This was written several years ago by this writer when the Voter’s ID laws were being passed across the country. Sojourner Truth has always been an inspiration to me. It was in 1827 that then Isabella ran away as a slave, or, later as she informed her master, “I did not run away, I walked away by daylight…” She had a religious conversion after that and became a preacher and changed her name from Isabella to Sojourner Truth. She became an abolitionist and later became involved in the Women’s Right Movement. It was in 1951 that she invited herself to a Women’s Rights Convention held in Akron, Ohio that Sojourner made her famous speech,” Ain’t I a woman?” Below is a version of this speech for modern times by this writer:
Just saying….I wanna grow up to be just like Sojourner Truth. She is my heroine. I want to preach and teach about God and Civil Rights just like her. “Ain’t I a Citizen and Woman enuf?” I don’ plowed dem mules, picked that cotton (well some), pulled that corn, cut that sugar cane, wrung those chicken necks, ate those chicken feet, fed dem hogs and ate their guts, milked dem cows and drank their milk until my stomach ached – and these men down here tell me that I need a state VOTERS ID. They didn’t ask me for NO VOTERS ID when I ironed dem clothes of theirs, sat with dem bad chullen of theirs, picked dem black berries for dem, went upstairs to see a movie, used the ‘for colored only’ bathrooms and enter the back door of the restaurants, sat at the back of the Greyhound bus going north to Milwaukee, to get away from the violence in 1964.
I went to school, got me some education, learned to read, write and do that algebra and geometry – learned to sew. “Now Ain’t I an educated citizen and woman?” I never voted for no dead folk. Y’all did. I never went to the nursing home and got some of those demented seniors to sign those absentee ballots. Y’all did. I never put no votes in the garbage. Y’all did. I never gave nobody a sack of flour, a bag of rice or a bag of sugar for a vote. Y’all did. “Now, Ain’t I an honest CITIZEN?” (Maybe, not all of you fit the category).
My grandpa was freed as a slave after January 1, 1863 in Noxubee County, MS when President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation. However, later he and my Papa paid the poll tax and took the citizens test for them and me long ago – and they passed the test. Some others marched and protested for me to have the right to vote without all those stipulations. Some others were killed, some bitten by dogs, some bombed and yet others lived to help enforced those voting rights we got back in 1965. Thank God for U.S. Representative JOHN LEWIS (RIP), especially. “Now AIN’T I A CITIZEN AND A WOMAN?” And, y’all still want to suppress my vote. Why?
RIP Sojourner Truth and thank you so much for inspiring me. Y’all read her biography and get inspired.
