DID YOU KNOW? for December 20, 2022 – January 2, 2023: 

DID YOU KNOW…Maria W. Stewart (1803 – December 17, 1879) is known as America’s first black woman political writer.  She was a Connecticut (free-born) African-American teacher, journalist, lecturer, evangelist, abolitionist, and women's rights activist. Stewart was a pioneer by her speaking to mixed audiences of men and women, white and black. She was also a trail-blazer as the first African-American woman to make public lectures, and to lecture about women's rights, and publicly speak against slavery. 

In an 1831 speech, Stewart exhorted her audience to action in saying,“O, ye daughters of Africa, awake! awake! arise! no longer sleep nor slumber, but distinguish yourselves. Show forth to the world that ye are endowed with noble and exalted faculties.” This quote from her has been used as a call-to-action by generations since, and often appears in reproductions of Stewart's writings and speeches.

Learn more…

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maria_W._Stewart