September 25

                            LET HER VOICE BE HEARD

On this day in 1926 The League of Nations began the work of The Convention to Suppress the Slave Trade and Slavery  an international treaty. It was registered in League of Nations Treaty Series on March 9th, 1927 which is also the same day it went into effect.
. By 1956 most countries signed this Treaty. They are leading the fight against Slavery. Even today there people mostly "girl-child" and women are robbed of their rights and sold into slavery and used for prostitution. This is most disturbing and must be stopped. Girls stolen and forced into the sex trade.It must be stopped.  This is also happening in the United States.  The "johns" who continue to use and pay money continue this horror. And when caught the johns are just charged with a misdemeanor.  Girls and women throughout the world are in need of protection and if you are not part of the solution then you are part of the problem.  Do not turn a blind eye.  Speak out.
Other rights are quietly stolen in plain view as women struggle to control their own future and claim their freedom from violence, sexual abuse, and control of their bodies.  Education, suffrage and Laws that make a difference are seriously needed for women own/claim their place in the world without any family member or State controlling their future.
Look for ways to support all women, young and old.  Until we are completely equal and respect all, the horror will continue.  What girl of any age should have to suffer this fate.

*I published this last year and in this one short year women in the United States are under attack from politicians who seem to forget the Constitution.  WE THE PEOPLE, Women are people.

October 1st and 2nd PBS  is airing the documentary, HALF THE SKY.  It addresses this very serious issues of  women and young girls stolen and or sold into slavery prostitution.

 http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/half-the-sky/film/   and to get involved
http://www.halftheskymovement.org/ 

To read the Treaty that deals with slavery visit:  http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/docid/3ae6b36fb.html 

October 1,2012:  As I begin to watch PBS "Half The Sky" I look at the United Nations Treaty- and the word Suppress  why not ABOLISH, why not Abolish?









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September 24

Born this day in 1825, Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, poet, writer and abolitionist and suffragist.  Ms. Harper was born to free parents in Baltimore,MD.  Her mother died when Harper was the young age of three and then she was raised by her aunt and uncle. Her uncle Rev. William Watkins was a civil right activist and greatly influenced Harper's life. She was educated at the Academy for Negro Youth.

At the age of fourteen Harper found a job as a seamstress in a Quaker home which had a extensive library. As Maryland became more divided on the issue of slavery, a move to Ohio for the family. It is in Ohio Harper became the first woman to teach at Union Seminary. 

In 1845 Harper's first book of poetry Forest Leaves or Autumn Leaves was published. The book has been lost to herstory. Her second book of poetry Poems on Miscellaneous Subjects,  was published in 1854 to great popularity and went into reprint several times over.  And in 1859, the story  The Two Offers was published in Anglo-African Magazine. Ms. Harper's career as a writer was a successful one. She was also very popular on the lecture circuit.  Reading her poetry which often dealt with sins of slavery and a powerful introduction into the subject of abolishing slavery.  After the Civil War, Ms. Harper took up the cause of women's suffrage using her lecturing skills to make sure the voice of women of color.  Throughout Harper's life she wrote for magazines and newspapers creating a strong voice for African American women.

In 1860, at the age of 35, Frances married and retired from public life.  She produced one daughter in 1862, and sadly in 1865, her husband died.

Frances Harper returned to public life of lecture tours and writing focusing on the women's suffrage movement and fighting for women of color.

In 1892 she  published  one of her most popular novel,  Iola Leroy or Shadows Uplifted.  (I would like to suggest reading this novel online.) 
As a professional writer this amazing woman Frances Harper was a voice for Human Rights. In her personal life she put her voice into action, using her hands and heart to help the Underground Railroad and all women in their struggle for the right to vote .  She died in 1911.

I have include this poem by Harper because it captures emotional power of her work.

Eliza Harris

By Frances Ellen Watkins Harper 1825–1911

Like a fawn from the arrow, startled and wild,

A woman swept by us, bearing a child;

In her eye was the night of a settled despair,

And her brow was o’ershaded with anguish and care.

She was nearing the river—in reaching the brink,

She heeded no danger, she paused not to think!

For she is a mother—her child is a slave—

And she’ll give him his freedom, or find him a grave!

’Twas a vision to haunt us, that innocent face—

So pale in its aspect, so fair in its grace;

As the tramp of the horse and the bay of the hound,

With the fetters that gall, were trailing the ground!

She was nerved by despair, and strengthen’d by woe,

As she leap’d o’er the chasms that yawn’d from below;

Death howl’d in the tempest, and rav’d in the blast,

But she heard not the sound till the danger was past.

Oh! how shall I speak of my proud country’s shame?

Of the stains on her glory, how give them their name?

How say that her banner in mockery waves—

Her “star-spangled banner”—o’er millions of slaves?

How say that the lawless may torture and chase

A woman whose crime is the hue of her face?

How the depths of forest may echo around

With the shrieks of despair, and the bay of the hound?

With her step on the ice, and her arm on her child,

The danger was fearful, the pathway was wild;

But, aided by Heaven, she gained a free shore,

Where the friends of humanity open’d their door.

So fragile and lovely, so fearfully pale,

Like a lily that bends to the breath of the gale,

Save the heave of her breast, and the sway of her hair,

You’d have thought her a statue of fear and despair.

In agony close to her bosom she press’d

The life of her heart, the child of her breast:—

Oh! love from its tenderness gathering might,

Had strengthen’d her soul for the dangers of flight.

But she’s free!—yes, free from the land where the slave

From the hand of oppression must rest in the grave;

Where bondage and torture, where scourges and chains

Have plac’d on our banner indelible stains.

The bloodhounds have miss’d the scent of her way;

The hunter is rifled and foil’d of his prey;

Fierce jargon and cursing, with clanking of chains,

Make sounds of strange discord on Liberty’s plains.

With the rapture of love and fullness of bliss,

She plac’d on his brow a mother’s fond kiss:—

Oh! poverty, danger and death she can brave,

For the child of her love is no longer a slave!

poetryfoundation.org

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September 21

On this day 1981, Susan Day O'Conner became the first woman of the United States Supreme Court.

Born this day in 1884, Doctor Ethel Percy Andrus, an educator and founder of  NRTA  and AARP.  Dr. Andrus began her career as a teacher, and she also was the first woman to serve as a  high school principal. In 1947 Dr. Andrus realized retired teachers were living on a very small wages and without health care. She founded the National Retired Teachers Association.  To solve the problem of one group she solved the problem of millions of retirees by creating the American Association of Retired Persons and the monthly magazine which is still being published today.

       "What I spent, is gone; what I kept, I lost; but what I gave away will be mine forever."
                                                 Ethel Percy Andrus

 

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September 20th

Born this day in 1822, Elizabeth Smith Miller, a suffragist and abolitionist, she was best known for freeing herself from the Victorian dress code for women.  Most women of the Suffrage Movement viewed the constraints of  the corset and huge skirts upon skirts a horror to wear!  As Ms. Miller wrote in her diary:
I was also blessed by the tonic of Mrs. Stanton's inspiring words: "The question is no longer [rags], how do you look, but woman, how do you feel?"  And the Mrs. Stanton she refers to is the one and only Cady Stanton who was one of the leaders of  American Suffrage Movement.
Woman!  How do you feel!?  Little did I know when I began this blog in 2006 women in the United States would be attacked about how we use our bodies.  It is barbaric.  Stand strong and vote this mind set out of office and out of our lives!

Also on this day, Belva Ann Lockwood was nominated by The Equal Rights Party (formed in 1872) as their presidential candidate for 1884.  Yes, 1884.  And Ms. Lockwood wasn't the first nominee, Victoria Woodhull was  and she offered Frederick Douglas as her running mate.  See, women were banned from voting, but there was no law preventing them from running for office.  Ms. Woodhull paid a great price for even trying for public office.  Slander which landed her in the courtroom to defend herself of crimes which were all thrown out, but the damage was done. Woodhull was bankrupt.

On this day in 1973, Billie Jean King beat Bobby Riggs. Oh yes, the "man versus woman" tennis match aired on television and the Lady took  the prize!  There was never any doubt.
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June 22, Days that try our souls

On this day in 1917, ten suffragists were arrested for picketing at the White House!
Why? The reason given by the police via the White House, obstructing traffic.  The real reason goes back to the fact women wanted their voices heard in the form of voting. "Taxation without representation," was their battle cry.
I had the honor of working on a film about women's suffrage, "Iron Jawed Angels" (HBO released 2004).  It was one of the steps that lead me to understand exactly how serious and important Women's Rights are to our society.  This film follows the story of the Suffrage Movement through the eyes of Alice Paul and Lucy Burn.  The two women who changed her-story by joining the movement and giving a fresh and strong voice to women's suffrage.  I would like to share at this point- please check out this film.  It is well done and very powerful.  There is star power Angelica Houston, Hilary Swank to name a few. Swank plays the role of Alice Paul. www.ironjawedangels.com  Great photos (with me in some of them)and dialogue about the film and the heart of the struggle of suffrage in the USA.  And the only other film at this point that depict the Women's Suffrage Movement?? "Mary Poppins"  That's correct.  And as Mrs. Banks marched around the house with her banners and then realizing Mr. Banks would soon be home and "We know how much the Cause upsets Mr. Banks."

Now, back to our headline. The Suffragist protests began January 10, 1917 and the arrests began June 22,1917. Everyday except on Sunday there were women holding up banners that shared their ideals and allot of those ideals came  straight from President Wilson's speeches:
"We shall fight for the things which we have always carried nearest our hearts--for democracy, for the right of those who submit to authority to have a voice in their own governments."  "Democracy Should Begin at Home"
These women were teachers, factory workers, stay at home moms, women of means, wives of congressmen, writers, artists-women from all walks of life. 
After their arrests, the suffragists were brought before the judge who fined them ten dollars. Which they refused to pay.  The White House thought they could "nickle and dime these suffragists out of protesting."  The first mistake was thinking that the heart of the movement could be stopped with money matters. Since, they refused to pay- the women were sentence to prison or the charges in the beginning were sometimes dropped.
And these arrests did not stop the protests at all.  And so it happened the White house who wanted to be rid of the bothersome women who stood outside reminding President Wilson, the Congress, and the Senate that their involvement in World War I was based on the idea that all peoples should have the rights of democracy....but what about American women?  Women are People.
Throughout the next several months women were arrested and some were released but then the courts began to lengthen the sentences and for Alice Paul who was arrested in October of 1917; she was sentenced to seven months!  For obstructing traffic?  Alice Paul was in solitary confinement for  two weeks, beaten, and then Paul went on a hunger strike.  The guards decided to try violence to force women to conform. Chaining them, beating them, pinching them, choking them, striping them of their clothing, crushing their heads against walls....as Paul's  hunger strike continued other women in prison joined the hunger strike.  For fear that Alice Paul would die- they force fed her- sticking a tube down her throat and filled her belly with liquid protein.  Raw eggs and milk mostly.   They threaten she would sent to St. Elizabeth's Mental Hospital.  She was tortured also by flashing strong lights every hour on the hour.  Paul stood her ground.
Word of what was happening to these innocent women in Occoquan Workhouse (located in Northern Virginia) was reported in the newspapers.  The public support grew for the suffragists and on November 27 and 28 of 1917 all the women were released including Alice Paul.  March 18, 1918 the D.C. Court of Appeals found the arrests, prison time unconstitutional.
Today women are fighting for their rights again.  Never forget the Constitution begins with these three words, "We The People, "  Not "we the men,"
Women are People too!