The Life and Legend of Sojourner Truth * Documentary Film and Discussion * Tue Feb 24 6:30pm

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Sojourner Truth was perhaps the most famous African-American woman in 19th century America. For over forty years she traveled the country as a forceful and passionate advocate for the dispossessed, using her quick wit and fearless tongue to fight for human rights.
 

Join us for the documentary that tells her story:

"Life and Legend of Sojourner Truth"

Tuesday, February 24th 6:30pm

Arctic Java in UAF Wood Center

As with many historic American figures of the 19th century, Sojourner Truth’s story is incomplete and somewhat mythical, a fact compounded by her having been born a slave. This detailed program traces the lifelong odyssey of a woman who literally walked out of bondage, changed her name in 1843, and traveled the country as an abolitionist and women’s rights advocate. Along the way she would meet Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln and be further cast into fable by Harriet Beecher Stowe. Interviews with scholars and dramatic readings from Truth’s speeches and autobiography conjure more clearly a picture of this truly heroic woman.

Watch her arguably most famed speech, "Ain't I a Woman" (1851) performed by actress Kerry Washington here. The reading was performed as part of the Voices of a People's History of the United States in Los Angeles, California (October 2005).