She is the woman hanging from the 13th floor
window.
—Joy Harjo (b. 1951)
... if you’re poor and ignorant, with a child, you’re a slave. Meaning that you’re never going to get out of it. These women are in bondage to a kind of slavery that the 13th Amendment just didn’t deal with. The old master provided food, clothing and health care to the slaves because he wanted them to get up and go to work in the morning. And so on welfare: you get food, clothing and shelter—you get survival, but you can’t really do anything else. You can’t control your life.
—Joycelyn Elders (b. 1933)