My Own Story By Emmeline Pankhurst Essay

Purvis also describes a meeting in Chicago during which Pankhurst addressed over 2000 African-American men and women. According to her, Pankhurst’s speech aroused “volatile emotions” amongst the Black women particularly when she described the “good they could accomplish for their race by working for the reforms their White sisters advocated.” Emmeline’s world-view was that of a common sisterhood between all women; furthermore, she assumed she could speak on behalf of all women, Black and White, rich and poor (236).
Similarly Barbara Winslow reviewed Emmeline Pankhurst as the most prominent suffragette who had joined the pantheon of Princess Diana, Margaret Thatcher, Florence Nightingale, and Queen Elizabeth I in BBC2’s popularity poll of Britain’s greatest leaders (13). Pankhurst has been hailed as a feminist:
A feminist and activist during the suffragist movement of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Pankhurst masterminded extreme, often violent, reform protests. Despite her radical behavior, Pankhurst is remembered as an eloquent speaker and talented author who was consumed with the issue of women’s rights. My Own Story, Pankhurst’s autobiography, is considered a valuable historical document that vividly chronicles her struggle for equality. (Baise)
Angelou’s unique probing of the interior self, her distinctive use of the humor and self-mockery, her linguistic sensibility, as well as her ability to balance the quest for human individuality with the general condition of Black Americans distinguish her as the master of the genre. While she breaks new ground by exposing issues such as rape and incest within the Black community, she also uses her maturing understanding of the family and community to project an individual’s attempt to forge and maintain a healthy sense of self within a group that is undergoing a cultural transition.