Sojourner Truth's Speech 'Ain T I A Woman?'

Civil rights are human rights: the struggle, desire, and hope for political and social equality. Power and protest are needed for change to happen. People are willing to sacrifice everything they have, including their lives, to defend their rights. For years, people have been struggling for change and to gain civil rights. Protesting facilitates change because it helps get the message out into the world. There are many ways to fight for equality and freedom including, protesting, sit-ins, marches, and strikes. People are willing to sacrifice everything for change in racial equality, gender equality, and freedom. Racial equality has been a constant struggle in the world for a very long time. Voting, education, jobs, and education are all things

For example, women still get paid less than men when they do the same work. Men have been given rights and opportunities that women haven’t had a chance to do. Not only have women been mistreated by society but colored women have been treated worse. In Sojourner Truth’s speech, “Ain’t I a Woman?” she displays the reality of a Black woman compared to other women. Truth states, “Then they talk about this thing in the head; what’s this they call it? [A member of the audience whispers, “Intellect.”] That’s it, honey. What’s that got to do with women’s rights or Negroes’ rights?” (Truth 332). She demonstrates how men think of women’s intellect in that they cannot be as smart as a man. Truth also mentions how men say women should be “helped into carriages” and “lifted over ditches” but she hasn’t experienced those things yet she is a woman. She is a woman but does a man’s work. Truth is just as much of a woman as the next White woman, therefore, she should be treated as such. She mentions to men how their Christ came from God and a woman which proves that men have no reason to be sexist toward women and think poorly of them. “Phenomenal Woman” by Maya Angelou is a captivating poem that exhibits the beauty of a woman who doesn’t have a Victoria’s Secret model body. Angelou states, “I’m not cute or built to suit a fashion model’s size/But when I start to tell them,/They think I’m telling

There is freedom for and freedom from things. In Isabel Wilkerson’s book “The Warmth of Other Suns”, Wilkerson explains why Blacks left the south due to brutality and mistreatment. The Blacks were in search of freedom from hate and harm. Wilkerson adds, “Everybody seems to be asleep about what is going on right under our noses.” (Wilkerson IL13). Wilkerson mentions how badly Black people are getting treated in the south and how everyone has witnessed it but doesn’t do anything about it. Black people in the south were treated worse compared to the north. Blacks were treated very differently, segregated, and lynched. There weren’t anti-lynching laws put in place until 2022. The Emmett Till story reached many people and then there came The Emmett Till Antilynching Act of 2022. These laws are long overdue. Maya Angelou’s poem, “Still I Rise” demonstrates how she rises above the hate, lies, and inequality. Angelou conveys, “You may shoot me with your words,/You may cut me with your eyes,/You may kill me with your hatefulness,/But still, like air, I’ll rise.” (Angelou, lines 21-24). Not only is she talking about being Black, but she is also talking about simply being a woman. As mentioned before, Black people have been mistreated throughout history and Angelou chose to rise above it all. She talks about the struggles of being a woman in several of her poems. “Still I Rise” is similar to “Phenomenal Woman” in which they