Agents of Change: Lucy Stone & Henry Blackwell

The Woman's Journal was a weekly publication by the American Woman Suffrage Association (AWSA) which provided a major vehicle for articulating the views regarding a desire to influence the law and command greater respect from men especially in light of the sexual violence women experienced at the hands of men.

Different advocacy groups publicized the problem of sexual assault, but Lucy Stone and Henry Blackwell's "Crimes against Women" column in the Woman's Journal provided the most extensive coverage linking sexual assault and domestic violence to women's legal disabilities (p.54).

"Stone and Blackwell had been committed abolitionists before the Civil War and ardent supporters of woman suffrage. Each had a deep personal as well as political history of questioning the legal principle of marital coverture, which included a husband's right to his wife's sexual services. The couple used the occasion of their own marriage in 1855 to register a protest against these patriarchal assumptions. Before they wed, Henry Blackwell assured Lucy Stone, 'I wish, as a husband, to renounce all the privilege which the law confers upon me, which are not strictly mutual.' Their wedding-day protest rejected legal powers that gave the husband 'an injurious and unnatural superiority...which no man should possess.' Reflecting their beliefs in the independent identities of spouses, Stone retained her family name rather than take that of her husband, a unique protest in the nineteenth century" (p. 54).

"During the 1870s and 1880s, Stone and Blackwell collected reports from around the country in the style of the crime columns typical of daily newspapers. Their "Crimes against Women" column included accounts about men who assaulted their wives, their daughters, or other women" (p.54).

Stone and Blackwell were a dynamic duo participating in Community Accountability, long before the concept was coined, and worked to address the root of gender violence: a culture that perpetually treated women as less valuable than men.

-Excerpt from "Redefining Rape: Sexual Violence in the Era of Suffrage and Segregation" by Estelle B. Freedman (2013)

Ted Sorensen's 6 Basic Rules for Speechwriting

Theodore Chaikin "Ted" Sorensen - the man who advised several Presidents over a period of 50 years, including John F. Kennedy, and was his counsel & speechwriter - compiled a list of six basic rules for speechwriting:

1.) Less Is Almost Always Better Than More

• Make it as simple and direct as the Ten Commandments; as simple of J.P. Morgan's alleged response to the youngster who asked him the secret to the stock market: "It fluctuates." 
• Two examples: 
• Winston Churchill's opening line in his radio address after the fall of France in June 1940: "The news from France is very bad." Not one unclear or unnecessary word. 
• A sign for a fish store window: "Fresh Fish for Sale Here Today." The only necessary word on that sign is "fish."

2.) Choose Each Word As A Precision Tool

• Care and prudence in selecting the right word and sequence of words.
• Stay out of the terminology trap.
• Use metaphors.

3.) Organize The Text To Simplify, Clarify, Emphasize

• A speech should flow from an outline in logical order.
• Number points, when appropriate; each numbered paragraph can start with the same few words.
• There should be a tightly organized, coherent, and consistent theme.

4.) Use Variety And Literary Devices To Reinforce Memorability, Not Confuse Or Distract

• Use of Quotations 
• "Some men see things as they are and say, 'Why?' I dream of things that never were and say, 'Why not?'"
• Rhyming words are more easily remembered and more clearly communicated.
• "Let every nation know...that we shall oppose any foe."
• Alliteration and repetition can help make a speech memorable.
• "Let us never negotiate out of fear, but let us never fear to negotiate."
• "Bring the absolute power to destroy other nations under the absolute control of all nations."

5.) Employ Elevated But Not Grandiose Language

• JFK and Sorensen tried to elevate and yet simplify his speeches; not to patronize his audiences, but to keep his sentences short, his words understandable, and his organizational structure and ideas clear.
• Kennedy used straightforward declarations, not "maybe" or "perhaps."
• A policy speech is not a statute, which needs to specify every detail in legally precise and comprehensive terms - nor should it be, if it is to be both enjoyed and understood by all its listeners.

6.) Substantive Ideas Are The Most Important Part Of Any Speech

• A great speech is great because of the strong ideas conveyed, the principles, the values, the decisions.
• If the ideas are great, the speech will be great, even if the words are pedestrian; but if the words are soaring, beautiful, eloquent, it is still not a great speech if the ideas are flaw, empty, or mean-spirited.

-Excerpt from "Counselor: A Life at the Edge of History" by Ted Sorensen (2008)

Tip: All Politics is Local

Tip O’Neill (D-MA) lost the first race he ever ran – for the Cambridge City Council – by 160 votes because he took his neighborhood for granted. 

His father pulled him aside after the election and told him, “All politics is local. Don’t forget it.” 

He never did forget and worked hard to get elected, eventually serving as an influential Representative for the Bay State for 24 years before his rise to the Speakership of the House for an additional 10 years of service to the country.

The Empathetic Leadership of Straight Shooter Harry Reid

Harry Reid (D-NV) has been a U.S. Senator since 1987 and is currently the Senate Majority Leader. Throughout his 30+ years on the Hill, Reid has worked with countless individuals in his office but one particular story stands out:

"Once, a young communications adviser, Rebecca Kirszner, who had just started working in Reid's Senate office, kept misreading a phone number that Reid had been trying to dial for a radio interview. In his straight-to-the-point manner, Reid asked her, 'Do you have a learning disability?' Embarassed, she quietly said yes. Reid looked Kirszner in the eye and said, 'You must have worked twice as hard to have gotten where you are.' No one had ever said this before to Kirszner, who was taken aback, and moved. 'I did,' she whispered" (p. 79).

This approach by Senator Reid was, in so few words, classy. Being a straightforward person with empathy makes for a remarkable leader.

-Excerpt from "This Town: Two Parties and a Funeral - plus plenty of valet parking - in America's Gilded Capital" by Mark Leibovich (2013).

Bayard Rustin's Pocket Watch & Blank Paper

The March on Washington was a large-scale event in the works for months and months. Civil rights leaders worked hours on end to plan and organize this important event, which took place on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial and the Washington DC Mall on August 28, 1963. On the morning of the event, there was some trepidation regarding turnout:

"A few hours later, the march's organizer, Bayard Rustin, wandered onto the Mall with some of his assistants to find security personnel and journalists outnumbering demonstrators. That morning a television news reporter in DC announced: 'Not many people seem to be showing up. It doesn't look as if it's going to be very much.' The movement had high hopes for a large turnout and had originally set a goal of 100,000. From the reservations on coaches and trains alone, they guessed they should be at least close to that figure. But when the actual morning came, that did little to calm their nerves. Reporters badgered Rustin about the ramifications for both the event and the movement if the crowd turned out to be smaller than anticipated. Rustin, forever theatrical, took a round pocket watch from his trousers and some paper from his jacket. Examining first the paper and then the watch, he turned to the reporters and said: 'Everything is right on schedule.' The piece of paper was blank." 

By the day's end, there were approximately 250,000 people in attendance for the monumental civil rights movement event which eventually led to the successful passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act and later the 1965 Voting Rights Act.

-Excerpt from "The Speech: The Story Behind Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s Dream" by Gary Younge (2013).