To the Editor:
As our nation prepares to mark its 250th anniversary, the Princeton community has the opportunity to reflect on the concept of “We the People,” which has evolved from a narrow idea to a more inclusive reality that truly includes all people. In the Black tradition, this ideal lives in the responsibility each generation accepts to advance inclusivity for the next one. The work of democracy becomes a relay race towards universal justice, where the baton of struggle and hope passes from one generation of scholars, activists and community leaders to the next.
As we celebrate Women’s History Month in this 250th year since gaining Independence, Not In Our Town Princeton, a multi-racial, multi-faith group standing together for racial justice and inclusive communities, honors some of the extraordinary Black women and other women of color who expanded the circle of American democracy: Sojourner Truth, an enslaved woman who freed herself and went on to become an abolitionist and social reformer; Zitkála-Šá, who fought for Native American suffrage and rights; Ida B. Wells, who, under threat to her life, publicized the horrors of lynchings of African Americans in the Jim Crow South; Fannie Lou Hamer and Ella Baker, whose grassroots leadership sustained the Civil Rights Movement; Grace Lee Boggs, who dedicated her life to labor activism, civil rights, and a more just and inclusive society; Dolores Huerta, who championed labor rights for vulnerable farmworkers; Adelina Otero-Warren, who made suffrage accessible across languages; and Patsy Takemoto Mink, whose co-authorship of Title IX transformed educational equity for all.
These stories remind us that citizenship is not passive. It is an active commitment — showing up and speaking up, continuously advancing democracy and fiercely defending it when the need arises.
As expressed in the poem, “Legacy,” by Rupi Kaur,
“i stand
on the sacrifices
of a million women before me
thinking
what can i do
to make this mountain taller
so the women after me
can see farther
— legacy”