Executive Session

Floor Speech

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Mrs. GILLIBRAND. Mr. President, today is a very special day for me. As a woman and a New Yorker, it thrills me that today we are honoring one of the earliest and greatest figures in the history of women's rights and civil rights: Sojourner Truth. We are placing a statue of Sojourner Truth in Statuary Hall today--the first African-American woman to have a statue in the Capitol. She will be the 12th woman depicted in works of sculpture among the 92 sculptures of our male leaders. From this day forward, Sojourner Truth's groundbreaking work advancing the basic rights of women will be given its due prominence beside so many other great Americans in the seat of our democracy.

Sojourner Truth was born Isabella Baumfree as a slave in 1797 who never learned to read or write, yet became an all-important messenger for truth and equality. Although beaten and branded, she responded with dignity and faith rather than hatred and violence. Her views were shaped not only by her personal hardships--enslavement, daily beatings, grueling work, and seeing her 13 children kidnapped and sold away--but also from an innate understanding that equality is an inalienable American right and should not be ascribed based on gender or color.

Once freed from bondage in 1817, she changed her name to Sojourner Truth, telling her friends that the spirit had called her to speak the truth for justice. She then traveled our Nation speaking honest words about the shortcomings of the American dream--the stain that slavery and injustice imposed on America's life and laws and noting for all to see where the reality failed to reflect the noble tenets of our Founding Fathers. She dedicated her life, indeed, she risked her freedom, to oppose the trappings of injustice and prejudice.

Despite being born into slavery, stripped of any legal standing, protection, or property, and denied any access to education, Sojourner Truth understood that freedom and equality are fundamental rights. Embracing our greatest traditions and arguing with simple passion that neither gender nor color could overpower justice, she demonstrated a courage and a conviction that compels us to act today, almost 125 years after her death.

Sojourner Truth raised her voice without a chorus of women behind her. Most abolitionists questioned her determination to link women's rights with the abolition of slavery. She rejected their concerns, asking them the direct question they couldn't avoid: ``And ain't I a woman?'' With those few words, she refused to parse justice. With those few words, she forced audiences past and present to recognize that human dignity and respect are part and parcel of who we are as Americans--male or female, African-American or Caucasian, educated or not. Sojourner Truth represents the courage that the American ideal imparts and calls all of us to action.

As we honor this bold, daring New Yorker today, I am also proud that New York has time and time again helped to foster those who have chosen to carry on her fight. Today, I can think of at least two others committed
to justice who, though from very different backgrounds, continually risk themselves for justice and human rights.

The battles fought by Sojourner Truth were not left only as lessons of history, but they stood as a beacon of hope for the next generation to carry the torch one mile further. One of the next in our history to carry on the cause for equal justice was Eleanor Roosevelt.

Eleanor Roosevelt could have been content with a life defined by privilege and limited education. But like Sojourner Truth, she travelled the nation and indeed the world to fight for equality and human rights. Like Sojourner Truth, Eleanor Roosevelt raised her voice to attack segregation and gender bias. Like Sojourner Truth, she risked her life to practice what she preached and to hold us accountable when we wanted to turn our back on justice and American ideals. Like Sojourner Truth, Eleanor Roosevelt told us that we ``must hazard all we have'' to make the American dream real. She told us that employment, housing, education, health care policies that favored the privileged undermined us all, that women had a critical role and responsibility, and encouraged women to run for office, to organize, to get out the vote, and to reach across party, gender, and racial lines to get the work done.

Eleanor Roosevelt took this same determination with her to the United Nations where, like Sojourner Truth, she used strength and grace to advance the recognition of equal rights. Embracing her responsibility as the only woman on the American delegation and one of the few women delegates to the General Assembly, she played an instrumental role in drafting the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948, especially the concept as stated in article 1, that ``all human beings are born free and equal.''

Just as Sojourner Truth had done in a century before and Eleanor Roosevelt had done decades earlier, the cause was enlisted by another great woman. Recognizing that equality had not yet been achieved, Hillary Clinton stood and fought for the rights of women. As first lady, Hillary Clinton understood the political costs of speaking out forthrightly for women's rights and human rights. Yet like Sojourner Truth and Eleanor Roosevelt before her, she would not ignore the rights and needs of women despite the possible diplomatic repercussions.

She travelled to China in 1995 and stood before the world to oppose injustice and to proclaim that ``once and for all, women's rights are human rights and human rights are women's rights.''

How Sojourner Truth must have relished that moment. From Akron, OH, Beijing, China--from newspapers to the Internet and C-SPAN--their message spanned the globe.

Hillary Clinton played an instrumental role in the dedication we celebrate today. Hillary Clinton and Sheila Jackson-Lee were inspired by the efforts of Dr. C. Delores Tucker, former chair of the National Congress of Black Women, to formally recognize Sojourner Truth in the U.S. Capitol. They felt that the unfinished portion of the monument to suffragists was surely intended to hold the image of Sojourner Truth. After long consideration, it was determined to carve a unique place for Sojourner Truth--appropriately so as the first statue in Emancipation Hall.

And now it stands erect in the Capitol Visitors Center for all to see. As the Senator from their home state, I am so grateful to be here today to honor Sojourner Truth. Her courage and her vision are timeless and bold and brave--Her statue will be a constant reminder that our rights must never be take for granted and that with these rights come the responsibility to enforce them.

To honor Sojourner Truth and all women before us, we continue that struggle as there is still much to do. Today the fight is for equal pay and recognition in the workplace. Even in 2009, for every dollar a man earns, a woman makes just 78 cents. And the disparity is even worse for women of color, with Latino women earning only 53 cents and African-American women earning 62 cents on the dollar. Working women and their families stand to lose $250,000 over the course of their career because of pay inequity. It is unacceptable, and it needs to change. The Paycheck Fairness Act introduced by then-Senator Hillary Clinton and Rep. ROSA DELAURO is an important step towards that goal. I proudly join in helping carry Secretary Clinton's work towards equality here in the Senate.

These steps towards equality for all are our duty. As Eleanor Roosevelt often said, ``we are all on trial to show what democracy means.'' We have made such important strides, but we still have a long way to go.

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