Simply put, it was to represent religious and political freedom. Winthrop proposed that the meaning of this new colony was to establish autonomous and democratic congregations, independent and separate from a centralized English state church. Along with his fellow Puritans, he traveled across the Atlantic Ocean aboard the Arbella in 1630 to a “new” England to flee the religious and political persecution of “old” England. One of the earliest settlers to ponder the meaning of America was the Englishman Sir John Winthrop. Gorman’s poem reminds us why we must continue the vital work needed to reach that sought-after city. Winthrop’s call to early Americans to be “a city upon a hill” is among the first efforts to define America-to summon us to think about who we are and who we want to be. A full appreciation of Gorman’s poem begins with someone not associated with either Black History Month or Women’s History Month-the seventeenth-century founding figure of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, John Winthrop. Inaugural poet Amanda Gorman’s “ The Hill We Climb” continues a line of prominent Americans who have called the nation to reflect on the meaning and identity of America. The transition from Black History Month to Women’s History Month is an occasion for commemorating the contributions of Black women to our nation’s history-and to the very idea and identity of America. Youth Poet Laureate Amanda Gorman speaks at the inauguration of President Joe Biden on January 20, 2021.
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