| By Deb Kirby |
A couple of days after Senator Elizabeth Warren’s attempted silencing on the floor of the U.S. Senate during Attorney Jeff Sessions’ confirmation hearings, I ordered a tee shirt featuring the now famous phrase, Nevertheless, She Persisted. That evening as my husband and I waited in the noisy lobby of Ann Arbor’s Hill Auditorium for a concert, I mentioned to him that I had ordered the shirt. He looked puzzled, so I started to relay the senate incident. He had already read about it, but still didn’t get it. All was made clear when he said he didn’t understand why the phrase “Nevertheless, Sheep Persisted” had anything to do with it.
Sometimes persistence means just continuing a conversation in a crowded, noisy lobby until full understanding is reached after a bit of hilarity. More noteworthy results are reached when people persist to beat back oppression of any kind. This type of persistence is being honored to coincide with Women’s History Month this March by the National Women’s History Month Project, the theme of which is Nevertheless, She Persisted: Honoring Women Who Fight All Forms of Discrimination Against Women.
Read about this year’s honorees in Biography In Context, including labor activist Saru Jayaraman, immigration activists Angelica Salas and Cristina Jiménez, and women’s and civil rights activist Pauli Murray.
And don’t forget, the woman responsible for the popularity of the phrase, Senator Elizabeth Warren.
About the Author
When Debra, a 30-year veteran of the publishing industry, is not working or reading, she can be found gardening, running, swimming, or pursuing the lifelong learning that is at the tip of her fingers via Gale databases.