Richard L. Copley took this photograph in 1968 at the Memphis sanitation workers' strike -- the reason Martin Luther King Jr. was in Memphis on the day he was killed.

“The lights went up, the music went off, and you could hear a pin drop.”

This essay expounds on the injustices and false perceptions faced by women in the welfare system. Tillmon contends that the system is overrun with sexism and that until American women are liberated by equal pay, the welfare system will continue to be a trap for them.

Sojourner Truth delivered this speech at the 1851 Women’s Rights Convention in Akron, Ohio. Born into slavery, Truth is widely known for her abolition and women’s rights work. Two versions of this speech are included.