Guest view: From Sojourner Truth to Ketanji Brown Jackson, the importance of representation

Spring is a time of promise and renewal.

Last month, we saw the signs of spring that remind us we are in a time of promise and renewal. It was a month filled with faith-based, cultural and diversity celebrations. Another sign of promise with monumental significance also emerged recently : the historic confirmation of Ketanji Brown Jackson to the US Supreme Court as the first African American woman to serve on the nation’s highest court.

This important national milestone is long overdue. As an educator, I believe placing Judge Brown Jackson’s confirmation into a historical context helps us see things we may not typically notice.

In 1851—the year University of the Pacific was founded – Sojourner Truth, an abolitionist, women’s rights leader and formerly enslaved Black woman, gave a keynote address on anti-slavery and women’s rights at a convention devoted to the rights of women to vote. Her striking question, “Ain’t I a woman?,” would become a seminal reference for future human, women and civil rights movements.

Truth’s address was a provocative and direct attempt to help the well-educated and

well-intended audience see how deep inequity and inequality were for Black women.

She spoke to the harsh labor black women experienced – working hours that she described were ‘equal to any man’

She gave testimony to the indescribable anguish that black women experienced as their

children were taken from them only to be sold for profit into slavery.

She helped them hear, through her testimony to a largely abolitionist-leaning crowd, that their complicit treatment for a sub-existence of Black women under the law was fundamentally inhumane and unjust.

She helped them look beyond voting rights, to see that Black women's rights were human rights.

In reflecting on Sojourner Truth’s speech and then witnessing Judge Brown Jackson’s calm and resolute responses during her confirmation hearing, I observed a direct line from Sojourner to Ketanji.

Though centuries and generations apart, both are Black women who served a nation built on the promise of equity and inclusion and yet still falling short. While beyond triumphant in their own rights, their paths continue to reveal the urgent work we have before us. Their pivotal roles in advancing civil and women’s rights in the face of opposition and scrutiny is remarkable and celebratory. It is easy to declare a commitment to social justice – but it is entirely different to do something about it.

Race, gender and representation matter as much in 2022 as they did in 1851. We have the opportunity to recognize, support, uplift and reciprocate the gifts, abilities and contributions of all people who give their lives in service to make a difference for others.

Mary J. Wardell-Ghirarduzzi is vice president for diversity, equity, and inclusion and professor of communication at University of the Pacific.

This article originally appeared on The Record: Guest view: Race, gender and representation mean as much now as ever