Last summer on our family vacation, we were zipping along I-90 in Upstate New York on our way from Niagara Falls to Ottawa, Canada, when a brown road sign called out to us, “Women’s Rights National Historic Park Next Exit.” Those two words, “National Park,” have a strong pull upon our family and this was gift to our day — a National Park just off the next exit!
Following the signs led us to Seneca Falls, the site of the first Women’s Rights Convention held July 19-20, 1848. The National Historic Park tells the story not just of that event but also of the movement in the United States for civil rights, human rights and equality. We read about people whose names were familiar: Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott. We also learned about many others who did that courageous work whose names did not come up in high school history class.
The woman in the photo is Mary Burnett Talbert. The sign behind her gives a summary of her work:
Lifting as We Climb:
“It should not be necessary to struggle forever against popular prejudice, and with us as colored women, this struggle becomes two-fold, first because we are women and second because we are colored women.”
Mary Burnett Talbert (1866-1923) was a women’s and civil rights activist, leader of the National Association of Colored Women, and a driving force behind the Niagara Movement, which began in 1905 at her home in Buffalo, N.Y. and became the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People in 1909.
Reading about Mary Burnett Talbert’s life and work reminded me of how we have been lifted by the people who have come before us. Some of those folks we know, but there are so many more who have blessed us with their work, whose names and stories we will never know. It brings a sense of gratitude and humility. It is also an encouragement to us that the work we do to live out the kingdom about which Jesus teaches us—where the poor, the hungry, the persecuted, the mourning will be lifted up — is work that blesses people whom we will never know.
+BJST