Leadership post: Wk4 Leadership Role Model Reflection-SoJourner Truth

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“Aint I a Woman”

Imagine it is 1863.  Beaten, sold, raped, separated, starved, and controlled, yet still strong enough to overcome all odds to speak as a black woman to an audience of white men and women about the necessity of equality for women and slaves-that is SoJourner Truth, and she is without a doubt someone that I aspire to model my actions after.  I do not mean this because she spoke passionately about the equality of all humans (which is still powerful in itself).  I aspire to be her reflection because in the midst of uncertainty and against all odds through her words she was able to inspire and motivate a world and it wasn’t just in 1863. 

It was before that as she worked to become free.  IT was when she won a civil rights suit to have her son that was sold into slavery returned to her after New York had abolished slavery. It was even after 1863 as she continued to motivate and overcome the negativity that her environment continually engulfed her in-she didn’t cave Here we are in 2013, and people still recognize who she is–she came from nothing.  She came from being someone’s property-and she emerged from all of the fallout as a person powerful enough to move people 150 years later.  I aspire to be like her and to model my own values after her leadership skills because she motivated change and her words are still influential today.

I admire her qualities because despite being seen as inferior in race and gender, she still became and did what she wanted to do.  Religion and ministry should have been outside of her grasp, but she didn’t let that stop her-she did it anyway because she felt in her heart that she needed to-no one else’s judgment prevented her from achieving her own dreams and ambitions. SoJourner Truth was a woman that led from her heart for the good of humanity, and I wish to follow in her footsteps and remind all of those after me that the power lies within-and it is up to us to break through and beyond any barriers established in front of us.