A bronze bust of the Sojourner Truth, a famous activist for racial and gender equality, stands at the Emancipation Hall at the US Capitol Visitor Center. It is the first sculpture to honor and celebrate an African-American woman in the US Capitol. Donated by the National Congress of Black Women, the bust was unveiled on April 28th, 2009, in a special ceremony that included the keynote speakers: First Lady Michelle Obama, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi.
The bust was created by the contemporary figurative artist Artis Lane. Among the many portraits and sculptures of notable people she sculptured are Aretha Franklin, Oprah Winfrey, and the bust of her great, great aunt, Mary Ann Shadd Cary. The latter was an abolitionist, suffragist, journalist, publisher, teacher, lawyer, the first black woman publisher in North America, and Canada’s first woman publisher.
Sojourner Truth (1797-1883) was born as Isabella Baumfree into slavery and was sold between four different masters in a Dutch-speaking community in New York. At 28, she escaped with her infant daughter, and the Van Wagenen family bought her freedom.
She sued her last master for selling one of her sons. She won, regained custody of her son, and became the first black woman to sue a white man in a United States court.
She followed a calling to become a preacher in her forties and changed her name to Sojourner Truth. She toured and lectured all over the US on abolitionism and women’s rights, including at the first National Women’s Rights Convention in Worcester in 1850 and the Ohio Women’s Rights Convention in Akron, Ohio, in 1851.
On November 26th, 1883, she died at her home in Battle Creek, Michigan.
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