An Admission
After the annual iris parade has passed, there are only a few days to wait until Sandy's "Liberation Lilies" begin to blossom to replace the missing colors up here on Sweet Gum Hill. I know next to nothing about lilies, perhaps nothing. Can't tell you how she propagates them, how she chooses their pairing in their beds. I have no idea about the difference between a day lily, a night lily, a tiger lily or even if there are other basic types I should mention in my list of what I know nothing about. But I do think they are beautiful. And all things beautiful deserve a narrative. So Sandy will plant, pair, thin, mulch and propagate. My own contribution is to narrate. Glad to help!
First up, the "Wollstonecraft", because isn't that where it all began? Right there at the end of April in 1759 in Spitalfields, a parish in London's old east end? The most vindicate-ive lily in the vase.
Next up, the "Emma Goldman." Prolific, insistent, downright combative. But when you are right, well, you are right. The growth of the most destructive force in the universe, yep, State power, was what she focused all of her reform efforts against. And, you won't see a lily here named after anyone who thought state power needed to be bolstered.
The "Emma Goldman:"
Harriet Tubman did not spend lots of time philosophizing about normative policy. She took to her feet, packed heat, pretended meekness when necessary, and though she successfully escaped from her own enslavement, she returned to the south at least thirteen times and helped some seventy other enslaved people to their freedom. During the American Civil War she served as a Union spy and after the war she agitated for women's suffrage. Oh, almost everything she did between 1849 and 1865 was technically illegal.
The "Harriet Tubman, North Star:"
In case some might be led to the conclusion that all heroes have their own Wikipedia pages, nope. There are wonderful people out there who have come from situations that would have destroyed most of us, but have instead overcome and devoted lives to improving their communities, sharing the burdens of struggles for their less fortunate neighbors and advocating for Justice for all.
Imogene Bowen (1935-2007) of the Upper Skagit Tribe, near Sauk Washington, embodied this kind of hero.
The Imogene Bowen lily:
Concord Massachusetts has been a seed bed for reform since long before the American Revolution. New England was founded on several versions of the idea that we can make the world a much better place by reforming our interactions and holding ourselves to high ethical standards. New England did not always rise to the level of its laudable founding intentions. But from time to time certain pockets of this colony led the way. During the long run up to the American Civil War, Concord was a center for reform. The literary giants, Emerson, Thoreau, Alcott, Hawthorn, and others have gotten much credit for this progressive little town's national and international influence. Given the waves of anti-slavery rallies, the published essays, and their famous speeches, the literary elite might be correctly said to be the instrument through which the town's influence was broadcast. But what force radicalized these famous writers? Scholars who have looked closely at this question, digging through the archives to find the influence on the influence-ers discovered the family, friends, and neighbors of the more famous writers and speakers. As you would expect, some of these neighbors were true heroes. One of these indefatigable reformers was Mary Merrick Brooks. If you don't know much about her, perhaps you should know more. It is through our memory of such people that we all can be energized to help, "Set This World Right."
The Mary Merrick Brooks:
Elizabeth Cady Stanton's life and accomplishments are hard to believe. This energetic revolutionary helped to found a movement that would ultimately gain voting rights for more Americans than has any other movement. She re-wrote the bible, she co-authored the first of six volumes of _History of Woman Suffrage_, and was a fierce activist in a long list of reform efforts that included anti-slavery, women's rights as parents, employment opportunity, women's property rights, income earning rights, divorce, family health, birth control, and temperance. Any list of founders of the United States as we know it to be today must include her prominent placement.
A well introduced book about Stanton and her intellectual heft is available finally: https://www.amazon.com/Stanton-Her-Own-Time-Recollections/dp/1609384334/ref=sr_1_2?keywords=Stanton+in+her+own+time&qid=1565037117&s=gateway&sr=8-2
The "Elizabeth Cady Stanton" Lily:
And next up, the Ellen Garrison Jackson lily. At 12, Ellen Garrison (b. 1823) desegregated the two hundred year anniversary of Concord Massachusetts's founding celebration, by unabashedly joining a parade. Of course during most of those two hundred years Concord was already populated by people of many ethnic extractions: African American, British Islanders, French, German, and Native American. But some of these were expected to hide in the background and to not join parades, attend schools, sign petitions, hold "mixed race" meetings, and belong to reform societies. Not Ellen. Even at twelve, Ellen Garrison took the opportunity of this symbolic event to stretch community history into closer conformity with the demographic reality. Then in 1866, after being told to leave a women's waiting room at a train station, Ellen refused and was thrown out by force. She did what the wronged do when they live in a land subject to the rule of law, she had the stationmaster arrested. Ellen, then a teacher, had been a prominent advocate for the abolition of slavery and she had also argued publicly against the horrific treatment of the Cherokee people. After the American Civil War, Ellen had moved to Maryland and become a teacher in a Freedman's Bureau school, offering a path to literacy to newly emancipated people of the south of all ages. If you don't know much about Ellen and her times, you can visit her birth home, the "Robbins House," and learn much more. To get there just go back to the beginning of the American Revolution, to the very crest of The Old North Bridge." Then face Concord and it will be a few hundred meters straight ahead of you. That museum is well worth the visit.
The Ellen Garrison Jackson lily:
Maybe she was a bit rough around the edges and the strains of her political ideology were not always pure. But Mary Harris Jones a/k/a "Mother Jones" (d. 1937) was a true American liberator. Like many true Americans, she was a refugee as a child. Later a teacher and then an activist, Jones led strikes among miners who were being treated disgracefully by mining companies. Helping to found the IWW, the Industrial Workers of the World, Jones is perhaps most famous for demanding enforcement of child labor laws by organizing a march of children from Philadelphia to New York, to the hometown of Teddy Roosevelt. At a time when states could and did make union organizing and striking illegal activities, Jones was known as a dangerous orator. According to a State Prosecutor, "She comes into a state where peace and prosperity exist, then she crooks her little finger and twenty thousand men go out on strike." Unable to find a jury who would find her guilty, the Federal Government held a military tribunal in 1913 where, although a civilian in the United States, she was found guilty by court martial and sentenced to twenty years. Governments can and do many wrong things in their efforts to concentrate their power. But people then were unwilling to comply with injustice. She served eighty five days.
The Mary Harris Jones Lilly:
Maria Weston Chapman is another liberator who gets too little attention by historians of the American Experience. In fact, if we would devote a tenth of the lecture time we spend on Gettysburg in a typical undergraduate history course, to the liberators instead who have been named in this blog post, we would probably recognize these important people. So you won't find a lily here named after the generals who led their armies into the "high water mark of the Confederacy." But you will read about some of the people who helped to bring slavery to the attention of the American public. Maria Weston Chapman, born into the privileged upper middle class of Massachusetts society, started out in a teaching career, but found she needed to reach a much larger classroom. She ended up being what we would today call an activist, raising funds and awareness for one form of abolitionism that did not involve coercion, violence, or force of any kind. Did that form of abolitionism work? Hard to measure the impact of non-violent, non-coercive persuasion. But that method certainly helped to convince a significant group of moderate New Englander's of the evils of slavery as an institution. Perhaps it is true that the proponents of slavery had to be persuaded, ultimately, with a little more force. But during her life Maria Weston Chapman served on executive boards of national abolitionist organizations, edited important newspapers and books,, organized fund raising events throughout the country and traveled extensively to lecture audiences about the issue. During all of this, she raised three children and wrote two books.
The Maria Weston Chapman lily:
Ida Bell Wells-Barnett, a/k/a "Ida B. Wells" was a teacher (recurring theme here?) a journalist, a writer, activist, and a tireless voice of conscience to an America that often seemed much too willing to turn away from the advances brought about by the Civil War. The story of the struggle for civil rights in the United States can't be accurately told without entire chapters devoted to Ida Well's insistent and protracted arguments, in a journalistic voice that even W.E.B. DuBois often found "too radical." She is perhaps best known for her work to bring the horrific practice of lynching to the broader public's attention, work that, in retrospect, could not have been as successful had it been any less radical. Researching and writing three books while raising six children took up much of her spare time between her travels deep into the south (sometimes in disguise) and to the UK.
The Ida B. Well's lily:
Let's just say it was a Father-Daughter thing Father was the Chief Justice of the South Carolina Supreme Court. The older daughter wanted to study law, just as had her brother and her father. Pop thought she would have been a great lawyer had she been born male. The relationship went downhill from there. Pretty soon the daughters decided to pursue justice instead of law. One time, Sarah got to visit Philadelphia where her interactions with Quakers convinced her that things did not have to be like they were in the south. Women could speak at those Quaker meetings, they could hold public opinions separate from their fathers and husbands, and one of those separate opinions she began to work out was that whole white people owning black people thing she saw as what it was, a major crime against humanity. After that, she never quite fit in again in South Carolina. In 1829, Sarah and her sister Angelina moved to Philly, quit their protestant church and joined a Quaker fellowship. The sisters quickly learned that even the Quakers did not really appreciate open discussion of what they called "controversial issues." So the sisters did what all independent thinkers do when some group tries to interfere...they went public and louder. Both sisters went on to publish widely read tracts and they became featured speakers at antislavery rallies. Both deserve a lily. But sadly, we are running out of lilies up here and will need to make many additions to Sandy's collection for next year.
The Grimke Sisters Lily:
How would you like for your most famous quote to be purposefully twisted into a dialect that you did not even speak? Imagine, Belle Baumfree a Dutch speaking young woman who lived near Rifton, New York. Unlike most stories of enslaved people taking back their freedom, Belle knew that the State of New York had determined emancipation of all of it's enslaved people to happen on 4th of July 1827 (THAT to some of the slaves was the 4th of July.) But the man who owned her raped her and sold her infant son to some family in Alabama. Belle did not "run off." She says she held her head high and just walked away, got a job, raised some money and went to federal court to get back her five year old son. She won the case! By 1843, Belle could have settled down and enjoyed her well deserved freedom. Instead she changed her name, wrote a book, and traveled all over the country making speeches and raising awareness about the evils of slavery and the need for women to have equal rights.
The Sojourner Truth Lily:
Lilies stay in bloom much longer than do irises. Still, I believe we are nearing the end of the new variety blossom celebration. There will be lilies in bloom for nearly a month. But the late bloomers are just about done.
Laurel Arwen Petrulionis is still a very young person. Yet she seems to be racing against the universal clock inside her that keeps saying something like, "Go girl. There is a world to be fixed and no time to waste!" Many projects have come her way and she has taken them up. From joining protests in her own home town when still a pre-teen to her present occupation which I will discuss below. (NOTE TO ALL OF THOSE ADULTS WHO SMILED AND SAID THE WORLD WAS TOO COMPLEX FOR HER TO UNDERSTAND: Turns out little Laurel was right. The war WAS unnecessary, it WAS sold on false claims as somehow a just act of revenge for 9/11 and/or a search for imaginary weapons of mass destruction and linkages to the perps of 9/11, all of which turned out to be lies...murderous, criminal, expensive, and unredeemed lies.) Over and over she has marched, protested, lobbied, and argued for rights for almost every group of people who she thought needed her help, even and too often while those same groups of people would have not granted Laurel the respect she deserves for her polite lack of affiliation with any religion or metaphysical doctrine. But Laurel has kept on keeping on. Today she is taking on debt toward a high priced law degree with the full intention of using that degree to help bring the law and Justice itself into closer correspondence. That kind of law practice, known often as "public interest law" is not a high paying endeavor. But she is entering that side of the profession with open eyes. This summer, she has taken an internship with a wonderful organization providing legal services to people who would not have been able to afford to hire an attorney. To a skeptical father's question of "why and why West Virginia?" She answered that justice is not a commodity that should sell only to the highest bidder and the people of West Virginia deserve access to legal redress just as much as anyone else." Her activities there have included research into the sadly negligent medical care afforded to prisoners in our prison system, defending clients against unjust and illegal foreclosure activities by lenders, to helping to devise ways for people to recover lost savings invested in multi-level-marketing schemes. While she may not yet deserve the Peace Medal or the Presidential Medal of Freedom, Laurel certainly deserves a lily.
"The Laurel Arwen Petrulionis"
These Liberation Lilies are named for people who devoted (or devote) their lives to the fight for liberty. But that begs the eternal question, "what do we mean by liberty?" Most historical uses of the term describe a human empowered to make and benefit from their own choices. Usually Liberty is seen as the opposite of tyranny, often interpreted as some kind of powerful emperor, an oligarchy, or a dictator. What may surprise many is that Liberty is most often the opposite of unregulated democracy, because the most powerful tyranny in the world is the will of the majority, or mob rule. To have real liberty, a person must be empowered to choose, either by a Constitution or a recognized bill human rights, even if every neighbor, and even if the vast majority of the population disagrees with that choice. Of course, my right to exercise my own free choice must not intrude on your rights to make your own choices for your own reasons. And the decision over where that line should be drawn is the essential ethical question: where do my rights end and public rights begin?
Margaret Higgins Sanger (d. 1966) lived during an era when males had several natural advantages over most females in the exercise of their choices. Men could remain unmarried or marry, usually with little impact on their careers or mobility. Even with large families and even during the age of slow steamships, a father could travel abroad for work, academic study, and tourism. Women with children were usually expected to remain in the home and either keep the house themselves or, if wealthy enough, to oversee the work of domestic staff. Hence, an unfair advantage for males in a population that needed children to sustain a society. Any attempt to discuss the biological background of this unfair situation was often labeled "obscenity" by a majority seeing to impose its opinions on individual women. Many laws were passed in the USA to prevent the publication of books that might assist women in understanding their options and offering methods and resources for regulating their own bodies and reproductive schedules. This was certainly one important example of the old ethical question, where do individual rights end and public rights begin? Individuals might control their own reproductive cycle, plan their own pregnancy, and thereby exhibit their own choices. What standing does anyone else have in such a private decision?
Margaret Sanger wrote at least eleven books and/or pamphlets, many of which were written with the intention of challenging the federal and state laws which prohibited any publications on the topic of sexuality or family planning. She was arrested at least eight times and imprisoned for months. Today Margaret Sanger is known as a crusader for birth control and family planning, and these she certainly was. But another contribution to American Liberty was her role as a tireless advocate for freedom of expression. So let me leave you with one image before you see the photographs of her lily. In 1929, in Boston, Sanger had been scheduled to give a public lecture. The city officials withheld permission for her to speak and threatened her with yet another stint in a workhouse if she did so. Instead, Arthur Schlessinger Jr., read the speech that night, while Margaret Sanger stood next to the podium with a gag over her mouth. Sometimes symbolic gestures speak much louder than the argument itself.
The Margaret Higgins Sanger lily:
Unless you live in the vicinity of Mud Creek, KY, you may not have heard of Eula Hall, born in 1927. If I may, might I interest you in a marvelous trip through Appalachian Regional History by recommending you read Jessica Wilkerson's TO LIVE HERE YOU HAVE TO FIGHT: HOW WOMEN LED APPALACHIAN MOVEMENTS FOR SOCIAL JUSTICE, U. Ill. Press, 2019. You'd be in for a real treat. This book is difficult to put down. You will be drawn into many stories of courage, struggle, overcoming of great odds, facing down power, i.e., this is a history book about the human condition stretched past its admirable limits. Eula Hall is only one of many women social justice warriors you will meet. Born to sharecroppers in Kentucky, Eula Hall might have spent her life just trying to achieve a little comfort for herself and her family. Instead, she formed Mud Creek Clinic, a medical clinic operating with few resources for people who had no access to affordable health care. In 1982 the clinic was intentionally burned. The very next day a picnic table pulled from the ruins of the flame became an examination table and patients were treated there despite the temporary setback. No patient in need has been turned away. In 1985 a newer and better facility opened its doors and is still treating patients, 213 thousand of them in 2017. The complex has its own laboratory, X-Ray facilities, dental care, emergency care, and wellness programming. Yes, for this and other ongoing social activist efforts and accomplishments, Eula Hall has had honorary doctorates, awards, highway's named after her, and a host of appreciative neighbors. Now she has a lily.
The Eula Hall Lily:
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