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Part Two: Badass Disabled Women of Colour Who Made History
Being a disabled woman has its own unique challenges, as the intersections of patriarchy and ableism constantly inter-play. Our society sees women as sex objects, but disabled people as entirely sexless. Women and disabled people have both been looked down on and assumed to be of lesser intelligence than abled men, and both have been denied opportunities for work and fair pay.
But for disabled Women of Colour or BAME women, both today and in the distant and not-too-distant past, racism has compounded these issues and made it not just a struggle to thrive, but a struggle to survive. For the successful disabled Women of Colour who have made it into our history books, often their disabilities have been overlooked, which leads to an incomplete picture of the intersections of oppression they faced in order to succeed.
In Part Two of this series, I’ve brought together six incredible disabled Women of Colour who changed our world.
Sojourner Truth (1797–1883)
Sojourner Truth was a black abolitionist and women’s rights activist in the 19th century. She was born into slavery, and although the fourth slave owner she was sold to promised to free her within a year of New York completing the emancipation process, he later reneged on his promise, claiming the hand injury that had made her disabled had also made her less productive.
Infuriated, she escaped along with her infant daughter, but was forced to leave her other children behind. Later, she learnt that her 5-year-old son, Peter, had been illegally sold in Alabama, and in 1828 she began legal proceedings against the man who bought him.
After months of fighting and campaigning, her son was returned to her, making her one of the first black women to go to court against a white man and win.
In later years, she travelled the country preaching the abolition of slavery and in favour of women’s rights. Her most famous speech, ‘Ain’t I a Woman?’, was delivered at the Ohio Women’s Rights Convention, in which she demanded equal human rights for all women and all black Americans, saying:
“I have heard much about the sexes being equal; I can carry as much as any…
