google doodle today honours Sojourner Truth

[niyad]

[marybourg]

1. Did she only lead women?

[Hekate]

3. You may be thinking of Harriet "Moses" Tubman who repeatedly led escapees along the Underground RR

Sojourner Truth was another amazing and courageous hero.

[Hekate]

2. Here's a link to her obituary from the NY Times

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/01/obituaries/sojourner-truth-dead-1883.html

Sojourner Truth, the well-known colored lecturer, died at Battle Creek, Mich., yesterday, aged 103 years.

For almost three-quarters of a century she delivered lectures from the East to the West upon temperance, politics, and the woman’s rights question. She was born a slave, in the state of New York, and spent the early part of her life — until 1817, when slavery was abolished in this state — in hard work in the fields of her many masters.

Her parents were brought from the coast of Guinea, and sold as slaves on arriving in the United States. Her real name — or that which had been given to her by her first master — was Isabella Hardenburg, but, becoming dissatisfied with it, it is said that she went out into a wilderness and prayed to the Lord to give her an appropriate name. After praying for some time she heard, she said, the name “ Sojourner” whispered to her, as she was to travel “up and down,” and afterward “Truth” was added to it to signify that she should preach nothing but truth to all men.

MORE AT LINK

[niyad]

4. thank you for sharing this obit with us.

[Hekate]

5. You're welcome. I always remember her speech to the women's suffrage convention: "Ain't I a woman?"

I'm still trying to get the rest of the obit to load for me, so I'm going by long-ago memory here.

The early women's suffrage movement was derided: we know that. Women had the legal rights of (as one of them put it): "imbeciles, convicts, and children," which is to say, none. What I didn't know from my high school history was that these white women of comfortable background turned their attention to slavery as the greater evil of the day, and became the backbone of the abolitionist movement.

If I recall correctly, Sojourner Truth addressed the assemblage after she became a person of note (how otherwise) and made a strong plea for their considerstion of black women as women with interests in common with them, not just as slaves and former slaves. "And ain't I a woman?" was her refrain in that speech.

Hope I can manage to read the rest at the NYT now.

[Boomerproud]

6. The women's rights movement is still being

derided. Conservative women are its biggest foes.

[niyad]

7. some musical versions of her speech:

Ain't I a Woman
1,784 views
8
0
Share
Save
babetteorama
Published on Jan 28, 2014
Columbus Women's Chorus sang this song with words by Sojourner Truth and music by Sandi Peaslee at our spring concert in 2012. Joanna Lowenstein was the soloist. Jennifer Bell is Artistic Director of Columbus Women's Chorus (in Ohio).

Sojourner Truth's "Ain't I a Woman": Nkechi at TEDxFiDiWomen
115,636 views
1.1K
44
Share
Save
TEDx Talks
Published on Feb 7, 2013
Nkechi (pronounced nnn-KAY-chee) is an actress, singer-songwriter, philanthropist and painter who has worked in theater, television and film. She received her Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University and attended American Conservatory Theater's 2012 Summer Training Congress. Recent feature film credits include IFC's "About Cherry". Theater credits include "My Recollect Time" about Montana folk hero Stagecoach Mary Fields. Nkechi is founder of The Emeruwa Music Foundation which produces and hosts events to help raise awareness for the charities she supports.

And Ain't I A Woman.avi
9,379 views
37
2
Share
Save
mihoko221
Published on Nov 26, 2009
And Ain't I A Woman by Susan Borwick

University of Florida Women's Chorale

October 28th, 2009

Sojourner Truth Speech of 1851, "Ain't I a Woman"
324,631 views
2.6K
57
Share
Save
Pat Theriault
Published on May 9, 2011
Sojourner Truth Speech of 1851 performed at Kansas State University's 8th Diversity Summit April 1, 2011. Performed by Pat Theriault

[lunatica]

8. "Ain't I a woman" is as relevant today in it's intent as it ever was.

A little known fact is that we would never have known about this speech if someone hadn’t written it down when she gave it. She would walk into white churches and sit by the podium quietly until she was allowed to speak, then she would give her speeches and leave. It happened to be a white man who transcribed her speech.

I learned this in an American History class in college. I took Women’s History rather than the boring Acts, Wars, and obviously male oriented version that we get force fed normally. It was the best and most influential class I ever took. This country has had some truly great women who made history. Ms Sojourner Truth is up there among the top tier.