Boston women who made this 3,000-mile trip were appalled and patiently waited to hear whether they could be admitted to the Convention. Almost all of these women were in their twenties, so it was inspiring to see such young and diverse faces standing up for slavery, and what would turn out to be the suffrage movement as well. At 11 o’clock that morning, the announcement finally surfaced that the women were excluded from the Conference, but if they still wanted to partake then they could sit behind a curtained wall and listen quietly. Mott did not let this deter her, instead she used her exemplary public speaking skills to preach outside. This visit to London sparked Mott’s friendship with Elizabeth Cady Stanton. After the Conference, Mott and Stanton walked with interlocked arms discussing their newfound dream of hosting their own Conference back in the U.S which they did. The Anti- Slavery Convention was the main starting point for the women’s suffrage movement. The summer of 1848, Mott and Stanton organized the meeting at Seneca Falls, New York. This was the starting point of Women’s Rights in America. Mott became president of the group in 1852.  

In 1850, Mott’s Discourse on Women was her life’s work, explaining her philosophy on women and feminism. One should high light one of the main points being that women’ roles in society were purely limited education, not innate inferiority. Mott advocated feminism in all forms, ranging from politics to economic opportunity and suffrage. Throughout Mott’s influential life, she was an amazing mother, wife, and home keeper. Five children and a husband is a job in and of itself, yet somehow this woman was able to do it all. 

Lucretia Mott. Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Susan B. Anthony Monument.

Works Cited

"Module 04: How Did Abolitionism Lead to the Struggle for Women 's Rights?" Evidence Detail :: U.S. History. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Feb. 2017.

History.com Staff. "Lucretia Mott." History.com. A&E Television Networks, 2009. Web. 14 Feb. 2017.

"Lucretia Mott." Biography.com. A&E Networks Television, 02 Apr. 2014. Web. 14 Feb. 2017.

Photos: Google Images

Shirley Chisholm

Shirley Chisholm announcing her presidency in 1972.

             Before Hillary Clinton famously ran in the last election, there was another woman that famously ran for president in 1972. Unfortunately, she lost in the primaries to what led to the election of Richard Nixon. But throughout her life she achieved many great accomplishments (and firsts). But what struggles did she face and what exactly did she accomplish?

            Shirley Chisholm was born on November 30th, 1924 in Brooklyn, New York to her father, Charles Christopher St. Hill and her mother, Ruby Seale. They lived with her grandmother who she later said gave her, “strength, dignity, and love…” and that she “learned from an early age [from her ‘Granny’] that I [she] was somebody…” and that she  “didn't need the black revolution to tell” her that.

In 1952 she received her Masters Degree in elementary education at Columbia University, while completing her degree she began to teach nursery school. She then worked herself up to running a daycare, the experience that she received here eventually led her to pursue politics.

She started her political career as a state legislator. She was a democratic member for three years. She did many things such as sponsoring the SEEK program in New York. The SEEK program states that it is “a program designed to meet the needs of students who are considered to be economically disadvantaged and academically underprepared.”  Later in 1968, she won the position of Democratic Committeewoman.

Later that year, she ran for the House of Representatives. This led to her being known as Brooklyn’s first African American person in congress. Every person that she hired to work for her happened to be a woman, with half of them being African American; something that was very uncommon in the 70’s, as it was a time where woman were fighting hard for equal rights.

Chisholm's Campaign Poster

In 1972, she announced that she was running for president. This made her the first ever black candidate, while also becoming the first ever woman to run in the democratic party (Margaret Smith ran in the republican party 1964).

Unfortunately, her presidency campaign didn’t go very far. She noted that one of the reasons was that she was being discriminated against for being a woman. She later reflected on this saying, “…when I ran for president, I met more discrimination as a woman than for being black. Men are men.”  She also stated that she never expected to win, stating that “although some see my candidacy as an alternate and others as symbolic…” that it was, “a necessary catalyst for change."

In the end, she ended up with 430,703 votes in the primary. Which is sadly only 2.7 percent. She later stated that “in spite of hopeless odds ... to demonstrate the sheer will and refusal to accept the status quo”.

Chisholm then spent more time in the congress until becoming the chair at Mount Holyoke College, teaching sociology and politics. She sadly passed away on January 1^st, 2005, after suffering multiple strokes. To this day, Chisholm is still being honored. In November 2015, Former President Barack Obama posthumously awarded her with the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Works Cited

Barron, James. Shirly Chisholm, 'Unbossed' Pioneer in Congress, Is Dead at 80. 3 Jan 2005. Feb 2017.

Hauser, Susan. The Women's Movement in the '70s, Today: 'You've Come a Long Way', But... 5 2012. 2 2017.

Lesher, Stephan. The Short, Unhappy Life Of Black Presidental Politics, 1972. 25 06 1972. 2 2017.

The City College of New York. SEEK Program. 2 2017.

Thomas J. O'Halloran. "Shirley Chisholm.jpg." Wikipedia.

Seattle City Council. "Shirley Chisholm Campaign Poster." 26 1 2016.

Shirley Chisholm, first black woman elected to Congress, dies. 3 1 2005. 2 2017.

Shirley Chisholm: Declares Presidental Bid. NYCDeptofRecords. 2015.

The Afro-American. "Shirley Chisholm to Speak at Hunter." 6 2 1971. Google News. 2 2017.

 

Maya Angelou

Have you ever had a passion to make a difference in the world? To make a difference for yourself? Or to make a difference for everyone who is similar to you? There are countless number of symbols I can think of that have been an example of this throughout history. After all the world continues to change every day. The person whom I would like to talk to you about is a strong black female figure by the name of Maya Angelou. She was an author, poet, singer, and civil rights activist. She worked alongside Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X, two of the most notorious civil rights activists known in U.S history.
During a time where women were well into practicing their civil rights in America. There was a group of African Americans who were willing to fight for their rights, not to different from the fight for women’s rights. Civil rights activists were willing to go the distance to fight for equality. Through whatever way they could. Through words, speech, or even creative expression.
 Marguerite Johnson was Maya’s original name. She was born St. Louis Missouri on April 4^th 1928.[1] When she was sixteen she dropped out of high school to pursue a life as a single mother of her only son Guy Johnson. In the Late 1950s she became increasingly committed to her writing skills and joined a group in New York City called the Harlem Writing Guild. It was a group made up entirely of African American Civil right activists. “So say the Asian, the Hispanic, the Jew, the African, the Native American, the Sioux, the Catholic, the Muslim, the French, the Greek, the Irish, the Rabbi, the Priest, the Sheik, the Gay, the straight, the preacher, the privileged, the homeless, the teacher. They hear. They all hear. The speaking of the tree.”[3](Maya Angelou). This line is from her poems titled On the Pulse of the Morning. It’s meant to represent equality and how we are all the same.

She worked closely with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. He asked her to coordinate the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. The SCLC is a Civil Rights organization completely made up of African Americans that is still around today[2]. Unfortunately MLK was killed on April 4^th 1968, Maya’s birthday. She found comfort in her writing and she wrote one of her most famous autobiographies I Know Why the Cage Bird Sings. A book about her childhood from parents’ divorce to her siblings bond with her. “Words mean more than what is set down on paper. It takes the human voice to infuse them with shades of deeper meaning.” [1] I chose this quote from the book because I it reflects on a women’s write to have a voice and that if we don’t speak up no one will understand or listen.

Maya Angelou opened up many fields for women today. She was incredibly successful in living the life she lived. Being an author, producer, singer, actress, poet, and civil rights activist. She was a very passionate individual that expressed herself in a variety of ways that made it ok for us to follow in her footsteps. It was very unusual to see a black female back then do what she did. She is an inspiration.

Maya Angelou Receiving the Medal of Freedom from President Barack Obama in 2011

        

 Citation:

Photo: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/da/Angelou_Obama.jpg  

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=guvUxyRyOfo

1.    Angelou, Maya. I know why the caged bird sings. New York: Random House, n.d. Print.

2.    "Maya Angelou Timeline." Maya Angelou Timeline. N.p., n.d. Web. 8 Feb. 2017. <http://www.datesandevents.org/people-timelines/19-maya-angelou-timeline.htm>.

3.    "Maya Angelou." Academy of Achievement. N.p., n.d. Web. 9 Feb. 2017. <http://www.achievement.org/achiever/maya-angelou/>.

4.    Angelou, Maya. On the pulse of morning. New York: Random House, 1993. Print.

5.    About Us." Southern Christian Leadership Conference. N.p., n.d. Web. 8 Feb. 2017. <http://nationalsclc.org/about-us/>.

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[1] Angelou, Maya. I know why the caged bird sings. New York: Random House, n.d. Print.

 [2] "About Us." Southern Christian Leadership Conference. N.p., n.d. Web. 8 Feb. 2017. <http://nationalsclc.org/about-us/>.

 [3] Angelou, Maya. On the pulse of morning. New York: Random House, 1993. Print.

Leslie Feinberg

When asked to name a popular and well-known transgender rights activist in the media today, one would probably think of the actress from Orange is the New Black, Laverne Cox. But there have been plenty of advocates for trans (transgender) rights long before people really understood what the word transgender meant. One activist, Leslie Feinberg, had been advocating and fighting for transgender rights as early as the mid-1960s.

When Leslie was born, in 1949, men and women were not viewed equally at all. Women were seen as housewives, they were simply there to cook, clean and take care of the kids. It was the men of the household who went to their jobs everyday and brought home money to put food on the table. Men didn’t bother with trivial things such as helping the kids with homework or doing the dishes, that was also the woman’s ‘job’.

Imagine this gut feeling deep down telling you that you’re not meant for either of those ‘roles’, now what? If you don’t fit in column A) Housewife or B) Working Man, what other options were there? Well, Leslie realized she needed to find her own way. So she did, by leaving her home where she wasn't accepted for, at the time, identifying as a lesbian, and moving to Buffalo, New York. It would be here in Buffalo that Leslie would become the trans rights activist we are learning about today.   
          

Only fifteen at the time, Leslie had to lie on her working papers so she would be able to get a job in a factory. But it wasn’t in these factories that Leslie came into her own, it was after work, in the bars in Buffalo. It was at these gay bars, known as Drag Bars at the time, that Leslie found her sense of community, a family to call her own. And although police would often raid these bars, she and her friends would still go.

During a talk at Sonoma State University[1], Leslie brought up the fact that she was often asked, ‘Why go to these bars if they are so dangerous?’ Her response was always that it wasn’t the bars that were dangerous it was the fact that “Where ever we went, was dangerous.” The ‘we’ she was talking about there were Leslie and her other LGBT friends, her community. In Outlaw[2], a 1994 short film staring Leslie, she had said that if someone had to question whether or not you were a boy or a girl, it automatically gave them the right to beat you up. In fact it was legal back then to arrest someone who was cross-dressing.

But as time went on, things started happening for the LGBT community. In 1969 the Stonewall riots happened, which were a series of violent riots made by LGBT youth in Greenwich Village, New York at the time.  It was these riots that gave attention to trans and gay youth in America. The riots were their way of saying ‘we’re gay, we’re proud and you can’t change that.' Sadly Leslie wasn’t able to take part in the Stonewall riots, but they did make her realize that if she started talking and voicing what’s unjust and wrong in our country, people might actually listen and learn.

In 1993 Leslie wrote her very first novel called Stone Butch Blues, a somewhat autobiographical story about a butch lesbian trying to make her way in the world. This was one of the first widely recognized books in our country depicting what life was like for someone in the LGBT community. It was this book that really got the ball rolling for Leslie in the media. After her book grabbed the publics’ attention, Leslie was invited to talk on the Joan River’s show in 1993[3]. The fact that a trans person was being asked to talk about what it’s like to be transgender on live television was unheard of. This seemed like the perfect opportunity for Leslie to be able to talk to the American people about gay and trans rights.

So Leslie did what she did best; educate the audience, Joan and the people who were watching at home about what it was like to be a transgendered person at that time. But, rather than letting this segment just be about Leslie and what she had to offer to the people, Joan also happened to invite a ‘clinical sexologist’ who counseled transsexuals. Dr. Roger Poe was there to explain what Leslie had said in simpler terms to the audience. Some may not realize this, but by doing so he erased the fact that this was about a transgender person explaining what it was like being trans. The segment was not supposed to be about a straight white man coming in and re-explaining everything Leslie had just said, while also throwing in scientific terms as to why Leslie was the way she was.

Leslie had said on multiple occasions that she was sick and tired of being looked at like an experiment and that she was done with being analyzed for who she was. She almost didn’t appear on  the Joan River’s show because she didn’t want to sit up there and unintentionally be ridiculed but she also knew that she had to do the show because no other person was around to advocate for transgender rights.

In the end Leslie was diagnosed with Lyme disease on 2008 and later passed away in November 2014. And although Leslie was too ill to talk and hold presentations, she still wrote and posted on her website to keep in touch with the outside world.  Even on her deathbed she wanted people to know that she would never stop fighting. In fact her last words[4], who were to her partner Mini Pratt, were “Remember me as a revolutionary communist”, which is exactly how she will always be remembered.

 Here is a short clip of Leslie Feinberg from Alisa Lebow's short film, Outlaw, 1994

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[1]CSUSonoms. “Beyond Pink or Blue”. Filmed, April 2007. Posted, January 2008.

[2] Outlaw, Directed by Alisa Lebow, Docudrag Productions, 1994

[3] Joshua Gamson. Freaks Talk Back: Tabloid Talk Shows and Sexual Nonconformity. University of Chicago Press. 1998, see page 103  

[4] Leslie Feinberg, http://www.lesliefeinberg.net/self/, (November 15, 2014)