When one examines the history of Black people, one examines the power of women.
This is what people tend to understand in February.
In Black History Month, when people look into the most crucial points of the African diaspora, they eventually encounter several names. They come across Sojourner Truth, Harriett Tubman, Ida B. Wells, Rosa Parks, and many others. They meet the women—more specifically, the Black women—who carried the burden of liberation on their shoulders. The civil rights movement kicked off because of a woman’s defiance, and it progressed and achieved its goals because many like her stood up, risked their lives and fought for freedom.
But Black women weren’t the only ones to do this.
And that too becomes clear when one looks at the stories that came to be in February.
February 1, 1978 – First postage stamp to honor a black woman, Harriet Tubman, is issued in Washington, DC
Harriet Tubman was a brave woman with an interesting backstory; she performed many exceptional deeds and she saved many lives—but we still don’t think it’s right to call her a superhero (even though many do.)
We go by the definition of Merriam-Webster. Superheroes are fictional; Tubman was not. She was a figure of history; someone so significant that on February 1, 1978, she became the first African American woman to appear on a U.S. postage stamp. Nevertheless, many do find her life unbelievable.
Born into slavery in Dorchester County, Maryland under the name Araminta Ross, Tubman was subjected to numerous abuses. Slave masters whipped and beat her as a child and she suffered a head trauma when an overseer threw a metal weight at her while trying to hit someone else. The head injury that caused stayed with her for the rest of her life but the shackles that led to it did not.
In 1849, Tubman managed to escape to Philadelphia. She returned to Maryland though to rescue her family. And after she succeeded in doing that, she went back again and again to liberate others. She was one of the most well-known “conductors” (or guides) of the Underground Railroad, a network of routes that allowed slaves to escape to the North.
It was common for her to travel at night and under extreme secrecy. Soon enough, her successful rescues earned her a nickname: “Moses.” And according to her, she has never lost a “passenger” during these missions.
During the Civil War, Tubman joined the Union Army. She started out as a cook and eventually became an armed scout and a spy. Because of her guidance of the Combahee Ferry operation which rescued over 700 slaves, she is widely considered to be the first woman to lead an armed military operation in the US.
After the civil war, she didn’t stop fighting. She continued to be an enemy of inequality by being a suffragist.
She was an incredible woman. But she was also an ordinary human made of the same components that make many of us. If anything, she is a reminder of the greatness locked inside us—one that may come in handy should oppression once again demand us to take on tasks befitting of “superheroes.”
February 2, 1943 – The Soviets won the Battle of Stalingrad with women fighting alongside the men.
In case you’re still wondering why do women deserve the privileges of men; it’s because they too are capable of shouldering the burden of men.
This at least was one of the realizations that came to the Soviet Union during the Battle of Stalingrad.
Known as the first time the Nazis admitted defeat during the World War II, the Battle of Stalingrad—fought between the forces of Adolf Hilter and the Soviet Union—was one of longest, largest and bloodiest confrontations of that era. It was fought between July 17, 1942 and Febraury 2, 1943. The two forces in the Eastern Front of the war fought for control of Stalingrad, a large city now known as Volgograd. It saw close-quarters combat, aerial raids and direct assaults on civilians as the Nazis and its allies sought to fulfill Hilter’s orders of killing all the men and forcing all the women and children into exile. It was the epitomy of urban warfare and it led to severe casualties from both sides.
Ultimately, it was won by the Soviet Union and it was partly because of the involvement of women. They helped in building trenchworks and defensive fortifications; they got involved with the anti-aircraft regimen specifically making up the directing and rangefinding crews. A number of women also crewed anti-aircraft guns. Two women were even decorated for their actions with this regiment with reports from it praising the “exceptional steadfastness and heroism” of women soldiers.
Aside from that, Soviet women serving as nurses treated the wounded and put their lives at risk in an attempt to bring wounded soldiers to hospitals under fire. Some of them were also wireless and telephone operators whose lives were also put at risk in command posts that were attacked. Many also fought as machine gunners, mortar operators, scouts and snipers. Three air regiments at the area of contention were also made up entirely of women. Three women won the Hero of the Soviet Union title driving tanks.
General Vasily Chuikov, a Soviet military commander, had this to say about the women: “Equally with men, they bore all the burdens of combat life and together with us men, they went all the way to Berlin.” The Soviet Union’s victory at Stalingrad shifted the balance of power in the Eastern Front; it also boosted the morale of the Red Army and contributed to the ultimate defeat of one of the most dangerous men in history.
February 9, 1986 – Election tabulators (composed mostly of women) abandoned their posts in the 1986 Philippine snap elections when it became clear that it was being rigged in favor of dictator Ferdinand Marcos Sr.
On February 9, 1986, 35 people in the Philippines (a group composed mostly of women) abandoned their posts and eventually caused a dictator to leave his.
This is known today as the COMELEC Walkout of 1986; it saw vote tabulators leave the tallying process of the 1986 Philippine snap elections when it became clear to them that it was being rigged in favor of reelectionist Ferdiand Marcos Sr, a man who, at that point, had already been president for more than 20 years. When this event unfolded, it became one of the most crucial points in Philippine history that fueled the public to oust Marcos. And, it was a long time coming as far as his critics were concerned.
Before this walkout happened, the regime of Marcos was already struggling. It was in the midst of martial law which Marcos supposedly enforced due to the protests of people unhappy with his initial years as president. And, during this period, his administration had already racked up numerous allegations of corruption and human rights violations that included the deaths and disappearances of activists and political rivals. Chief among the casualties was Benigno Aquino Jr., a popular critic of Marcos’ reign and a man whose assassination was attributed to the dictator and his allies. Since this happened, the opposition for Marcos had gotten louder and bolder.
To reassert the legitimacy of his rule, Marcos agreed to hold a snap election where his closest rival was Corazon Aquino, Benigno’s wife. And this was when things started to unravel.
On February 9, while the votes from this election were being tallied, 35 computer technicians employed by the Commission on Election (COMELEC) walked out of the Philippine International Convention Center where the tabulation was being done. According to them, the walkout was a protest because there was blatant cheating going on and they didn’t want to be part of it. Linda Kapunan-Hill, the representative of the group now dubbed COMELEC 35, said that while Aquino was leading in their reports, the tally board claimed that Marcos was. It became clear to them that their superiors were rigging the election for Marcos to win. And so, they left.
“When the discrepancy between the computer tabulation reports and the figures on the tally board was detected, the immediate reaction was one of indignation and utter frustration,” the group said in a statement released after they walked out. “It hurt us to see a deliberate betrayal of trust,” they added. “It did not matter who was winning or losing; cheating whether by 1 or 100,000 is still cheating. It was an insult to our most basic sensibilities, both moral and professional. And we did not want to have anything to do with it.”
After giving out this statement, members of the group—fearing for their lives—were separately kept safe in various places. Some stayed in Camp Aguinaldo, some in Ateneo de Manila University and others went to a retreat house. They were able to go home on February 20 and a few days after that, a public fed up with Marcos and the many allegations soiling his name gathered to call for his removal. Some of Marcos’ allies advised him to step down while others walked out on him too leaving the dictator no choice but to abandon the post he held on to for more than twenty years.
