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An Upside-down World

At the memorial service for Congress Member Sheila Jackson-Lee on July 31, 2024, Secretary Hillary Clinton addressed the congregation and quoted Sojourner Truth’s speech at the Women’s Convention in Akron in 1851: “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, and get it right side up again! And now they is asking to do it, the men better let them.”^[1] Sheila Jackson-Lee, the eulogized representative certainly had done her part in trying to get the world right side up again.

Sojourner Truth (1797-1883), this illiterate freed slave was one of the earliest activists who fought not only for abolition but for women’s rights and hit the nail right on the head. The world was not intended to be as it is. God’s world order is love, not power and oppression. God intended the world to be based on justice, equality, and freedom. According to Sojourner Truth, women have not been free ever since the first woman made the wrong choice.

Sojourner Truth’s words were certainly spoken with her tongue in her cheek, but her challenge was meant seriously. If only men would let women, they could do so much. This applies to all areas of our lives – in society, politics and yes, even the church. It doesn’t mean that women are better than men. But it would be good for the world if women were allowed to use the special gifts God has given us women to a greater degree. As British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher said, "If you want something said, ask a man; if you want something done, ask a woman." A lot needs to be done to turn the world around again. In a world that is right side up, women would participate in leadership with their collaborative and inclusive leadership style.
So, who was Sojourner Truth?
Born Isabella Baumfree, (c. 1797 – November 26, 1883) she was an American activist for the abolition of slavery, women's rights and temperance. She was born into slavery but escaped to freedom in 1826. She gave herself the name Sojourner Truth in 1843 after she became convinced that God had called her to leave the city and go into the countryside "testifying to the hope that was in her."[2] Taking along only a few possessions in a pillowcase, she traveled all over the East Coast, preaching about the abolition of slavery.
At that time, Truth began attending Millerite Adventist camp meetings. She preached and sang, and large crowds came to hear her. But when the anticipated second coming did not arrive, she distanced herself for a while from the Millerites.
In 1844, she joined an Association of Education and Industry in Massachusetts, where she lived and worked in the community. The association was founded by abolitionists and supported women’s rights, religious tolerance, pacifism.
In 1851, Truth went on a lecture tour and attended the Ohio Women’s Rights Convention in Akron, where she delivered her famous extemporaneous speech on women's rights, later known as “Ain’t I a Woman?”[3] demanding equal human rights for all women. She also spoke as a former enslaved woman, combining calls for abolitionism with women's rights, and drawing from her strength as a laborer to make her equal rights claims. Over the next 10 years, Truth spoke before dozens, perhaps hundreds, of audiences.

At the Second Annual Convention of the American Woman Suffrage Association – Boston, 1871, Truth argued in a brief speech, that women's rights were essential, not only to their own well-being, but "for the benefit of the whole creation, not only the women, but all the men on the face of the earth, for they were the mother of them".[4]

On a mission

Truth dedicated her life to fighting for a more equal society for African Americans and for women, including abolition, voting rights, and property rights. She was at the vanguard of efforts to address intersecting social justice issues. As historian Martha Jones wrote, "[w]hen Black women like Truth spoke of rights, they mixed their ideas with challenges to slavery and to racism. Truth told her own stories, ones that suggested that a women's movement might take another direction, one that championed the broad interests of all humanity."[5]

On September 3, 1857, she sold all her possessions, and moved to Battle Creek, Michigan, where she rejoined early Adventists, who had formed the Seventh-Day Adventist Church. She lived there until her death in 1883,  and  continued working to improve conditions for African-Americans. Abraham Lincoln invited her to the White House in October 1864.

Truth spoke about abolition, women's rights, prison reform, and preached to the Michigan Legislature against capital punishment. Not everyone welcomed her preaching and lectures, but she had many friends and staunch support among many influential people at the time.

Truth died early in the morning on November 26, 1883, at her Battle Creek home. On November 28, 1883, her funeral was held with prominent citizens of Battle Creek as pall-bearers; nearly one thousand people attended the service. Truth was buried in the city's Oak Hill Cemetery.[6]

Frederick Douglass offered a eulogy for her in Washington, D.C. "Venerable for age, distinguished for insight into human nature, remarkable for independence and courageous self-assertion, devoted to the welfare of her race, she has been for the last forty years an object of respect and admiration to social reformers everywhere."[7]