To Every Colored Woman,
There are doubts as to who and what
we are. There is confusion as to what belongs to us and what is free for the
taking. There is a misunderstanding as to what we will and will not stand for.
These errors will be corrected now.
The colored woman has been
abandoned and abused for far too long. Our mothers and grandmothers carried the
weight of white hatred for centuries too long. They relied upon the white
government and the colored man to remove the chains that have kept us shackled, and
we have been left waiting and rotting. We have been shown that the only ones
that can and will liberate us are ourselves. This seems to be a fight that we
will have to fight alone but we will fight it thousands strong if it means
freedom to live as humans and to the full extent of the definition of a woman,
and I do mean the full extent.
Every woman has the right to
embrace the beauty and capabilities of their own body. Why is it that the
colored woman is portrayed as overly sexual and has her option to voice her dissent
snatched from her mouth? The colored woman is
a woman. Not a single person on this God given Earth has the right to treat us
as if we are not. The colored woman will embrace her sexuality and will make
the decision for herself whether or not she will act on it. That is a promise
that I make to myself and to you.
Mary Church Terrell
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