The Revolutionary Life of Emma Goldman #OrdinaryWomen
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0:00 - 0:02Years before her critics dubbed her
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0:02 - 0:04one of the most dangerous people in America,
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0:04 - 0:05a young woman named Emma Goldman
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0:05 - 0:07found herself at a dance.
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0:07 - 0:08Although she was a political activist
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0:08 - 0:11attending the event to gain support for her cause,
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0:11 - 0:13she also just loved dancing --
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0:13 - 0:15so much so that one of her allies took her aside
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0:15 - 0:18to criticize her for being frivolous and undignified.
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0:18 - 0:20After all, should a serious activist
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0:20 - 0:22be seen having so much fun?
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0:22 - 0:23Furious at the interruption,
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0:23 - 0:24Goldman told the young man
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0:24 - 0:26to mind his own business,
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0:26 - 0:27because the liberty she fought for
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0:27 - 0:30was not about the "denial of life and joy."
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0:30 - 0:30Instead, she said,
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0:30 - 0:31"I want freedom,
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0:31 - 0:33the right to self-expression,
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0:33 - 0:36everybody's right to beautiful, radiant things."
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0:36 - 0:39For Goldman, a revolution without dancing
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0:39 - 0:41was not a revolution worth having.
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0:44 - 0:46She was born in 1869 to Jewish parents
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0:46 - 0:48in the Russian Empire and raised by a
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0:48 - 0:50distant mother and an abusive father
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0:50 - 0:53who tried to force her to marry at age 15.
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0:53 - 0:54When she refused, he threw her French
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0:54 - 0:56grammar book in the fire, saying,
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0:56 - 0:58"Girls do not have to learn much!
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0:58 - 0:59All a Jewish daughter needs to know
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0:59 - 1:01is how to prepare gefullte fish,
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1:01 - 1:03cut noodles fine, and give the man
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1:03 - 1:04plenty of children."
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1:04 - 1:06There are few women in her era who would defy
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1:06 - 1:08that idea of womanhood quite as much
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1:08 - 1:09as Emma Goldman.
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1:09 - 1:11When she was 16, she escaped her father
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1:11 - 1:12by emigrating to the United States,
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1:12 - 1:14where she discovered her true calling:
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1:14 - 1:17a political rebel and a fiery orator who would spend
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1:17 - 1:20her entire life calling for revolution.
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1:20 - 1:21She was horrified by the tragic story
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1:21 - 1:24of several labor activists who were executed
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1:24 - 1:26in Chicago, and found herself drawn to the labor
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1:26 - 1:28movement and eventually to anarchism.
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1:28 - 1:31Contrary to what that word might suggest,
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1:31 - 1:32Goldman's philosophy was not about
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1:32 - 1:34disorder and chaos.
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1:34 - 1:35It was about personal freedom
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1:35 - 1:37and rejecting institutions she believed
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1:37 - 1:38were repressive:
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1:38 - 1:39government, religion, war,
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1:39 - 1:41business interests,
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1:41 - 1:42and even marriage.
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1:43 - 1:44Although she did end up marrying several times
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1:44 - 1:46out of convenience or for citizenship,
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1:46 - 1:49Goldman rejected traditional notions of marriage
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1:49 - 1:51and chose never to have children.
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1:51 - 1:52Goldman quickly became one of the most
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1:52 - 1:55famous radical figures in America,
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1:55 - 1:56whose power with words was sometimes
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1:56 - 1:58referred to as a "sledgehammer."
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1:58 - 1:59She traveled across the country
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1:59 - 2:01speaking so passionately that the famed reporter,
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2:01 - 2:02Nellie Bly,
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2:02 - 2:04would dub her a "little Joan of Arc."
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2:04 - 2:06Over the years, Goldman was sent to prison
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2:06 - 2:07for her ideas several times,
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2:07 - 2:09once for promoting birth control,
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2:09 - 2:11once for discouraging men from registering
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2:11 - 2:13for the draft, and once for
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2:13 - 2:14telling unemployed workers to "take bread"
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2:14 - 2:16from the wealthy if they were deprived
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2:16 - 2:18of work and food.
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2:18 - 2:20Despite her support for female independence,
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2:20 - 2:22she often found herself at odds with suffragists,
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2:22 - 2:24believing it less important to get women the vote
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2:24 - 2:26in systems she viewed as oppressive
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2:26 - 2:27than to dismantle them entirely.
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2:27 - 2:30Emma said, "the right to vote, or equal civil rights,
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2:30 - 2:33may be good demands, but true emancipation
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2:33 - 2:35begins neither at the polls nor in courts."
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2:35 - 2:39She said, "it begins in woman's soul."
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2:39 - 2:40She believed that women needed to reject
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2:40 - 2:43the sexist rules of societies and governments
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2:43 - 2:44and assert their right to make decisions
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2:44 - 2:46about their lives and their bodies.
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2:46 - 2:48Only that, said Goldman, would truly
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2:48 - 2:50set women free.
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2:50 - 2:51Although she was heterosexual,
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2:51 - 2:52Goldman was one of the earliest
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2:52 - 2:54American advocates for gay rights,
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2:54 - 2:56as well as birth control
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2:56 - 2:58and the sexual freedom of women.
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2:58 - 2:59"I demand the independence of woman;
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2:59 - 3:01her right to support herself;
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3:01 - 3:03to live for herself;
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3:03 - 3:04to love whomever she pleases,
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3:04 - 3:07or as many as she pleases," she wrote.
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3:07 - 3:08"I demand freedom for both sexes,
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3:08 - 3:11freedom of action, freedom in love,
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3:11 - 3:13and freedom in motherhood."
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3:13 - 3:16Many of her ideas about gender, sex, and sexuality
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3:16 - 3:18would be considered controversial even today--
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3:18 - 3:19and in the late 1800s,
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3:19 - 3:21they were positively shocking.
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3:21 - 3:22Goldman was a thorn in the side of
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3:22 - 3:24American authorities for many years.
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3:24 - 3:26In 1919, they finally declared
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3:26 - 3:28her American citizenship invalid,
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3:28 - 3:29and deported her back to Russia,
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3:29 - 3:30which had recently had
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3:30 - 3:32a people's revolution of its own.
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3:32 - 3:33But what she found in the aftermath
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3:33 - 3:35was not the utopia of her dreams,
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3:35 - 3:37but rather another repressive regime
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3:37 - 3:39willing to crush the rights of its own citizens.
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3:39 - 3:41After meeting with Lenin himself,
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3:41 - 3:43she became deeply disillusioned
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3:43 - 3:45with the new, communist government.
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3:45 - 3:47So she traveled abroad speaking out about
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3:47 - 3:48the oppressiveness of the Soviets,
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3:48 - 3:50which alienated many of her allies
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3:50 - 3:51and got her ejected from both
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3:51 - 3:53Sweden and Germany.
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3:53 - 3:56When she finally returned to America in 1934
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3:56 - 3:56(with the permission
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3:56 - 3:57of the Roosevelt administration)
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3:57 - 4:00Goldman was a grandmotherly figure in her 60s,
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4:00 - 4:02but just as stubborn and outspoken
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4:02 - 4:03as she'd ever been.
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4:03 - 4:05On her final U.S. speaking tour,
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4:05 - 4:06her speeches rallied against
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4:06 - 4:08the fascism of Hitler's Germany
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4:08 - 4:10and the communism of Stalin's Russia,
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4:10 - 4:13angering people on the right and the left.
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4:13 - 4:14Even old age could not dampen
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4:14 - 4:16her revolutionary spirit;
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4:16 - 4:18at 67, she traveled to Barcelona
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4:18 - 4:19to support workers and anarchists
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4:19 - 4:21who had risen up against fascism
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4:21 - 4:23during the Spanish Civil War.
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4:23 - 4:24She called them a "shining example"
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4:24 - 4:25to the rest of the world,
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4:25 - 4:28and told an audience of 10,000 that
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4:28 - 4:31"your ideal has been my ideal for 45 years,
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4:31 - 4:33and it will remain to my last breath."
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4:33 - 4:34At the end of her life,
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4:34 - 4:35when the goals of her cause seemed more
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4:35 - 4:37unpopular and further away
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4:37 - 4:39from reality than ever,
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4:39 - 4:41Goldman never wavered in her beliefs,
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4:41 - 4:42even when the price was deportation,
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4:42 - 4:45threats of violence, and prison terms.
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4:45 - 4:47She hoped that her example could light the way
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4:47 - 4:49for future generations as well.
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4:49 - 4:51As she wrote to a friend and former lover
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4:51 - 4:53years before her death,
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4:53 - 4:55"someday, sometime long after we're gone,
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4:55 - 4:58liberty may again raise its proud head.
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4:58 - 5:00It is up to us to blaze its way --
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5:00 - 5:01dim as our torch may seem today --
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5:01 - 5:03it is still the one flame."
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5:03 - 5:05Throughout her life, Goldman had a knack
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5:05 - 5:07for infuriating both friends and foes,
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5:07 - 5:09but would never compromise her convictions
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5:09 - 5:12or the way she lived to please either of them.
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5:12 - 5:14"A trail of bonfires marked Goldman's
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5:14 - 5:15rampage through life,"
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5:15 - 5:17wrote one historian, and indeed,
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5:17 - 5:19Goldman was willing to burn almost any bridge
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5:19 - 5:20in the name of her truth.
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5:20 - 5:21As she once said
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5:21 - 5:23(when a young man tried to stop her from dancing)
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5:23 - 5:25she would never stop fighting for a world
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5:25 - 5:26where liberty was the birthright
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5:26 - 5:28of every human being,
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5:28 - 5:29and where women could
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5:29 - 5:31live, love, and dance
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5:31 - 5:32as freely as they wanted.
- Title:
- The Revolutionary Life of Emma Goldman #OrdinaryWomen
- Description:
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Subscribe to our YouTube channel for more videos: http://bit.ly/2bDhQUX
Once dubbed one of the most dangerous people in America by J. Edgar Hoover, activist and speaker Emma Goldman defied history with her revolutionary support for labor rights, women’s rights and “everyone’s right to beautiful radiant things.”Watch More #OrdinaryWomen Episodes: http://bit.ly/2cjkhhL
Ordinary Women: Daring to Defy History explores the lives and accomplishments of fascinating women who defied gender stereotypes but often found themselves pushed to the sidelines or erased from history books that weren’t ready to acknowledge them. This series is made possible by generous donations to our Seed & Spark crowdfunding campaign for the project.
- Video Language:
- English
- Team:
- Feminist Frequency
- Duration:
- 05:51
Ebony Adams edited English subtitles for The Revolutionary Life of Emma Goldman #OrdinaryWomen | ||
Ebony Adams edited English subtitles for The Revolutionary Life of Emma Goldman #OrdinaryWomen |