Harriet Tubman freed more than 70 slaves over the course of 13 clandestine missions in her lifetime. That number is infinitesimal compared to the millions of Africans in bondage before the American Civil War. But Tubman’s legend had a psychological impact on the enslaved and the free, on Black and white, that far exceeded her armspan and lifespan. Tubman, the tenacious liberator of Black slaves, was called “Moses” because she led her people to “the promised land.” Some people have also called the election and inauguration of Barack Obama’s as the 44th president of the United States a substantial fulfillment of that American promise.

Tubman was born Araminta Ross in Dorchester County, Maryland. Araminta, called “Minty,” was a slave, as were her parents, brothers, sisters and extended family. Tubman was always rebellious, naturally enraged at the brutality of her bondage. But it was the repeated “sell-offs” of members of her family that first prompted her escape to free territory in Philadelphia, and then to boldly sneak back across the Mason-Dixon line to rescue her loved ones.

In the years before the Civil War, despite the passage of a tough fugitive slave law, Tubman braved capture and death to lead over a dozen missions to free scores of slaves, mostly from Maryland’s Eastern Shore. During journeys that went as far north as Canada, she used an already established network of houses and way-stations owned by freed Blacks and sympathetic whites, dubbed the “Underground Railroad.”

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In the north, Tubman befriended abolitionists and rebels like John Brown, for whom she raised money. At the dawn of the war, Tubman joined the Union forces as a nurse, an aid to refugees, and a scout. After the war and Emancipation, Tubman lent her efforts to another liberation movement: women’s suffrage. She died in 1913.

To say that Tubman was tough is an understatement. She set the bar very high indeed for the men and women who followed. It is that determination in the face of violence, death and failure that is Tubman’s greatest legacy.

The Marley family has just released pictures of Bob Marley’s wife, Rita and his son, Ziggy’s visit to the White House. I wonder how Bob would feel to know that a Black man with the same bi-racial heritage as him is president of the United States, the heart of Babylon. I wonder how Marley would react to his song, “One Love,” being used to celebrate the inauguration of Barack Obama.

Thirty years after Jamaican reggae artist Bob Marley united the world under the banner of peace, unity, and human rights, Barack Obama inspired the world with a similar message. Bob Marley chastised corrupt politicians and war while exhorting oppressed people to “get up, stand up.” Both Marley and Obama would not only win the love of the Black people, but also the admiration of young, idealistic whites who would further Marley’s cause. Bob Marley was born in Jamaica in 1946. His father, Captain Norval Marley, was an officer in the English Navy as well as a plantation overseer. His mother was an 18-year-old black woman by the name of Cedella Booker. Marley’s parents didn’t stay together. His father died when Marley was 10.

As a young man, Marley moved to Kingston, Jamaica’s capital, where a burgeoning music scene was developing. Marley joined up with local musicians such as Peter Tosh and Bunny Wailer. The trio formed the Wailers and recorded with some of Jamaica’s top producers. Marley composed several songs that represented the angst of the Jamaican underclass, and the tensions between the haves and have-nots in his native land.

It wasn’t until Bob Marley signed with Chris Blackwell’s Island Records that Marley would take his sound around the world. Bob Marley positioned himself the rebel, singing songs that people all over the world could relate to, songs like “I Shot The Sheriff,” “Get Up, Stand Up,” and “Concrete Jungle.” Marley was able to do what King and Ghandi did, and what Obama accomplished in 2008 — rally educated people of European backgrounds around the cause of multiculturalism and racial harmony. The same populist underdog voice Marley’s songs echoes in Obama’s speeches.

While Marley painted a dark picture, there was always an undying optimism in his voice, a sense that things would get better, that people could unite to end racism and classism.

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Both Marley and Obama have the ability to be militant without being threatening. Obama’s anti-war stance and criticism of America’s social system reflected the angst of the working and middle class in America. Still, he was able to sweeten up his strong desire for change with calls of unity, hope, and progress in an all-inclusive America. Similarly, Marley managed to remain pro-Black and a voice of the downtrodden while sweetening up his message with calls for love, peace and unity. The millions of white Americans who grew up on Marley’s music — from the frat boys, to the hippies, to the millions of Americans who’ve heard his songs on the radio and own his “Legend” CD — became the a crucial part of Obama’s “post-racial” America.

Obama and Marley made the same bi-partisan efforts to unite people. After Marley was shot, he united the heads of the warring Jamaican political parties at the historic “One Love” peace concert in Jamaica. Bob Marley was the voice of the Third World, but was still able to attract the attention of the European upper-class, royalty and celebrities. Time Magazine named “Exodus” the “Album of the Century,” and the BBC named “One Love” the song of the century.

Marley said: “I don’t have prejudice against meself. My father was a white and my mother was black. Them call me half-caste or whatever. Me don’t dip on nobody’s side. Me don’t dip on the black man’s side nor the white man’s side. Me dip on God’s side, the one who create me and cause me to come from black and white.”

Click here to see video of Bob Marley!

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Dear Michelle,

If I had to assign a visual to accompany Maya Angelou’s poem “Phenomenal Woman”, I’d choose yours. Your blend of confidence, humility, sparkling intelligence, and compassion you exude are indeed phenomenal. Neither a pre-positioned doll nor trophy wife you have real friends of your own; a life of your own design. The success I want for you in your new role is beyond articulation.

It is precisely your authenticity that inspires me to speak up on work-life balance, because you’ve set its achievement among your priorities as First Lady. After seventeen years of working and eight years of motherhood, I humbly suggest a reframing of the work-life balance conversation.

I assert that what women need is work-life function. ‘Balance’ connotes equal distribution. No one woman can be at the meeting that runs long, at the spring recital, and lounging before the fire in lingerie at one time. Inevitably, something gets sacrificed. If nothing else, the phrase is a misnomer. Even the leaders in the field acknowledge this: according to Jim Bird, CEO of worklifebalance.com, “work-life balance is not a problem to be solved. It is an issue to be managed.”
You are most fortunate to have a husband who is a present, loving, and participating father; and equally blessed to have your mother with you to share in the labor of love known as parenting. What about married women of soldiers on duty? What about single moms, women with absentee spouses who opt out of parenting, or women whose parents or extended family are in different locations, differently abled, or deceased? What about the women who can’t afford to hire a nanny or even a babysitter on a consistent basis?

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Women need family and career lives to work instead of just hang in the balance. According to some important research, the AFL-CIO says women now outnumber men in the occupational labor category, comprising 56.2% as of 2008. Despite being the majority of managers and executives, women still earn 23% less income than their male counterparts. (It is worth noting here that the National Organization of Women website points out that “for women of color, this [pay] gap is even wider.”) Nearly half of working women cannot support themselves with one job, so they have two or more to supplement income until equal pay for equal work is a reality. This figure has jumped 22% since 1974. According to a 1996 report by the AARP, 44% of women between the ages of 45 and 55 are caring for a parent and a child as members of Generation S, the Sandwich Generation. In short, the demands on women have grown, by far outpacing their earning power. If anything needs balance, it’s the pay scale. With your husband’s signing of the Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, we’re on the right path.

When it comes to my career and family, it is not balance, but alignment that I seek. Balance is for yoga and budgets. I’ve figured out that I can have it all, just not all at once. Frankly, I don’t need to have it all at the same time. I just need harmony in the orchestration of my life. And I need for our leaders to make a new commitment to provide the aforementioned equal pay for equal work, to allow deductions for weight loss and fitness expenses, increases credits and deductions related to child care, designated employee sick time for the care of dependents, corporate incentives to provide access to child care on or near the job site, and of course, universal health care, which will bring considerable relief for all Americans.
Yes working women can achieve first-class working citizenship. Yes, Americans can have careers and family lives that work. Balancing the two, as it turns out, is overrated.

Respectfully yours,
Thembisa Mshaka

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In addition to being a copywriter, voice actor, wife and mother, Thembisa S. Mshaka is the author of the career guide, “Put Your Dreams First: Handle Your [entertainment Business]”.

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Click here to read about Oprah Winfrey!

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Click here to read about Women and Work In The Age of Obama!

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A woman who believes “luck is preparation meeting opportunity,” Oprah Gail Winfrey has continuously shattered gender and racial barriers in America. Winfrey is the most successful talk show host in American TV history — male or female, Black or white — and the first female African-American billionaire. As one of the most influential women in the world, Winfrey continues to be a beacon that transcends racial and social barriers, much like Barack Obama. In 2006, Winfrey endorsed Obama for president, her first public political stance ever. She accompanied the Obamas on the campaign trail. But perhaps her greatest contribution to the ascendance of Barack Obama is how she prepared America for him through her show, as an African-American who won the hearts of women from all walks of life.

WATCH: Oprah Winfrey delivering 2008 Stanford Commencement speech.

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A woman who believes “luck is preparation meeting opportunity,” Oprah Gail Winfrey has continuously shattered gender and racial barriers in America. Winfrey is the most successful talk show host in American TV history — male or female, Black or white — and the first female African-American billionaire. As one of the most influential women in the world, Winfrey continues to be a beacon that transcends racial and social barriers, much like Barack Obama. In 2006, Winfrey endorsed Obama for president, her first public political stance ever. She accompanied the Obamas on the campaign trail. But perhaps her greatest contribution to the ascendance of Barack Obama is how she prepared America for him through her show, as an African-American who won the hearts of women from all walks of life.

Winfrey was born on January 29, 1954 in Kosciusko, Mississippi to unwed teenage parents, Vernita Lee and Vernon Winfrey. Her parents sent her to live with her grandmother, where she learned to read by the age of three. Despite living in poverty, she excelled in school, later receiving a full-scholarship to Tennessee State University.

Winfrey’s career blossomed when she moved to Chicago in 1984 to host “AM Chicago,” a morning talk show at WLS-TV’s. It soon became the number one ranked talk show and was renamed “The Oprah Winfrey Show.” In 1988, she became the first African-American woman in the American entertainment industry to own her production company, Harpo Productions.

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In addition to being a daytime TV pioneer, Winfrey is a generous philanthropist, often making significant contributions to those in need. She donated $10 million to help re-build the lives of Hurricane Katrina victims. Winfrey spent $40 million building the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls in South Africa. She personally selected all of the girls from low-income families to attend the boarding school.

Throughout her success, Winfrey has used her influence to bring about change on various platforms. In 2007, Winfrey held a fundraiser for Obama at her estate, and went on to rally in the early primary states: South Carolina, New Hampshire and Iowa.

Her show continues to attract an estimated 14 million viewers daily in the U.S. and millions more in 141 other countries throughout the world. Winfrey’s resilience continues to shine as she sets an example of excellence and perseverance. But most of all, she has become daily staple for women across America, women who saw in Oprah someone they trusted, someone who was in many ways just like them. In so doing, she lifted Obama to the presidency, both directly and symbolically.

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From The New York Times:

Following are two poems by Barack Obama that were published in the Spring 1981 issue of “Feast,” a 51-page student literary journal that described itself as “a semi-annual journal of short poetry and fiction collected from the Occidental College community.” The journal is no longer published, according to a college spokesman.

To read Obama’s poetry, click here.

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One of the most astounding voices in African-American literature, Maya Angelou is heralded for her literary prowess and activism. Working alongside Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr., Angelou was a profound figure in the Civil Rights Movement, and was the first Black woman to have a screenplay produced. The Grammy Award-winning poet is an icon that continues to motivate and inspire. Her accomplishments and voice have moved people beyond boundaries of race and gender, setting the standard for figures like Barack Obama.

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VIDEO: Maya Angelou speaks to Harry Smith about Obama’s victory and recites her poem “I Rise.”

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One of the most astounding voices in African-American literature, Maya Angelou is heralded for her literary prowess and activism. Working alongside Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr., Angelou was a profound figure in the Civil Rights Movement, and was the first Black woman to have a screenplay produced. The Grammy Award-winning poet is an icon that continues to motivate and inspire. Her accomplishments and voice have moved people beyond boundaries of race and gender, setting the standard for figures like Barack Obama.

She was born Marguerite Ann Johnson in St. Louis, Missouri, on April 4, 1928. When she was a 3-year-old Angelou’s parent divorced and sent her to live with her grandmother in Stamps, Arkansas. Living in the South, she endured legally enforced racial discrimination on a daily basis, which would later influence her writing. Angelou attended Mission High School and fought to overcome a harrowing childhood.

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She followed a less traditional route becoming a teenage mother and exploring various jobs from a cook to a madam at a brothel. Angelou’s first book, “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings,” recounts the first 16 years of her life and is the first of her autobiographies.

While her poetry addresses social and political issues pertinent to African-Americans, Angelou has continuously transcended racial lines and is no stranger to the political stage. President Ford appointed her to the American Revolution Bicentennial Commission and she was invited to serve on the Presidential Commission for the International Year of the Woman by President Carter. In 1993, Bill Clinton asked her to compose a poem to recite at his inauguration. She wrote, “On the Pulse of the Morning.” Angelou was the second person to ever produce a body of work for an inauguration.

Angelou was awarded The Horatio Alger Association of Distinguished Americans Award and received a fellowship from Yale University. In August 2006, she received the Mother Teresa Award. The prolific Angelou has produced plays, composed music for movies and written a number of autobiographies. She’s written riveting poetry, countless short stories and articles, and continues to lecture at universities throughout the country. And as a powerful elder with roots in the Civil Rights movement and personal ties to the two most iconic Black leaders of the 1960s, Maya Angelou can rightly claim a sweet piece of Barack Obama’s electoral victory and presidential inauguration as hers.

Click here to see video of Maya Angelou!

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From Tom McGeveran at The New York Observer:

Legendary novelist and editor Toni Morrison’s endorsement of Barack Obama is obviously not significant for her ability to move voters at the polls, which is not proven and probably not likely to be proven. But given her perceived attachment to the Clintons—Bill, she famously once called America’s first black president; and Hillary she has been close to in the past—we thought it worth printing in full the letter of endorsement she sent to the Illinois senator, as released by the Obama campaign.

Click here for the full letter.

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