"I Care and I am Willing to Serve"

"I Care and I Am Willing to Serve"
by Marian Wright Edelman

Lord I cannot preach like Martin Lurther King, Jr.
or turn a poetic phrase like Maya Angeloubut but I care and am willing to serve.

I do not have Fred Shuttlesworth's and HarrietTubman's courage
or Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt's political skillsbut I care and am willing to serve.

I cannot sing like Fannie Lou Hamer
or organize like Ella Baker and Bayard Rustin but I care and am willing to serve.

I am not holy like Archbishop Tutu,forgiving like Mandela,
or disciplined like Gandhi but I care and am willing to serve.

I am not brilliant like Dr. W.E.B. Du Bois or Elizabeth Cady Stanton,
or as eloquent asSojourner Truth and Booker T. Washington but I care and am willing to serve.

I have not Mother Teresa's saintliness,Dorothy Day's love or Cesar Chavez's gentle tough spirit but I care and am willing to serve.

God it is not as easy as it used to be to frame an issue and forge a solution but I care and am willing to serve.

My mind and body are not so swift as in youthand my energy comes in spurts but I care and am willing to serve.

I'm so young nobody will listen I'm not sure what to say or do but I care and am willing to serve.

I can't see or hear well , speak good English, stutter sometimes, am afraid of criticism and get real scared standing up before others but I care and am willing to serve.

Marian Wright Edelman

Ok, so I have been slacking on my woman of the day posts. However, let me make one point clear, the reason being has only been my busy schedule not the fact that I have run out of amazing women to write about-- I just needed to make that clear.

So let me pick up with a woman I have had the privilege of meeting and is the reason I became an activist in not only the Children's movement but also the Women's movement. I'm talking about Marian Wright Edelman.

Edelman attended Spelman in the 60's, she has often been referred to as Howard Zinn's favorite students. She is known for being the first African American to be admitted to the Mississippi Bar which was a great accomplishment at a time when segregation prevailed. She has been a Civil Rights advocate and fought for equality with Dr. Martin Luther King and was also a member of his "Poor Peoples Campaign".

In the early 70's she founded the Children's Defense Fund, CDF, which is a voice for poor, minority, and disabled children. Edelman continues to run CDF today. She has been tirelessly working in this movement and for the sake of Justice for over 30 years. Eldelman, is truly a remarkable woman.

Ida Wells-Barnett

Ida Wells is known for being an early civil rights activist leader. She was also very much involved in the suffragist movement as well. She is was a journalist and newspaper editor. Ms. Wells documented with great extent the lynchings that occurred in the United States.

Oh, and you know that little organization called the NAACP. Well, she is one its great founders.

Betty Friedan

The woman who is said to have started second wave feminism. She was a psychologist who wrote the 'Feminine Mystique' which exposed the state of US women both inside the home as well as outside. She criticised "women's" magazines, pre "Ms" era, and especially Freud. She later went on to found the National Women's Organization (NOW). One could say that last year's Shriver report was very much a modern era 'Feminine Mystique' which only proves how much of an impact she has had on modern feminism.

Suffragist extraordinaire, Alice Paul

Alice Paul is known for founding the National Women's Party which took on the issue of suffrage and fought to get the 19th amendment ratified. She played a key role in getting the 19th amendment to pass. However, she did not stop there, she continued to fight for women's rights until the day she died which was in the 1970's.

Oh by the way, did you know that the 19th amendment was ratified 89 years ago in the state of Tennessee right outside of Nashville.

If you would like to learn more about her I recommend watching, my all time favorite movie, 'Iron Jawed Angels', which is the story of the struggle the first wave feminists went through to get the 19th amendment ratified.

The one the only, Gloria Steinem

The woman for today is none other than the feminist of all feminists, the endlessly inspiring, Gloria Steinem.

Steinem, is the most know second wave feminist that is still, fortunately for us, alive and very much involved in the movement today. She became famous for writing an expose of her experience as an undercover bunny in the 1970's. She later went on to found Ms. Magazine, which was the first true women's magazine. Steinem is also one of the founding members of the Women's Political Caucus.

She has dedicated her entire life to the women's movement. I thought it would be appropriate to end with a famous quote of hers- I believe it defines what feminism is all about.

"This is no simple reform. It really is a revolution. Sex and race because they are easy and visible differences have been the primary ways of organizing human beings into superior and inferior groups and into the cheap labour in which this system still depends. We are talking about a society in which there will be no roles other than those chosen or those earned. We are really talking about humanism."

Elizabeth Blackwell

Elizabeth Blackwell was the first woman to ever receive a Medical Degree.

"Elizabeth Blackwell was rejected by all the leading schools to which she applied, and almost all the other schools as well. When her application arrived at Geneva Medical College at Geneva, New York, the administration asked the students to decide whether to admit her or not. The students, reportedly believing it to be only a practical joke, endorsed her admission.
When they discovered that she was serious, both students and townspeople were horrified. She had few allies and was an outcast in Geneva. At first, she was even kept from classroom medical demonstrations, as inappropriate for a woman. Most students, however, became friendly, impressed by her ability and persistence."

"Elizabeth Blackwell graduated first in her class in January, 1849, becoming thereby the first woman to graduate from medical school, the first woman doctor of medicine in the modern era."

She later founded the Women's College of Medicine in turn becoming a sister to other women pursuing a Medical Degree. Blackwell has made a great impact in the profession of medicine.