I'm Trisha Bobita.

And from WBEZ in Chicago, this is Nerdette.

Coming up, we'll talk with Jen Richards and Precious Davis about the history of transgender women in the fight for LGBT equality.

Whether it was Marcia, Sylvia, or anyone who threw the first bottle or brick.

The fact is that we were part of that community altogether, and we were resisting together.

We'll also look back at how an opera singer's high notes shook millions of Americans into thinking about civil rights. To think for the governor, and then to be segregated into your hotel room because there was no place for you to eat. It was just weird. Then, why Eleanor Roosevelt should be your favorite first lady ever. But what about Abby Bartlett?

A bit desperate, Jed.

Shutting down the government just to get me back here?

Apparently it worked.

You're staying through the holidays?

Depends on how long it takes your damn government to get back up and running.

Well, favorite real first lady ever.

That's all right here on Nerdette.

I want to break free.

Feminist, a person who believes in the social, political, and economic equality of the sexes.

Coming up, how a lady is singing My Country Tiz of The on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial 75 years ago shaped the civil rights movement in the 20th century.

But first we want to travel back even farther to hear an influential speech.

One of the first and most powerful articulations in American history of the need to see the

movements for gender and racial equality as one fight is a speech by Sojourner Truth.

Sojourner was born into slavery in 1797, and she delivered this speech in 1851 at a women's

convention in Akron, Ohio.

The iconic actress Cecily Tyson performed it in honor of Surgeoner Truth on C-SPAN in 2009 with Hillary Clinton and John Boehner, sitting behind her on stage.

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