Going Against The Grain: Part Four

"Coming to Voice: Maria W. Stewart, a Case in Point"

In this section of Going Against The Grain, we see a life model of the attributes necessary of black women discussed earlier in the passage. Maria W. Stewart was a powerful black woman who spoke out in order to put fire behind black female progressiveness. She uses her literacy to push the entire race and gender forward, as opposed to solely out of individual need or desire. As Freire would say, she developed her own "critical consciousness." In reading states, "They re-envisioned their context, reshaped their sense of reality, charted courses of action, including rhetorical actions, that would lay the foundations from which a tradition of literacy and social action would emerge." This was the type of woman Maria W. Stewart was. Stewart's husband was politically active in speaking out about social liberation and equality for African-Americans, many argue that because of her husband's position, she was granted more possibilities and less backfire. On December 7th, 1829, her husband, James Stewart, died due to illness. James Stewart was a wealthy man considering his African-American racial status, however Maria never saw the money she should have rightfully been given. Because Stewart was a woman, and a black woman, she experienced "blatant displays of discrimination for both her race and her gender, she found herself stripped almost totally of all that he had owned." In this case, it's apparent to me the lack of respect and the lack of consideration for African-American women. The white men fighting for the money gave no thought to her level of income, or how she was living after his death.  Events such as these gave her the drive to speak out publicly. However, during this time period, women weren't given this privilege.  Stewart provided a life example of how women were going to have to step out of their comfort zones and fight for what they wanted and believed in, all the time and endlessly. At 76 years old, she was still fighting and filed a pension as the widow of a war veteran. Stewart fought for years on end, until her death for the betterment of African-American women. She paved the way for many women who would have to take those same kinds of stands against society.