“Remember the Women”
Today I choose to remember these
First Lady Abigail Adams famously wrote to her husband “Remember the
Ladies, and be more generous and favorable to them than (were) your ancestors.”
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Abigail Adams (1744-1818)
and Dolley Madison (1768-1849)
Both helped expand the role of First Lady to a leader and representative of
the nation
Each woman demonstrated great courage in support of the new nation and
inspired others, helping to define roles for women in the new country.
They also showed great understanding of the nuanced role of the first
lady, developing the role into a representation of the enduring spirit of the
nation.…
When the British invaded Washington, D.C., in 1814, Dolley Madison stayed until the last moment to secure as many government documents as possible, including saving the famous Gilbert Stewart portrait of George Washington. When she returned to the burned capital, Dolley continued her role as the immaculate social leader as they rebuilt the city.
Arage People, Postage and the Post Smithsonian National Postal Museum
https://arago.si.edu/exhibit_262_4.html
Abigail Adams was wife and closest advisor to America’s second president, John Adams; and was sometimes considered to have been a “Founder of the United States” [now designated the first Second Lady (John Adams was vice president to first president, George Washington) and second First Lady of the United States]. She was also mother of the sixth president, John Quincy; and is said to have contributed much to defining the role of spouse to the President, much later titled First Lady. First Lady March 4, 1797 – March 4, 1801Second Lady April 21, 1789 – March 4, 1797Abigail Adams (née Smith; November 22, [O.S. November 11] 1744 – October 28, 1818)
Dolley Todd Madison, the wife of America’s fourth president, James Madison, was known for having helped create the idea that members of different political parties “could amicably socialize, network, and negotiate with each other without resulting in violence.” Her social functions included people of different political parties. She was also known for “innovating political institutions” that served to define the role of the President’s spouse.First Lady March 4, 1809 – March 4, 1817Dolley Todd Madison (née Payne; May 20, 1768 – July 12, 1849)
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hirley Anita St. Hill Chisholm
American politician, educator, author, Member of the New York State
Assembly, Member of the Congress of the United States; candidate for the U.S.
presidency
In support of the Equal Rights Amendment in a speech delivered August 10,
1970, Washington, DC (excerpt)
“The time is clearly now to put this House on record for the fullest expression of that equality of opportunity which our Founding Fathers professed.
They professed it, but they did not assure it to their daughters, as they tried to do for their sons. The Constitution they wrote was designed to protect the rights of white, male citizens.As there were no black Founding Fathers, there were no founding mothers— a great pity, on both counts. It is not too late to complete the work they left undone.Today, here, we should start to do so.
American Rhetoric https://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/shirleychisholmequalrights.htm
Shirley Anita Chisholm (née St. Hill; November 30, 1924 – January 1,
2005)
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annie Lou Hamer
Leader in the American civil rights movement, community organizer, activist
in American voting and women’s rights; co-founder and vice-chair of the Freedom
Democratic Party, which she represented at the 1964 Democratic National
Convention; organizer of Mississippi’s Freedom Summer and the Student
Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) (1917 – March 14, 1977)
Testimony before the Credentials Committee, DN Convention delivered August
22, 1964 (excerpt)
“It was the 31st of August in 1962 that eighteen of us traveled twenty-six miles to the county courthouse in Indianola to try to register to become first-class citizens. We was met in Indianola by policemen, Highway Patrolmen, and they only allowed two of us in to take the literacy test at the time.…
“In the 10th of September 1962, sixteen bullets was fired into the home of Mr. and Mrs. Robert Tucker for me. That same night two girls were shot in Ruleville, Mississippi. Also, Mr. Joe McDonald's house was shot in.…“And June the 9th, 1963, I had attended a voter registration workshop; was returning back to Mississippi. ... The four people that had gone in to use the restaurant was ordered out.…“And one of the ladies said, ‘It was a State Highway Patrolman and a Chief of Police ordered us out.’…
“I stepped off of the bus to see what was happening and somebody screamed from the car that the five workers was in and said, ‘Get that one there.’ And when I went to get in the car, when the man told me I was under arrest, he kicked me.“I was carried to the county jail and put in the booking room. They left some of the people in the booking room and began to place us in cells. I was placed in a cell with a young woman called Miss Ivesta Simpson.…
“I was carried out of that cell into another cell where they had two Negro prisoners. The State Highway Patrolmen ordered the first Negro to take the blackjack. The first Negro prisoner ordered me, by orders from the State Highway Patrolman, for me to lay down on a bunk bed on my face. And I laid on my face, the first Negro began to beat me.“And I was beat by the first Negro until he was exhausted. I was holding my hands behind me at that time on my left side, because I suffered from polio when I was six years old.
“After the first Negro had beat until he was exhausted, the State Highway Patrolman ordered the second Negro to take the blackjack.“The second Negro began to beat and I began to work my feet, and the State Highway Patrolman ordered the first Negro who had beat to sit on my feet -- to keep me from working my feet. I began to scream and one white man got up and began to beat me in my head and tell me to hush.
“One white man— my dress had worked up high— he walked over and pulled my dress—I pulled my dress down and he pulled my dress back up.“I was in jail when Medgar Evers was murdered.
American Rhetoric https://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/fannielouhamercredentialscommittee.htm“All of this is on account of we want to register, to become first-class citizens. And if the [Mississippi] Freedom Democratic Party is not seated now, I question America. Is this America, the land of the free and the home of the brave, where we have to sleep with our telephones off of the hooks because our lives be threatened daily, because we want to live as decent human beings, in America?”
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arbara Charline Jordan
American lawyer, educator, civil rights advocate, Member of the
Congress of the United States
Keynote Address Democratic National Convention delivered July 12, 1976,
New York, NY (excerpt)
“We are a people in a quandary about the present. We are a people in search of our future.
We are a people in search of a national community. We are a people trying not only to solve the problems of the present, unemployment, inflation, but we are attempting on a larger scale to fulfill the promise of America.
We are attempting to fulfill our national purpose, to create and sustain a society in which all of us are equal.
American Rhetoric https://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/barbarajordan1976dnc.html
Barbara Charline Jordan (February 21, 1936 – January 17, 1996)
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nna Eleanor Roosevelt
American political figure, diplomat and activist
(October 11, 1884 – November 7, 1962)
From speech “The Struggle for Human Rights” delivered September 28, 1948,
Paris, France (excerpt)
“It seems to me there is a valid reason for taking the time today to think carefully and clearly on the subject of human rights, because in the acceptance and observance of these rights lies the root, I believe, of our chance of peace in the future, and for the strengthening of the United Nations organization to the point where it can maintain peace in the future.We must not be confused about what freedom is. Basic human rights are simple and easily understood: freedom of speech and a free press; freedom of religion and worship; freedom of assembly and the right of petition; the right of men to be secure in their homes and free from unreasonable search and seizure and from arbitrary arrest and punishment.We must not be deluded by the efforts of the forces of reaction to prostitute the great words of our free tradition and thereby to confuse the struggle. Democracy, freedom, human rights have come to have a definite meaning to the people of the world which we must not allow any nation to so change that they are made synonymous with suppression and dictatorship. …
The place to discuss the issue of human rights is in the forum of the United Nations. The United Nations has been set up as the common meeting ground for nations, where we can consider together our mutual problems and take advantage of our differences in experience. It is inherent in our firm attachment to democracy and freedom that we stand always ready to use the fundamental democratic procedures of honest discussion and negotiation. It is now as always our hope that despite the wide differences in approach we face in the world today, we can with mutual good faith in the principles of the united Nations Charter, arrive at a common basis of understanding.
American Rhetoric https://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/eleanorroosevelt.htm
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again Speech on the Adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights delivered December 9, 1948, Paris, France (excerpt)
“This Declaration is based upon the spiritual fact that man must have freedom in which to develop his full stature and through common effort to raise the level of human dignity.
We have much to do to fully achieve and to assure the rights set forth in this Declaration. But having them put before us with the moral backing of 58 nations will be a great step forward.”
American Rhetoric https://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/eleanorrooseveltdeclarationhumanrights.htm
Anna Eleanor Roosevelt (October 11, 1884 – November 7, 1962)
Further source
Bios at Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abigail_Adams
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dolley_Madison
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shirley_Chisholm
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fannie_Lou_Hamer
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbara_Jordan
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eleanor_Roosevelt
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