Alfre Woodard reads Sojourner Truth

This is just a stunningly great reading:

TRANSCRIPT

MODERATOR: Here, the black abolitionist Sojourner Truth, who was freed from slavery in 1827, speaks to a gathering of feminists, in Akron, Ohio, in 1851.

ALFRE WOODARD AS SOJOURNER TRUTH: Well, children, where there is so much racket there must be something out of kilter. I think that ‘twixt the Negroes of the South and the women at the North, all talking about rights, the white men will be in a fix pretty soon. But what’s all this here talking about?

That man over there says that women need to be helped into carriages, and lifted over ditches, to have the best place everywhere. Nobody ever helped me into carriages, or over mud-puddles, or give me the best place. And ain’t I a woman?

Look at me! Look at my arm! I have ploughed and planted, I can work as much — no man, no man could head I’ve gathered into barns. And ain’t I a woman? I could work as much and eat as much as a man – when I could get it – and bear the lash as well! And ain’t I a woman?

I have borne thirteen children, and seen most of ’em sold off to slavery, and when I cried out with my mother’s grief, none but Jesus heard me! And ain’t I a woman?

Then they talk about this thing – what’s that thing in the head. What they call it? [member of audience whispers, “intellect”] Intellect! That’s it, honey. What’s that got to do with a woman’s rights or negroes’ rights? If my cup won’t hold but a pint, and yours holds a quart, wouldn’t you be mean not to let me have my little half measure full?

Then that man there, right there that little man in black there, he says women can’t have rights as much as men, ’cause Christ wasn’t a woman. Where did your Christ come from? Where, where did your Christ come from? From God and a woman! Man ain’t had nothing to do with it.

If the first woman God ever made was strong enough to turn the world upside down all alone, these women together ought to be able to turn it back, right side up again! And now they is asking to do it. The men better let ’em!

Ed Darrell writes:

This is a piece one does best to absorb from oral performance. It is a piece that one should hear repeatedly, to understand.

Woodard nails this one well, I think.

Ms. Truth’s speech needs careful reflection. She was not just speaking for women’s rights, but was lecturing the suffragists as well on their having overlooked the plight of women of color and working women, and women in poverty. She’s talking to you, and to me, and asking us to confront our stereotypes of what women are and what women do, to recognize that women are humans, deserving of full respect for that reason alone.