Perennial Leadership in American History
It’s Black History Month and we may or may not see some brief acknowledgments recognizing the accomplishments and contributions Black-Americans have made to the United States. I haven't seen any yet this month, but enjoyed Grammy-award winning vocalist Andra Day’s performance of “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” the Black National Anthem, at Superbowl LVIII.
When I was the Executive/Artistic Director at Riverside Theatre, I met and engaged with an individual who led Columbia University’s Government and Community Affairs office. Whenever I called and she was unavailable to answer, her voicemail message shared a historical “did you know” fact about the accomplishments of Black-American women and men. I marveled at the fact that she changed her voicemail daily to share more gems about Black-American contributions. I remember telling her how much I appreciated her gems of information and her commitment to expanding people’s awareness. Simple recordings that were powerful declarations.
I’ve produced the Juneteenth program at Carnegie Hall for the past five years. Last year, I was inspired to add a new component—two vignettes at the beginning of the program showcasing two little recognized individuals who were significant in the fight for freedom and justice. Perhaps those voice messages from many years ago were the inspiration. Sparks of creativity are sourced from all of our life experiences, so I say, thank you, Marcia Sells.
In honor of all those who paved the way with their resilience and unwavering determination, the following is an excerpt from Passion for Freedom: A Leadership Legacy, highlighting the first woman of any “race” in the midst of slavery in the United States, an indentured servant from the ages of five to fifteen, to speak publicly on political issues. She was also the first African American woman to make public anti-slavery speeches and lecture about women’s rights and Black women’s rights.
Bringing Unsung Heroes & Heroines to Light
Maria Miller Stewart was one such individual. Her voice, through writing and public speaking, railed against the injustices leveled against Black American men and women. Stewart is hailed as the first woman to speak publicly and to address mixed gender and mixed-race audiences—all frowned upon at that time. Defying the social norms, Stewart’s articles and speeches were published in The Liberator, an abolitionist newspaper.
(The following excerpts were taken from Stewart’s speech at Franklin Hall in Boston in 1832.)
There is abiding strength in Stewart's voice that leaves no doubt of her convictions and lays bare the courage and resilience that it took for her to speak her truth …
O, horrible idea, indeed! to possess noble souls aspiring after high and honorable acquirements, yet confined by the chains of ignorance and poverty to lives of continual drudgery and toil. Neither do I know of any who have enriched themselves by spending their lives as house-domestics, washing windows, shaking carpets, brushing boots, or tending upon gentlemen’s tables. I can but die for expressing my sentiments; and I am as willing to die by the sword as the pestilence; for I and a true born American; your blood flows in my veins, and your spirit fires my breast.
There is challenge and resistance seared into her words—both to those ensnared in the thicket of slavery and those who lived free from its depraved grip …
And, my brethren, have you made a powerful effort? Have you prayed the Legislature for mercy’s sake to grant you all the rights and privileges of free citizens, that your daughters may raise to that degree of respectability which true merit deserves, and your sons above the servile situations which most of them fill?
There is indignation towards those who would continue to hold Black Americans as subservient and less than …
O, ye fairer sisters, whose hands are never soiled, whose nerves and muscles are never strained, go learn by experience! Had we had the opportunity that you have had, to improve our moral and mental faculties, what would have hindered our intellects from being as bright, and our manners from being as dignified as yours? Had it been our lot to have been nursed in the lap of affluence and ease, and to have basked beneath the smiles and sunshine of fortune, should we not have naturally supposed that we were never made to toil?
It was asserted that we were “a ragged set, crying for liberty.” I reply to it, the whites have so long and so loudly proclaimed the theme of equal rights and privileges, that our souls have caught the flame also, ragged as we are. As far as our merit deserves, we feel a common desire to rise above the condition of servants and drudges. I have learnt, by bitter experience, that continual hard labor deadens the energies of the soul and benumbs the faculties of the mind; the ideas become confined, the mind barren, and, like the scorching sands of Arabia, produces nothing; or, like the uncultivated soil, brings forth thorns and thistles.
Our legacy leaders, such as Maria Miller Stewart, are too numerous to be contained to only one month of recognition. Every opportunity to acknowledge and celebrate the magnitude of their contributions provides inspiring examples of indefatigable leadership.
