Harriet Tubman and Sojourner Truth were slaves by birth, freedom fighters by temperament.
Interpretation
This quote highlights the transformative journey from being enslaved to becoming advocates for freedom.
Nancy Gibbs' quote emphasizes the deep resilience and bravery of Harriet Tubman and Sojourner Truth, who, despite their origins as slaves, emerged as powerful figures in the fight for freedom. Their innate spirit and determination to challenge oppression define them not just by their birth circumstances but by their unwavering commitment to liberation and justice.
In practice
In a speech about social justice, referencing this quote can inspire activists to continue the fight for equality.
Americans sometimes ask what the government does and where their tax money goes. Among other things, it pays for all kinds of invisible but essential safety nets and life belts and guardrails that are useless right up until the day they are priceless.
Most professional women I know - myself included - long since gave up looking for a rulebook or a roadmap; we make it up as we go along. Every day presents a new choice, a new challenge, which makes long-term career planning seem like an especially abstract exercise.
Virtues, like viruses, have their seasons of contagion. When catastrophe strikes, generosity spikes like a fever. Courage spreads in the face of tyranny.
The battles after the wars are over can be the toughest; there's no longer the public interest that accompanies, for good and for ill, the start of combat.
Girls grow up scarred by caution and enter adulthood eager to shake free of their parents' worst nightmares. They still know to be wary of strangers. What they don't know is whether they have more to fear from their friends.
All our efforts to guard and guide our children may just get in the way of the one thing they need most from us: to be deeply loved yet left alone so they can try a new skill, new slang, new style, new flip-flops. So they can trip a few times, make mistakes, cross them out, try again, with no one keeping score.
Right out of high school I never had the fear of getting beat, which is how most people lose.
'The green beret' is again becoming a symbol of excellence, a badge of courage, a mark of distinction in the fight for freedom. I know the United States Army will live up to its reputation for imagination, resourcefulness, and spirit as we meet this challenge.
I just do whatever it is that I believe I should do, regardless of the risks to my life.
Let me alone: I have yet my legs and one arm. Tell the surgeon to make haste and his instruments. I know I must lose my right arm, so the sooner it's off the better.
For immigrant women, fighting for some of the standard platforms of the women's movement may feel unthinkable when deportation is staring you in the face every day.
There comes a time in a man's life when to get where he has to go - if there are no doors or windows he walks through a wall.
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