(ThyBlackMan.com) From America’s past with Black women such as: Sojourner Truth, Harriet Tubman, Rosa Parks, JoAnn Gibson Robinson, and Fannie Lou Hamer, to the present day with Black women such as: District Judge of Washington, D.C. Tanya Chutkan, Attorney General of New York Letitia James, District Attorney for Fulton County Fani Willis, to Georgia election workers, Ruby Freeman and her daughter, Wandrea “Shaye” Moss, it has been Black Women who have been on the front line in the battle to save democracy in America.
Previous Heroes of America’s Democracy
Sojourner Truth was an American abolitionist and evangelist. She was born into slavery but escaped with her infant daughter to freedom in 1826. She was an outspoken advocate for ending the evil system of slavery in America. She also championed temperance, civil rights, and women’s rights.
Harriet Tubman was an American abolitionist and social activist. After escaping slavery, she conducted more than 13 missions into the South rescuing enslaved people, including her family and friends, using the network of antislavery activists and safe houses known as the Underground Railroad.
Rosa Parks was an American activist. She sparked the Montgomery Bus Boycott and the Civil Rights movement by refusing to give up her seat on a city bus in Montgomery Alabama to a white man.
JoAnn Gibson Robinson was an English professor at Alabama State College (Now Alabama State University). After Rosa Parks’ arrest, it was Ms. Robinson who came up with the idea of a bus boycott. The night after Rosa Parks’ arrest, Ms. Robinson secretly went to the English department at Alabama State College and printed flyers using the English department’s mimeograph machine. She along with a student helper distributed the flyers that night. The flyers told the African American community to stop riding the buses and come to a mass meeting at the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church. Ms. Robinson was also instrumental in convincing Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. to serve as leader of the boycott.
Fannie Lou Hamer was a leader in the civil rights movement. She was a voting and women’s rights activist, health equity, and community organizer, and served as the vice-chair of the Freedom Democratic Party, which she represented at the 1964 Democratic National Convention. In collaboration with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), Ms. Hamer organized Mississippi’s Freedom Summer. She was also a co-founder of the National Women’s Political Caucus, an organization created to recruit, train, and support women of all races who were running for elected office. Ms. Hamer famously summed up the pain, indignity, emotional and physical health drain African Americans suffered in the State of Mississippi under the state’s oppressive Jim Crow system by stating, “All my life I’ve been sick and tired. Now I’m sick and tired of being sick and tired.”
Modern-Day Heroes of America’s Democracy
Tanya Chutkan is serving as a U.S. district judge for the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. She is the presiding judge in the criminal trial of former president Donald Trump over his attempts to overturn the result of the 2020 presidential election, and his part in the attack on the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021.
Letitia James is the Attorney General of New York. She is the first African American and first woman to be elected to the position. She obtained her Juris Doctor degree at (HBCU)Howard University in Washington, D.C. James is leading a civil investigation and lawsuit against The Trump Organization and several individuals, including members of the Trump family, for engaging in financial fraud by presenting vastly overstated property values to potential lenders and understating property value to tax officials, in violation of New York state law.
Fani Willis is the District Attorney for Fulton County, Georgia. She is the first woman to hold this office. Willis is leading a criminal investigation into Donald Trump’s attempts to influence Georgia election officials—including the governor, the attorney general, and Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to “find 11,780 votes”, enough votes to nullify Joe Biden’s win in that state and therefore overturn Biden’s victory in the 2020 presidential election.
Ruby Freeman and her daughter, Wandrea “Shaye” Moss were employees in the Fulton County Department of Registration & Elections. They became the target of a vicious smear campaign by then-President Trump and his allies such as the former Mayor of New York City, Rudy Giuliani who were seeking to overturn the 2020 election. Freeman and Moss received so many racist taunts and death threats that they were forced to go into hiding. Giuliani had claimed that Freeman and Moss were “passing around USB ports like they were vials of heroin or cocaine.” In reality, they were passing a ginger mint.
Saving America’s Democracy In Their Time
Sojourner Truth and Harriet Tubman fought to end slavery in America and helped to end the perpetuation of America’s original sin—slavery, and thus helped to save America’s democracy in their time. Rosa Parks, JoAnn Gibson Robinson, and Fannie Lou Hamer fought to end America’s Jim Crow era and moved America closer to being a democracy for all citizens.
U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan, Attorney General of New York Letitia James, and District Attorney for Fulton County, Georgia Fani Willis, and election workers Ruby Freeman and Wandrea “Shaye” Moss, in spite of attacks from Donald Trump and his followers, have not wavered in their commitment to the constitution, the bedrock principle of our nation—that no one is above the law, and to ensure that America’s democracy remains intact.
A Debt of Gratitude
America owes a great debt of gratitude to Black women in all walks of life. They are one of the strongest and most reliable voting group in America. In spite of the racist attacks and death threats, Black women have always led in the fight to save America’s democracy—to make this nation a more perfect union. Even today, Black women continue to fight the good fight of faith by demanding that America, as Dr. King said, live out the true meaning of its creed: “We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal.” Throughout the history of America—and especially now with America being on the brink of losing its current system of government —Black women have never left the battlefield of the fight to save America’s democracy.
Staff Writer; Dr. Robert J. Walker
RJW is a retired Professor of Education. He is a prolific writer and the author of 12 Characteristics of an Effective Teacher.
One may contact him at; RJWalker@ThyBlackMan.com.