With so many possibilities, I decided to use the themes of Fierce Grace: Jeannette Rankin as the themes of my “Song of the Day.” Women’s rights. Civil rights. Women’s suffrage. Pacifism. And a whole lot of Fierce Grace.

Kimberly Reed mentions so many amazing women within the text of Fierce Grace, from Hildegard to Harriet, Susan B to Shirley C, Battling Bella to Wonder Woman. And of course– as the Gen Z “Jeannie” remembers in the text-driven (in every sense!) fourth song featuring Laura Karpman’s music– there’s Eleanor Roosevelt. Diplomat, activist, and oh yeah, the longest serving First Lady of the United States, thanks to FDR’s four terms. When the Daughters of the American Revolution refused to let Marian Anderson sing in Constitution Hall in 1939, Roosevelt left the group in protest and arranged for Ms. Anderson to sing on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial on Easter Sunday, beginning with “My Country, ‘Tis of Thee.”