Leymah Gbowee Research Paper

Dorothy Height had given leadership to the skirmish for fairness and human rights for all people. Dorothy was born March 24, 1912, in Richmond, Virginia. She was educated in the public schools in Rankin, Pennsylvania, a small town where her and her family moved to when she was four years old. Her mother worked as a nurse for cancer patients, her father was a building contractor. Height was a straight-A student at Rankin High School, she also played center on a basketball team. She had graduated from Rankin High School at age 14, in 1926, she was younger than her classmates since the school had to advance her to grade levels. She went to college and she did further postgraduate work at Columbia University and the New York School of Social Work. While she is working as a case worker for the welfare department in New York in 1937. Height participated in virtually all over the major civil and human rights events throughout the 1950’s and 1960’s. Heights childhood was really upright and once

In chapter two of Leymah Gbowee’s memoir, Mighty Be Our Powers: How Sisterhood, Prayer, and Sex Changed a Nation at War, turmoil is happening all around her. The chapter starts with Gbowee graduating from High School and enrolling into the University of Liberia. Shortly after she enrolls it is announced that rebel forces have invaded Liberia. Gbowee’s parents move to a newer house in Monrovia. Then Gbowee experienced her first encounter with guns when there was shooting near her house, along with her grandmother, Ma Korto, pushing one of the children outside. After that, she and her family were taken to St. Peter’s church to stay in the residential compound. Shortly after she arrived at St. Peter’s, Gbowee saw a young man shot in the street. The streets seemed like battlegrounds and people prayed their houses would become fortresses. When Gbowee describes the way the beginning of the war affects her personally, she overlooks the deeper problem of how fear and courage alter the ways in which the people around her fight the daily battle of surviving. In neglecting to see the suffering of others, she shows that she has not yet, “come of age” and still has a lot of maturing to do.

Melba Pattillo Beals is a very determined young lady. She presents many strong personal characteristics in her time of integrating Central High School. However, she faces many adversities through this battle for her freedom and equality. During her rough time Beals questions her faith and family. She later learns that her strength and security is in God. In the book Warriors Don’t Cry Melba Pattillo Beals presents the idea that courage, faith, and fear are vital in her search for freedom and equality.

It is impossible for anyone to survive a horrible event in their life without a relationship to have to keep them alive. The connection and emotional bond between the person suffering and the other is sometimes all they need to survive. On the other hand, not having anyone to believe in can make death appear easier than life allowing the person to give up instead of fighting for survival. In The Book of Negroes by Lawrence Hill, Aminata Diallo survives her course through slavery by remembering her family and the friends that she makes. Aminata is taught by her mother, Sira to deliver babies in the villages of her homeland. This skill proves to be very valuable to Aminata as it helps her deliver her friends babies and create a source of

Jarena Lee was born on February the 11th 1783, in Cape May, New Jersey. She was born into freedom, but Cape May was entangled by just enough commerce and culture, with Maryland’s Eastern Shore and Virginia’s northern borders, that she probably was exposed at an early age, to the inhumanities that characterized southern enslavement. At the age of seven, Lee was separated from her parents and sent to live as a servant maid for a Caucasian family sixty miles away from her home. The names and occupations of her parents are unknown, but what is about them is that they were entirely ignorant of the knowledge of God and because of that had not instructed her in any way regarding the matter of God or religion. Lee’s lack of the knowledge of

Physical violence wasn’t the only hardship that she endured in her early life. Her family became severed when three of her sisters were sold to other plantations that were far away. A trader from Georgia approached interested in buying her youngest brother, but their mother successfully resisted, preventing further

In the novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, by Zora Neale Hurston, there is evidence of inequality among many of the characters. The protagonist, who is an African-American woman, is constantly oppressed throughout the story. She enters three different relationships and experiences oppression and inequality because of her gender in all of them. In this novel, Janie Mae Crawford faces inequality and hardships in her life-long search for love; when viewing her journey through the Feminist theory, readers may gain a deeper understanding.

In the year 1851 an African American woman by name of Sojourner Truth gave a powerful speech at the Woman’s convention in a small town of Akron, Ohio. This speech would be remembered for the originality and powerful message that it left on those listening. The speech touched on the trials and tribulations that Sojourner went through not only as a woman but a black women in that day’s society. She shared her personal experiences and used repetitive language to grab the attention of her audience, she also made references from the Bible to connect emotionally with her audience. The techniques she used were to invoke some power to overcome race and gender inequality.

Georgia Totto O’Keeffe was born on November 15, 1887 in Sun Prairie, Wisconsin. Throughout her long career, O’Keefe covered a wide range of subjects including landscapes, flowers, bones and skyscrapers using different medias such as charcoal, watercolor and oil paint. Having contributed many pieces of iconic and original artwork, she is considered by many to be the “Mother of American Modernism”.

Coretta Scott King is the wife of Martin Luther King but is known for so much more. Born in Alabama in 1927, Coretta was a sensitive child and was known for playing the violin and piano. She learned about discrimination early and always felt strongly about making the world a better place. Everyday on her 5 mile walk to school she would pass the railroad and see the privileged white kids on the train riding to their school where they would get a much better education. Though having a tough school life, she graduated valedictorian of her school and was awarded a scholarship to Antioch college in Ohio. In Boston she met her husband Martin Luther King. They fell in love and soon got married and had 4 kids together.

These three perceptions are distinctly different, but ultimately speak to the contextual nature of Black theology—rooting worship, adoration, and discipleship within the notion a (conscious) living G-d. The first perception explored is the image G-d adored through the lens of Sister Sweet and Mother Darling. At first glance, these women appear different in life style and theology—different churches, different abilities, and different approaches to discipleship. But upon further examination, one discovers the same paradigm at work. Both have lost children to AIDS. Both have committed themselves to a praxis centered theology to process their loss. Mother Darling is street missionary and Sister Sweet is a disabled woman confined to a wheel that feeds the birds and attends to the needs of the Little piece of Heaven Church. Both have found peace in their personalized work for the Lord. Their G-d is a “shelter in a time of storm.” The second perception is the image of G-d as seen through Deacon Zee. This G-d is one of salvation and complacence for Deacon Zee. The “White Jesus” he prayed to for his assistance in finding his copy of the Wall Street Journal—a nuanced symbol for prosperity. This G-d speaks to the corporate nature and element of

Leymah Gbowee is introduced as a Nobel Laureate and a fighter for peace, freedom, and women’s rights in her home country of Liberia; primarily throughout their civil war. She begins by walking the audience through several of the key stages of protesting. Gboweee discusses her troubles, seemingly insurmountable obstacles at times, and successes. She also discusses how she was singled out to be a leader among the protesting women of Liberia. As a leader she and her fellow protestors gave demands to the President of Liberia himself and went as far as taking control of a government building until a peace resolution was signed. She finishes this interview by answering questions by the Columbia audience in regards to US and other foreign

“Still I Rise”, written by African-American writer Maya Angelou, includes a character who rises “Up from a past that’s rooted in pain.” No matter what words are said against her, lies are told about her, threats are made towards her, or words are written against her, she takes the past and uses it to fuel her confidence. The way she writes creates a deep sense of pride and feeling, while giving the poem life and helping the audience realise that they, too can rise. The diction, literary devices, and theme help the speaker portray her feelings about the topic of oppression in her experience.

Born in 1797, Isabella Baumfree was an African-American slave who was sold into a harsh life. Physically strong, she was worked just as much as men on the field and her masters did not hesitate to beat and rape her. By the time her teens had ended, she had already borne several children (Gates et al. 176). When she earned her freedom in 1826, she took on the new identity of Sojourner Truth, named so due to her seeking the truth from God and fighting for women’s rights. Her experiences were used at a women’s

The memoir of Old Elizabeth presents a rare and important slave narrative in which the stories of African American women intersect with the experiences of African American people in roles of religious leadership. Elizabeth broke many of societies conventions at the time by preaching and holding religious meeting despite being woman. Her religious work was met with backlash from the church and from many other people who did not accept the idea of a woman leading religious services, yet she continued to practice until her health would no longer allow for it. This is unusual as it spends most of the narrative on the time after she was free rather than focusing on the time that she was enslaved the way that many slave narratives do.