Three Wise Women

Their names may not be easily recognizable, but each of these Southern Ladies has left an indelible mark on American history.

Their names are Harriet Tubman, Rosa Parks, and Helen Keller.  Harriet Tubman is slated to have her face replace that of Andrew Jackson on the twenty dollar bill. Rosa Parks and Helen Keller, both natives of Alabama, will be the first women to have their faces be depicted on the Capitol grounds in Montgomery.

Harriet Tubman (1820-1913) was born into slavery on a Maryland plantation.  In 1849, when she was in her early 20s, she escaped to Philadelphia which--thanks to the efforts of the Quakers -- had long welcomed escapedd slaves to the North.  Having found freedom, she returned to her home state and helped hundreds of escaped slaves make their way to Canada via the Underground Railroad. During the Civil War she worked as a scout, spy, nurse, and cook for the Union Army.  At one point, she led the Union Army's Combahee River Raid, that liberated 700 enslaved African Americans.  After the war she made her home in upstate New York, where she would marry and work tirelessly for women's suffrage.

Helen Keller (1880-1968) was born as Jim Crow racial segregation was taking root in Alabama.  Her white family had the means to find help, when she lost both sight and hearing as a child.  Eventually, Ms Keller learned to communicate through braille.  She graduated from college and became an inspiring advocate for individuals with disabilities.

Ms. Keller exuded "vitality and optimism," according to The New York Times. "My life has been happy" with "interesting work," she said.  "I seldom think about my limitations, and they never make me sad."  As a woman of faith, she said,  "I believe that all through these dark years and silent years, God has been using me."

Rosa Parks (1913-2005), grew up on a farm, where her grandfather often kept watch all night, rifle in hand, to fend off the Ku Klux Klan.  Ms Parks, who earned a high school diploma and worked as a seamstress, was as active member of the Montgomery chapter of the NAACP.  In December 1955, she refused to give up her seat to a white passenger.  And it wasn't because she was worn and wanted to rest her feet.

"No, the only tired I was, was tired of giving in," Ms. Parks wrote in her autobiography.

Her arrest sparked the year-long Montgomery bus boycott by Black residents.  In November 1956, the U.S. Supreme Court declared segregation on public transportation unconstitutional.  But, unable to work, Ms. Parks and her husband moved to Detroit.

"God did away with all my fear," she wrote in 1995.  "I am thankful to him every day that he gave me the strength not to move."

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