Former Ohio State Senator Nina Turner Speech: Wishbone, Jawbone, Backbone
Civil Rights Rally
MLK Day March
Washington, DC
West Potomac Park
January 14, 2017
From Essence.com, “In celebration of his memory, the National Action Network hosted The MLK March in Washington, DC on Saturday in an effort to continue the fight for African-American civil rights began by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and brought to the White House by President Barack Obama. Among the many highlights of the event was a powerful speech delivered by former Ohio State Senator Nina Turner, who encouraged attendees to press forward towards change for the better and stand firm in knowing that the Black community has overcome similar hardships in the past to the ones we face.”
(4/5) LIFTING AS WE CLIMB // If you don’t know of, have never listened to, don’t agree, don’t FEEL Nina Turner (D), former state senator — you might still enjoy this powerful graphic @rdcollectivepodcast on Instagram. To me, this image brings visual life to a statement that former Ohio State Senator Nina Turner makes, though her oratory style feels more like she DECLARES. (See below) In searching for Nina Turner’s original speech, however, I found audio on YouTube & portions in multiple articles and Twitter; Pinterest graphics & snippets of her speech pulled out, and that’s all beautiful.
But her whole speech, word-for-word (because I swear every line is powerful), I’ve not been able to find. So I’m changing that in this blog. Am I, a copywriter, particular about words? Sure. Absolutely. And, I’m also a feminist and a seeker of justice — and it burns me up that I am easily able to find all kinds of speeches word-for-word (Gettysburg address, presidential acceptance speeches, speech writers given due credit even) BUT NOT NINA TURNER’S?
Not this powerful Black woman who makes me feel like Martin Luther King Jr. himself is in the air, not her speech that she takes to the mic and stirs up souls?
Civil Rights Rally
MLK Day March
Washington, DC
West Potomac Park
January 14, 2017
Scene: rainy and cold, crowd in winter coats with umbrellas
Nina Turner is introduced to the microphone: “We’re Fired Up! Fired up!” he says *crowd cheers yeah! and Ready to go! “Senator Nina Turner of Ohio is going to represent Senator Bernie Sanders. Let’s celebrate her coming.”
*claps
Former Ohio State Senator Nina Turner: “Sisters and Brother, Brothers and Sisters, I counted all joy to be here with you on this rainy afternoon and I’m so glad that Reverend Al did not stop this, because this gives us just a little taste of what our ancestors had to endure. Now, we got troubles, but we don’t have middle passage troubles. We got troubles, but we don’t have selling your Mama, your kids, and your Daddy on the block type-troubles.
This moment reminds me of a spiritual song in the African American tradition, “How I Got Over”. ‘My soul looks back and wonders how I got over.’ Now Sisters and Brothers, we know we got over by the blood, the sweat, and the tears of “she-roes” and heroes, some whose names we know and some whose names we do not know. But I’m going to tell you something: We have been here before.
Now, the only difference is we got some company, Rev. We got our Gay Lesbian Sisters and Brothers with us this time. We got our Hispanic, Asian, Native American Sisters and Brothers with us this time. I think Dr. Reverend Martin Luther King said, ‘We may not have gotten here on the same ship, but we are in the same boat right now!’ We have been here before.
And I know that you might be disappointed, but I want you to take solace in these words. ‘We must accept finite disappointment but never lose infinite hope.’ The valley may be lower, but we’ve been before. The mountain might be higher, but we’ve been here before. Because our mission for social justice and economic justice and political justice -- and oh, by the way Sisters, we want our whole damn dollar, say whole damn dollar.
You see the mission is so high we can’t get over it, and the mission is so low we can’t get under it, and the mission is so wide we can’t get around it. We might be disappointed, but we have been here before. And as sure as there is a God in Heaven, he is stronger and more powerful than any man. We cannot forget where we have come from.
So, Sisters and Brothers, I want to leave you with these three things:
Number one, the creator of this great Universe has given us two hands, one to reach forward and one to reach back, lifting as we climb.
Number two, and most importantly, we can’t ask other folks to do more for us than we are willing to do for ourselves.
And, lastly, in the words of my grandmother, who was hailed from the South, born in 1913, Grandma could not read or write, but she could count her money. She kept her money in the Southern Ladies Bank and Trust with a handkerchief, ya’ll know what I’m saying.
When I asked Grandma, ‘What does it take to be successful in life?’ she said, ‘All you need are the three bones: the wishbone, the jawbone, and the backbone.’ She said the wishbone will keep you hoping and praying because hope is the motivator but the dream is the driver. The jawbone will give you courage to speak truth to power. But the most important bone of them all, the supercalifragilisticexpialidocious bone, hey, is the backbone. ‘Cuz it will keep you standing through your trials and tribulations.
And guess what Sisters and Brothers? We can’t have a testimony without a test. And we are being tested right now. Whether or not we’ve got courage enough, hope enough, fight enough, life enough to do what is necessary.
Hallelujah, somebody.
*note, I intentionally did not include excessive punctuation (!!!!) and/or CAPITALIZATION although if you listen to Nina speak, you’ll see why I strongly considered. I chose not to because her words, alone, are noteworthy—and not punctuation nor capitalization could even come close to encapsulating the force that this woman throws down when speaking.
post (4/5) on Instagram // LIFTING AS WE CLIMB
Join me @feelthesewordswriter as I fumble my way through paying proper and genuine respect to Black culture during Black History Month—and how to continue beyond February.