Jasiri

Last year I was introduced to the works of Frances E.W. Harper, a poet and activist of the 19th and early 20th century. A phenomenal woman who boldly addressed a crowd of white women when she delivered her speech, “We Are All Bound Up Together,” at the Eleventh Women’s Rights Convention in 1866. Her speech captured my attention because of its unapologetic discussion of race, gender, and class discrimination. Despite her limited human rights, Harper exhibited great depth and wisdom as she used the Convention as a platform to explain the ripple effect of injustice. When one person suffers, we all suffer–we’re just not all aware of the universal connection.

1866? A woman? A black woman? A black woman born in the South? How many of us know of this extraordinary woman who was one of the nineteenth century’s best-known African American writers and activists? One of my former history professors urged students to recognize that blacks were agents of historical change, and therefore critical in the formation of this country, its economic growth, as well as in the abolition of chattel slavery. In grade school I was taught–we came from Africa, we were slaves, and then Abraham Lincoln freed us. How bad is that to a young person’s psyche when they’re taught that they descended from a sea of nameless, faceless slaves? Besides the usual group of five we’re taught about during Black History Month, what about David Walker, Ira Aldridge, Prince Hall, and so many others I’ve yet to learn about.

Writers such as Harper should not be limited to the classrooms of Women’s Literature, African American Literature, or African American history. After-all, Harper stated, “We are all bound up together in one great bundle of humanity, and society cannot trample on the weakest and feeblest of its members without receiving the curse in its own soul.” Isn’t that a quote we should all live by?

Thank you to all those, past and present, who are artists, writers, activists, musicians, freedom fighters–who inspire me to THINK FREE.